Who we are?

We are a network of early career researchers funded by the German Research Foundation (“Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft” [DFG]) and dedicated to the topic “Temporary Organizing under Tension: Between Stability and Change”. The activities of the network start in June 2017. Within a period of 18 months, the network will, among other things, host four workshops on selected topics in the field of temporary organizing. International keynote speakers will present their views on temporary organizing and engage in discussions with the network members as well as with invited guests.

Permanent Members

  • Dr. David Antons (RWTH Aachen University)
  • Dr. Blagoy Blagoev (Freie Universität Berlin)
  • Dr. Stephan Bohn (Freie Universität Berlin)
  • Prof. Dr. Timo Braun (Freie Universität Berlin)
  • Prof. Dr. Anja Danner-Schröder (TU Kaiserslautern)
  • Prof. Dr. Indre Maurer (Universität Göttingen)
  • Prof. Dr. Jörg Raab (Tilburg University)
  • Prof. Dr. Suntje Schmidt (Humbold Universität Berlin)
  • Prof. Dr. Julia Thaler (Universität der Bundeswehr in München)
  • Dr. Andranik Tumasjan (TU München)
  • Dr. Matthias Wenzel (Europa-Universität Viadrina in Frankfurt (Oder))
  • Dr. Hendrik Wilhelm (Universität zu Köln)

Temporary Members and Guests

  • Candace Jones
  • Stewart Clegg
  • Jörg Sydow
  • Arnold Windeler

What we are interested in…

Temporary organizing in the shape of projects, events, or contract and temporary work is a widely spread empirical phenomenon that still continues to grow in importance and that reflects both the uncertainty resulting from intensified competition in globalized markets and the “Zeitgeist” of acceleration, speed, and time scarcity. Forms of temporary organizing are see to provide a high degree of flexibility to the actors involved and have become the predominant form of organizing innovation, change, and transformative activities. 

Although temporary organizing is studied within different disciplines (e.g. management research, organizational sociology, innovation research, economic geography), so far no integrated approach has been developed. The aim of our network is to illuminate temporary organizing from the perspective of different disciplines and, thus, to promote transdisciplinary theory development. In particular, the tension between temporary and permanent organizing will be addressed in order to consider the following central question: How can the interaction between stability and change in organizations be understood and possibly balanced? In addition, the network will debate on how insights drawn from the temporary perspective influence the development of organizational theory, which is currently increasingly addressing issues of time and temporality. Not least, the scientific network will reflect on the empirical methods that are employed and systematically discuss both the potential of a more process-oriented approach and the combination of different methods (survey, ethnography, and network analysis). Such a mixture of methods may well detect the inherent change, the relational embeddedness of temporary organizing, and the tensions involved more effectively.

We are indebted to the “Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft” (DFG) for providing the generous funding of our network.