Article summery? Read the word document and do the following and the guidelines. summery the article PDF. the words between 400 and 500. at least 3 references. ?? https

https://doi.org/10.1177/0008125618818840https://doi.org/10.1177/0008125618818840

California Management Review 2019, Vol. 61(2) 155 –177 © The Regents of the University of California 2018 Article reuse guidelines: sagepub.com/journals-permissions DOI: 10.1177/0008125618818840 journals.sagepub.com/home/cmr

155

Strategy and Organization

How Managers Perceive Real-Time Management: thinking fast & flow Pernille Rydén1 and Omar A. El Sawy2

SUMMARY A new era of disruptive technologies and changing business practices is moving a number of industries toward the “real-time” enterprise. With the increased capabilities of online digital platforms, managers need to deliver goods and services faster and respond rapidly to customers. It is therefore critical to ask what “real time” means to managers, what real-time management entails, and learn how enterprises capture business value through real-time management, especially when the ability to adjust and operate in real time must be ingrained in an organization’s culture, structures, and processes. This article shows that managers who use “real time” in different ways can articulate different facets of experience and practices, leading to the “Fast & Flow” framework. Thinking of real time as “Fast & Flow” provides managers with insights for transitioning to real-time management that is better attuned to the organization, the market, and a technology-driven state of flux.

KeYwoRdS: organizational change, organizational design, process innovation, strategic management, technological change, information technology, time-based competition, time pressure, agility, cognitive psychology

S ince the scientific management days of Frederick Taylor and Henry Ford, managers have sought to increase business efficiency, to reduce unproductive time usage by analyzing temporal patterns of work behavior, and to adopt new technologies to move faster. “Real time”

has been traditionally defined as the shortest amount of time it takes a system to

1Technical University of Denmark, Lyngby, Denmark 2University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA, USA

CALIFORNIA MANAGEMENT REVIEW 61(2) 156

react, communicate, or present data about an event. Although the sensemaking attributed to “real time” in management has varied as business practices have changed, it appears that the meaning of real time is self-evident, and thus does not pose problems of understanding.

Today, the goal of reducing time and moving fast in business is realized through the use of digital technologies, keeping the classical definition of real time as fast.1 For example, Gartner defines the real-time savvy enterprise as one that can get the right information to the right people at the right time without latency or delay.2 Advances in digital platforms, network connectivity, online processing, and big data analytics have consistently enabled real-time manage- ment capabilities.3 The ubiquity of networked sensors and the continued growth of the Internet of Things generate data that become available immediately. Social media (such as Facebook and Twitter) and online search engines (such as Google and Firefox) have increasingly conditioned people to want to know “now.” A slew of on-demand services with immediate online interaction and choices raises our expectations of what “now” means, whether it be viewing a Netflix movie or ordering an Uber ride. More data about customer behavior—and the means to process these data to generate actionable policies—are becoming available, lead- ing managers to assume that real time enables better decision making and more agile and adaptable enterprises.

Undoubtedly, real-time management offers big opportunities for businesses to maximize their marketing and business effectiveness by eliminating turnaround time between data collection and reaching near-zero downtime in production. Real-time management also helps enterprises stay relevant and competitive, because managers have the ability to see how customers react to everything they do. In times of disruptive technologies and changing business practices, it is criti- cal to ask what “real time” means to managers in order to understand how they can capture value from the development of real-time management capabilities.

Empirical research on real time is scarce. We have taken a Wittgensteinian approach4 of bringing to the surface the varieties of temporal facets and realities of real-time management. We conducted a comprehensive study (see the appen- dix) to better understand how managers sense real time, how they think they can meet market expectations with real time, and how they think that enterprises should successfully embrace real-time management. We have distilled and articu- lated some of those insights in the form of three “golden nuggets” that we believe are actionable and useful for managers.

The first nugget reveals managers’ individual perceptions of real time. We show that the meaning of real time depends on the manager’s perception of clock time; it is not fixed. Managers’ specific understandings of real time are intimately bound with the managers’ everyday practices and forms of competition. Their definitions reveal the limits of managers’ perceptions, leading to certain expecta- tions of real-time management. From these findings, we present the Fast & Flow framework. The synthesis of the concepts within the framework helps broaden

How Managers Perceive Real-Time Management: Thinking Fast & Flow 157

the understanding of real time and its role in capturing business value through real-time management.

The second nugget focuses on corporate policies and interactions at the enterprise level, showing how Fast & Flow management, depending on the man- ager’s focus, generates value in the enterprise. We show how area managers’ diverse practices influence their forming of judgments regarding real-time busi- ness actions and interactions.

The third nugget reveals why the adoption of advanced technology is not a safe route to real-time management maturity; the adoption of the Fast & Flow approach is. We show how managers’ interpretations of immediacy are related to the enterprise’s profitability. Finally, we uncover how to improve real-time man- agement performance to provide routes for transitioning to effective real-time management.

Revisiting the Concept of the Real-Time Enterprise

Market demands and the growing intensity of digital platforms cre- ate “real-time enterprises” in an increasing number of industries. For instance, Amazon and Alibaba have changed customer expectations to the possibility of buying almost any product and having it delivered immediately. Likewise, com- panies that publish information first on Google will receive information quickly and earn the search engine’s top rankings. The real-time enterprise has been a rallying cry advanced by technology vendors since 1997 when TIBCO was founded, introducing event processing and the real-time information bus IT infrastructure.5 With dynamic and digitally hypercompetitive and intensive busi- ness environments, digitalized companies are expected to interact faster and to respond in real time to create business value.6 Untimely response to customers is a hallmark of poor service, so response time is significant in retaining users and customers. In some industries—for example, health care—a gap in customer demand and business capacity may even have fatal consequences. Therefore, when enterprises develop policies on standard response time, increase the speed of production and operation processes, or offer immediate purchase and other real-time services, they do so primarily to improve the customer experience by “saving time.” But enterprises have widely varying expectations on response time; so do their customers. To better account for variations in demand and capacity, and to become market-responsive, managers demand and use real-time information. Here, real-time data flows enable managers to dissect events in real time, shortening the decision cycle, and deepening their insights.

The necessity for effective real-time management is no longer a stereotypi- cal Silicon Valley issue: “While real-time adaptation has historically been the criti- cal success factor in Silicon Valley, the same forces now confront many enterprises in different parts of the world.”7 The accelerating pace keeps pushing enterprises closer to real-time management: to respond to customers and competition as quickly as they can, to gauge market trends in real time, and to deliver goods and

CALIFORNIA MANAGEMENT REVIEW 61(2) 158

services at a faster pace. Enterprises must be ready to provide innovation in new products and services quickly to meet consumers’ or business customers’ expecta- tions. Real time seems to be the answer to classical challenges in business opera- tion, interaction, and decision making. But due to its reliance on highly tacit assumptions involving time, people, and technology, an understanding of how managers sense and make sense of real time should precede its application.

When managers become attentive to a variety of interpretations based on unique experiences, it is easier to define policies for occasions when a “time is money” approach or a “take your time” approach would be the more appropriate. Beyond focusing on efficient product and process operations, managers—regard- less of responsibility area—should apply a broader “ambitemporal” lens.8 This enables operations managers to develop a readiness for advancing digital tech- nologies and changing customer expectations, and to address these expectations while interactively optimizing operations with real time. Managers could there- fore benefit from tools that provide them with perspectives on managing real time that better utilizes digital data streams from a customer perspective.9 For instance, an insurance company manager using real time for a process-to-actuate response can monitor weather forecast data and send text messages to customers located where hail is expected. Here, framing real time as “fast” enables customers to garage their vehicles, resulting in superior customer service and fewer insurance claims.10 On the contrary, a manager with a “real time as flow” perspective can use virtual reality to simulate in-person meetings, provide immersed gaming experiences, or solve problems of inefficient troubleshooting by having customers share what they see and do with the representative as if the representative were in the customers’ shoes.11

We have distilled some of our discovered insights in the form of three main “golden nuggets” that are actionable by managers. The nuggets explain why suc- cessful real-time management depends on alignment of perceptions, expectations, policies, and interactions rather than on adoption of advanced technologies.

Nugget 1: Real-Time Management Depends on the Managers’ Interpretation of Clock Time

Time is often taken for granted in enterprises. Many managers think of time as clock time and define flow (or “process time”) as a contrast.12 A clas- sical understanding of time is as a continuous, predictable, and measured by past, present, and future events on a clock scale.13 Clock time is integral to our personal identity, defining who we are in historical moments. Clock time is also integral to action and achievement. On an ordinary workday, managers define actions in past, present, and future: “Get me last year’s annual report and the lat- est quarter budgets so we can make a decision before time runs out.” This leads us to think that time is something that passes—a collective, measurable unit for precision, coordination, and control by the clock. While clock time denotes dura- tion, real time denotes a fixed present moment, described by Mead as “the seat of reality.”14 To learn how these definitions apply, we asked managers to define

How Managers Perceive Real-Time Management: Thinking Fast & Flow 159

real time more closely. The data reveal a variety of understandings ranging from real time interpreted as immediacy to more pragmatic time scales—from “too fast to measure” to a day or even longer—depending on the particular business situa- tion. Figure 1 illustrates the distribution of survey answers.

We found that the majority of the managers do not distinguish clock time from real time. Rather, they use clock time as a reference to specify two versions of real time (see Figure 2). The managers defined real time as either the duration of time in periods of seconds, minutes, hours, or days; or they assessed real time as describing events happening in a fixed moment of the present rather than in the future or past (an emphasis on the immediate present). We also found that manag- ers process real time in distinct ways in different situations and contexts, even though their processing is rooted in Western arbitrary divisions of clock time.

Two inherently different managerial perceptions of real time emerged, Utility Time and Sense Time, leading to real-time management approaches of either fast or flow.15 Utility Time depicts time as linear and controllable. It is an exter- nally measured version of clock time to be used strategically as a resource. Utility Time adheres to clock time (“obey the clock”), but Sense Time escapes it (“ignore the clock”), being a subjective and qualitative experience of time sensed by “the inner clock.”16 Both perception categories are constructed by individual (manage- rial) factors as well as by collective (enterprise and market) factors. From in-depth interviews, we elicited the five descriptive dimensions illustrated in Figure 2: Characteristics, Sensing, Function, Value, and Execution.

Utility Time Characteristics. Because many managers characterize real time as an economic and strategic resource for enterprises to utilize, we call this category Utility Time. People who perceive time as an economic resource or a monetary asset use expressions such as “time is money” or “don’t waste my time.” Nearly half of the managers we surveyed defined real time within the range of immediacy: 13% defined real time as emphasizing the immediate present rather than the future, 23% associated immediacy in relation to the past, whereas 12% defined real time as periods of less than one minute. For example KG, a CIO working in the smart cities space, expresses immediacy and accuracy as critical for real time:

Figure 1. Managers’ definitions of real time.

CALIFORNIA MANAGEMENT REVIEW 61(2) 160

Obviously, real time is not zero but we are talking, yes could very well be easily under a second, so in a milliseconds range . . . I believe back to whatever the speed of radio waves is. It’s near instantaneous.

KG’s perception of real time aligns with managers who define real time on a clock scale (“under a second,” “milliseconds”) in the immediacy category.

Sensing. Managers dominated by a Utility Time logic sense real time rationally and associate it with being as fast as possible. They explain real time using logical reasoning and with reference to external physical measures, for example, “real time describes the way streaming media is processed.” These managers tacitly assume that time is a scarce resource that they must save. They treat time as a monetary asset and invest it prudently. DO is a CEO who works with entrepre- neurship. He measures real time in diminishing delays in business, as a resource that he must detect and utilize:

The world operates in a more of a real time environment than it used to, meaning there’s less delays in the world, in the market place, whatever industry happens to be that you’re starting in. In general, that’s the key. To me it would be to find the critical elements where real time can play an advantage and rely on those or build advantage in those.”—DO

Function. The function of Utility Time is to control real time by measuring speed and reducing latency. Managers who regard real time as something that can be rationally managed and controlled are encouraged to increase speed to save time, assuming that the time-economical enterprise can utilize real time better to save money. For example, SK explains how real-time management is done with schedules, recording, and planning tools:

Figure 2. Real-time perceptions leading to fast or flow real-time management.

How Managers Perceive Real-Time Management: Thinking Fast & Flow 161

For me, every single second counts in dollars spent on my sales process. I need to make sure every single dollar counts every minute that I’ve lost and every dollar that I’ve lost. So for me that’s the most important on that point.

Value. In a cultural view, time is an entity of social and normative measurement. In most of the Western world, the value of real time is seen as a monetary asset, so managers bring as much discipline to their time budgets as to their capital budgets.17 In cultures such as the United States or Northern Europe, we structure time sequentially and do things one at a time; this approach is deemed most time efficient. The expectations of immediacy and control of time are high and we pay respect by not wasting people’s time. A CEO (PS) sees real time as a precondition for generating services, not a service in itself:

Real-time is what generates all the different services. The data can be utilized for here-and-now action by either stopping the machine or call the operator or send him a mad smiley throwing up so that he can stop it or lose points on his CV. By real time we can stop unwanted behavior instantly, but the data generated over a longer period of time is also useful.

This quote stresses that when value creation becomes more complex, crosses platforms, and is perceived by customers as resulting in an integrated digi- tal experience, it then takes a collective effort to recognize how the different func- tional responsibilities contribute to Fast & Flow management.

Execution. For managers holding a Utility Time view, the main challenges are managing data and reducing latency. Real-time management is realized by con- crete measurement and management actions carried out through speedy and punctual processes by people in the enterprise. Successful effectuation can be achieved by transforming IT-driven work processes into value. Examples are reinventing work flows to run faster, or replacing traditional customer support services with virtual assistant or chatbot services like Apple’s Siri. Managers tend to agree that real-time management is realized through fast human action and/or fast data processing. They believe real time improves management conditions by enabling managers to make faster decisions (44%), by executing the outcomes of decisions faster (41%), by sensing problems and opportunities faster (40%), and by improvising actions (35%). DO explains it this way:

I think the most fascinating thing is how many people take real time data and pre- make their decisions based on real time data. So, for example, if production num- bers drop below x, this is exactly what we’ll do.

At the strategic level, managers report that real time allows them to take advan- tage of the speed of digital platforms (35%), to ingrain rapid response culture into the workforce (34%), and to reorganize human resources quickly (34%).

However, depending on the specific context, there is no indication that the fast approach per se is profitable: “as-close-to-zero-as-possible” quests may waste

CALIFORNIA MANAGEMENT REVIEW 61(2) 162

time and money if customers or clients do not demand immediacy but value a flow experience. Though immediacy may be seen as the ideal in some industries, there are other industries—for instance, shipping or the construction business— where immediacy is seldom accomplished due to numerous delaying factors, expected and unexpected.

Sense Time Characteristics. Some managers characterize real time as an individual resource of private moments, that is, a sensed phenomenon of real time that may vary according to the context. We refer to this perception category as Sense Time. Managers with a Sense Time logic associate a real-time experience with a flow experience, that is, a source of value creation that relates to real time as an emo- tional and motivational state of mind. “To flow” or “a flow” refers to fast flow from process to outcome, whereas “be in flow” denotes a state of experience. Persons in flow have their own pace and sequences of events marking transi- tions from one state to another without regard to equal intervals of duration. Csikszentmihalyi has extensively studied the flow experience. He states that “the flow experience that resolves from the use of skills leads to growth; passive entertainment leads nowhere.”18 He mentions how the leisure industry designs enjoyable experiences by actively involving people’s skills. Flow in terms of time transformation suggests managers carefully consider Sense Time to expand real time beyond Utility Time:

One of the most common descriptions of optimal experience is that time no longer seems to pass the way it ordinarily does. The objective, external duration we mea- sure with reference to outside events like night and day, or the orderly progres- sion of clocks, is rendered irrelevant by the rhythms dictated by the activity. Often hours seem to pass by in minutes; in general, most people report that time seems to pass much faster. But occasionally the reverse occurs . . . after it’s passed it seems as if it passed really fast, but then while doing it, it seems like it’s been much longer than it really was. The safest generalization to make about this phenome- non is to say that during the flow of experience the sense of time bears little relation to the passage of time as measured by the absolute convention of the clock.19

The managers reflecting this real time perception consider the design of Flow expe- riences to provide for enjoyable growth both for their internal satisfaction and for their customers. They define real time more pragmatically: 17% regard real time as less than an hour. Real-time management is not about being as fast as possible; it is about being timely, insuring that the task or service occurs at a suitable time that is opportune for those involved. Hence, a few managers (9%) are unwilling to set a specific period for real time. Instead, they regard real time as a context-depen- dent phenomenon. A CEO, who works within business intelligence consulting, specifies how functional domains influence managers’ framing of real time:

Real time is different for different people, for different functions even. So far as real time may be anything to up a day, for others it may be anything up to the

How Managers Perceive Real-Time Management: Thinking Fast & Flow 163

minute—so real time is relative in my mind. Real time is a relative term based on the business you are in and the function you are working with, whatever the con- text of the real-time definition.—SK

Managers like SK find relevancy more important than immediacy and measure real time based on human expectations in the specific business situation, not on the clock. The representation of answers in this category can be due to managers’ particular working contexts and professional experiences, which lead to the for- mation of specific and/or realistic expectations.

Sensing. Sense Time is a subjective experience or feeling expressed in emo- tional and/or metaphorical terms, for example, “real time is when you sense the moment and feel alive.” It is an emotional state of mind where time is elastic and fluid; it depends on the perceiving mind as opposed to rational measurement. As part of this perception category, some managers conceptualize real time as indi- vidual moments of private time, where they feel very present. To some, it can be hard to explain in words; you must experience real time to understand it. Man- agers like SK can only sense real time by “reading” the situation and the people with whom they are interacting.

Function. The underlying assumption or logic of this perception category is that time is a natural resource or mental asset, not a monetary asset. On some occa- sions we lose the sense of time, which is considered a positive experience and contrasts sharply with the ideal of controlling time. In a Sense Time framing, time cannot and should not be measured on an external clock; time is being present, experienced by the individual as a sensed flow.20 PKA, the CEO of a con- sultancy firm, explains,

To the consulting industry, it’s [real time] very much person-related and it’s per- son to person, it’s managing processes, manage people, manage projects, and it’s not real time like here and now; it takes time, and urgency is less important.

The function of real time is to let go of time or to escape time pressure, even to lose time by reaching the state of effortless concentration and enjoyment.21 Flow thus presents a flexible supplement to fast. Sense Time moments tend to occur when someone faces clear goals requiring appropriate responses. Utility Time, assisted by Sense Time, can therefore improve lean manufacturing and establishment of logistics and distribution to get the product to the customer with- out measurable delays or interruptions.22

Value. The value of real time for these managers is the growth of mental resources arising from qualitative experiences of flow or from controlling as many of one’s mental facilities as possible. Innovation and creativity are cen- tral aspects of successful enterprises. Reinecke and Ansari found that a time orientation optimized for markets might be unsuitable for managing emergent, complex, and indeterminate processes such as development.23 To foster creativity

CALIFORNIA MANAGEMENT REVIEW 61(2) 164

or rethinking processes, people are almost completely dependent on their men- tal state. If they undergo too many mental processes or endure too much stress, it is difficult to be creative or visionary. Cultural studies24 have noted the rele- vancy and value of Sense Time in business, encouraging managers to acknowl- edge differences in time orientation in the cultures in which they operate, namely, the relative importance people

Collepals.com Plagiarism Free Papers

Are you looking for custom essay writing service or even dissertation writing services? Just request for our write my paper service, and we'll match you with the best essay writer in your subject! With an exceptional team of professional academic experts in a wide range of subjects, we can guarantee you an unrivaled quality of custom-written papers.

Get ZERO PLAGIARISM, HUMAN WRITTEN ESSAYS

Why Hire Collepals.com writers to do your paper?

Quality- We are experienced and have access to ample research materials.

We write plagiarism Free Content

Confidential- We never share or sell your personal information to third parties.

Support-Chat with us today! We are always waiting to answer all your questions.