Time’s paradox: geological and organizational perspectives

Time's paradox: geological and organizational perspectives
This paper is inspired by Siccar Point (fig. 1), not far from Edinburgh, which is synonymous with James Hutton's discovery of 'deep time' (Gould, 1987; McIntyre & McKirdy, 2012; Repcheck, 2004). This angular unconformity represents a time gap of approximately 60 million years.

Fig. 1. Siccar Point
Sequence stratigraphy, one of the most important theories in geology since plate tectonics, links sets of sediments bounded by unconformities (Vail 1977, Catuneanu et al, 2010). The ideal is that global changes in sea-level, for example a sudden fall of sea-level creating erosion where previously there had been deposition, will leave a clear signature in the rock record which can be correlated internationally, regardless of what rocks were being deposited or what fossils were entombed.
Sequence stratigraphy is a temporally interesting model, as it accommodates a series of paradoxical both/and conceptions of time:
both discontinuous and continuous
both linear and cyclic
both gradual and punctuated
both slows-down and speeds-up (linking to the theme of this conference).
My initial research was at the interface of micropalaeontology and sequence stratigraphy, exploring the nature of rapid environmental change on the evolution of a group of extinct, primitive vertebrates. My current ethnographic research explores the nature of strategic change in a hybrid organization, which is made up of private, public, charity and community representatives. My particular focus is how harmonious and dissonant competition between different institutional logics (Thornton et al, 2012), affect day-to-day actions and the emergence of strategy (Vaara & Whittington, 2012).
The aim of this paper is juxtapose my early and late phases of research – specifically, to utilise sequence stratigraphy as a metaphor to explore different and paradoxical conceptions of time, as strategy is developed in a complex organizational setting.


References
Gould, S. J. (1987). Time's arrow, time's cycle: Myth and metaphor in the discovery of geological time. Harvard University Press.
McIntyre, D.B. and McKirdy, A. (2012) James Hutton: The Founder of Modern Geology (2nd ed.). National Museums of Scotland.
Catuneanu, O., Bhattacharya, J. P., Blum, M. D., Dalrymple, R. W., Eriksson, P. G., Fielding, C. R., ... & Tucker, M. E. (2010). Sequence stratigraphy: common ground after three decades of development. First break, 28(1), 41-54.
Repcheck, J. (2004). The Man Who Found Time: James Hutton and the Discovery of Earth's Antiquity. Pocket Books.
Thornton, P. H., Ocasio, W., & Lounsbury, M. (2012). The institutional logics perspective: A new approach to culture, structure, and process. Oxford University Press.
Vaara, E., & Whittington, R. (2012). Strategy-as-practice: taking social practices seriously. The Academy of Management Annals, 6(1), 285-336.
Vail, P. R.; Mitchum, R. M., Jr.; Todd, R. G.; Widmier, J. M.; Thompson, S. III; Songree, J. B.; Bubb, J. N.; and Hatelid, W. G. (1977). Seismic stratigraphy-applications to hydrocarbon exploration: Am. Assoc. Petrol. Geol. Mem. 26, p. 49-212.

'Time's Urgency': ISST Sixth Triennial Conference, Edinburgh, June 2016







http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Siccar_Point_red_capstone_closeup.jpg [By Dave Souza, CC BY-SA]
Not far from Siccar Point