The Nature of Temporal Intelligence in Leadership

15th European Congress of Work and Organizational Psychology

27th May 2011

Andrew Doyle and Dr Jan Francis-SmytheCentre for People at WorkUniversity of Worcester

Temporal Intelligence (TI)

• Temporal Intelligence refers to a leader’s cognitions and behaviours related to time with reference to the self and the individuals that he or she is responsible for leading (Doyle & Francis-Smythe, 2009)

• Distinction drawn between a leader’s preferences for how they manage their time and the temporal cognitions and behaviours directed to individual followers

• 3 levels of analysis for time in leadership: leader, follower and leader-follower relations (Bluedorn & Jaussi, 2008)

Development of Temporal Intelligence I

• Literature review of time, leadership and management literature

• Repertory-grid interviews with leaders (n=16)• Temporal Intelligence Questionnaire (TI-Q) • Exploratory Factor Analysis and Reliability analysis of the

TI-Q (n=203 leaders)• 8 factor solution retained (Parallel Analysis)• Analysis between the TI-Q, NEO PI-R and MLQ (n= 85

leaders)

Temporal Intelligence Model

Temporal Intelligence

Self-Referenced Temporal Practices

Follower-Referenced Temporal Practices

Time Personality and Job Role Characteristics Pace

Deadline Orientated BehaviourAutonomy

Flexing Speed and QualityBreaks in Workflow

Autocratic LeadershipTemporal Depth

Factor

Number

Factor Name Variance explained

Number of Items

Cronbach’s a

Mean (SD)

1 Time Personality and Job Role Characteristics

14.4% 10 .878 5.53 (.63)

2 Pace 5.1% 14 .809 4.31 (.77)

3 Deadline Orientated Behaviour

4.8% 13 .894 5.41 (.81)

4 Autonomy 3.1 % 9 .754 5.28 (.73)

5 Flexing Speed and Quality

2.5% 7 .705 4.67 (.84)

6 Breaks in Workflow

2.2% 6 .769 4.87 (.97)

7 Autocratic Leadership

2% 9 .710 2.65 (.75)

8 Temporal Depth 1.8% 10 .753 5.62 (.59)

TI: Time Dimensions I

• Time Personality and Job Role CharacteristicsDefinition: Awareness of the temporal preferences of individual and job characteristics relating to Punctuality, Planning, Polychronicity and Impatience

Process of awareness is a pre-requisite of a leader’s behavioural repertoire:

Develop a facilitative role in fostering a congruent fit between the follower’s individual time related behaviours and the time related characteristics of the work experienced by the follower

Relevance to outcome variables: Empirical time congruence studies showing positive effects on outcome variables such as performance and well-being for specific temporal dimensions (Francis-Smythe & Robertson, 2003; Hecht & Allen, 2003; Hecht & Allen, 2005; Slocombe & Bluedorn; 1999)

Process of entrainment (Bluedorn & Jaussi, 2008; McGrath & Rotchford, 1983) to facilitate a congruent temporal fit

Behavioural examples of leader’s role within the entrainment process and the use of zeitbergers

Temporal Intelligence in Leadership: Temporal Congruence

TI: Time Dimensions II

• PaceDefinition: The extent to which the leader consistently has high expectations of their followers’ work. This includes expectations in both speed and quality of work.

Relevance to outcome variables: Organisational culture

• Deadline orientated behaviour Definition: The leader’s monitoring of followers work within the deadline lifespan and responsive actions to an achieved and missed deadline. Relevance to outcome variables: group literature, time pressure and deadlines

TI: Time Dimensions III

• Autonomy

Definition: The leader’s expectations and behaviours that influence the degree to which followers are autonomous in their work activities.

Relevance to outcome variables: Job Design, Leadership

• Flexing Speed and Quality

Definition: The degree to which a leader flexibly changes their emphasis on speed in relation to quality of their followers’ work.

Relevance to outcome variables: Organisational pace, Decision Making

TI: Time Dimensions IV

• Breaks in WorkflowDefinition: The leaders’ role in guiding the occurrence of socially orientated breaks in the workplace among followers. Relevance to outcome variables: Interruptions, creativity, timelessness

• Autocratic LeadershipDefinition: The extent to which the leader is independent and is not influenced by their followers’ opinions in the decision-making process.

• Temporal DepthDefinition: The leader’s reflection in the past, living in the present and projecting to the future in relation to interactions with his or her followers. This scale considers the extent to which the leader simultaneously uses different time perspectives. Relevance to outcome variables: Time perspectives, decision-making

Future Directions

• Further research into temporal congruence and outcome variables

• Closer examination into how leaders ‘Time Personality and Job Time Characteristics awareness’ can lead to adaptive behaviours and subsequent effects on outcome variables

• Further convergent and divergent analyses with TI-Q, and Intelligence measures, and other related measures

• Temporal Intelligence in a group context

References

Bluedorn, A. C. and Jaussi, K. S. (2008).  Leaders, Followers, and Time.  Leadership Quarterly, 19, 654-668.

Doyle, A. & Francis-Smythe, J. (2009, May). Temporal Intelligence. Paper presented at 14th Conference of the European Association of Work and Organisational Psychology. Santiago de Compostela.

Francis-Smythe, J. A. & Robertson, I. T. (2003). The Importance of Time Congruity in the Organisation. Applied Psychology: An International Review, 52(2), 298-321.

Hecht, T. D., & Allen, N. J. (2003). Person-Job fit on the dimension of polychronicity: Examining links with well-being and performance. Paper presented at the Academy of Management.

T.D. Hecht, N.J. Allen (2005). Exploring links between polychronicity and well-being from the perspective of person-job-fit: Does it matter if you prefer to do only one thing at a time? Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, Vol. 98 pp.155 - 178.

McGrath, J. E., & Rotchford, N. L. (1983). Time and behavior in organizations. In L. L.Cummings & B. M. Straw (Eds.), Research in organizational behavior (Vol. 5, pp. 57-101). Greenwich, CT: JAI Press.

Slocombe, T. E., and Bluedorn, A. C.  (1999). "Organizational Behavior Implications of the Congruence between Preferred Polychronicity and Experienced Work-Unit Polychronicity." Journal of Organizational Behavior, 20, 75-99.