15720: Social Symbolic Work Through a Temporal Lens: Understanding the Interplay of Agency and Temporality

Tuesday, July 29, 2025

15:30 - 17:00 CEST (GMT+2)

Location: Bella Center: MR137/138

Session Type: Symposium (panel)
Orientation: Research
Shareable link: https://cdmcd.co/3RpD5y

Session Chair(s)

JB

Jana Boevers

Bielefeld University, Germany
JS

Jennifer Sloan

Alberta School of Business, Canada

Panelist(s)

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Nelson Phillips

U. of California, Santa Barbara, United States
MS

Majken Schultz

Copenhagen Business School, Denmark
HF

Hamid Foroughi

Warwick Business School, United Kingdom
CP

Camille Pradies

EDHEC Business School, France
AT

Andrea Tunarosa

the U. of tampa, United States

Discussant(s)

DC

Diego Coraiola

U. of Victoria, Canada

In organizational studies, the concept of ‘work’ has evolved to encompass diverse streams, such as institutional work, identity work, or emotion work, recently brought together through the framework of social-symbolic work. Recent work shows how actors use time as a resource, structure, and process, offering tools to analyze how temporality influences the creation, maintenance, and change of social-symbolic objects across contexts. The purpose of this panel symposium is to explore the intricate relationship between temporality and social-symbolic work in organizational contexts, providing a better understanding of how past, present, and future orientations shape organizational processes. Distinguished scholars will investigate how actors purposefully create, maintain, and transform social-symbolic objects through complex temporal interactions. Further, the panel will critically assess current findings and bridge fragmented research areas. Participants will explore three key dimensions: (1) the dynamic and relational nature of social-symbolic objects, (2) emotions as temporal forces in organizational work, and (3) ontological perspectives on temporality. By fostering an interactive dialogue, this symposium aims to develop a more nuanced understanding of how temporal dimensions shape organizational work, offer new insights into the relationship between agency and structure, and articulate promising future research directions.