Acceleration and Organization: Experiences of Time in a Pharmaceutical Company

Based on a qualitative study of clinical development in a Danish pharmaceutical company and drawing extensively on German social theorist Hartmut Rosa’s theory of social acceleration, the dissertation examines the experience of time and temporality in contemporary organizations characterized by ‘digital work’, focusing specifically on the interplay between digital technologies, time scarcity, and the acceleration of modern societies. After four introductory chapters – which respectively detail the overall research aims of the dissertation, the existing organizational literature on time and temporality, the theoretical perspective derived from German social theory, and the adopted qualitative methodology – the dissertation presents three papers, one already published and two aimed at leading international journals within the field of organizational studies. The concluding discussion summarizes the empirical findings and discusses the intended contributions to the existing organizational literature on time, just as it broaches the question of what discussions of ‘speed’ and ‘acceleration’ in social theory might learn from attending more closely to the organizational context. Paper 1 identifies and discusses how Rosa’s theoretical apparatus can inform analyses of work rhythms, temporality, and the influence of digital technologies in organizations, drawing on a comparative empirical analysis of the clinical development context and a co-author’s study of the public healthcare context. Paper 2 aims to extend the understanding of how time pressure is constituted and sustained in technology-intensive work ecologies, and, more specifically, it draws on Rosa’s as well Judy Wajcman’s sociology of time to examine and empirically contextualize the so-called ‘time pressure paradox’, which suggests that while digital technology promises to ‘save time’, it often ends up leaving employees feeling more ‘pressed for time’. Finally, and prompted by the outbreak of the Covid-19 pandemic during the dissertation’s empirical case study, Paper 3 mobilizes Rosa as well as Reinhard Koselleck in developing a notion of ‘crisis temporality’ to conceptualize temporality under conditions where organizations are perceived to be more or less permanently confronted by a multitude of crises. Qualitative data from the case organization, studied during the Covid-19 crisis, are used to deepen this conceptual contribution and to explore the temporal experience of crisis.