When a One-Hour Time Difference is Too Much: Temporal Boundaries in Global Virtual Work

Coordinating across several time zones has been considered challenging in global collaboration, whereas small time differences have not received much attention in the literature. In this paper, we argue that instead of focusing on the time zone differences per se, temporal boundaries in global virtual work should be studied in terms of discontinuities and continuities. Drawing from organizational discontinuity theory, we argue that temporal boundaries are not symmetrical to global collaborators and, furthermore, that small time differences can sometimes be even more challenging than large time differences in global virtual work. Based on interview data from 93 participants from four different organizations, we show that the visibility of a temporal boundary (i.e., magnitude and direction of the time zone difference) and the physical, administrative, categorical, and individual characteristics related to temporality play important roles in how discontinuities emerge and how continuities are constructed in global virtual work.