Document Type

Article

Abstract

A wealth of scholarship shows that faultlines drive important outcomes for groups. However, despite mounting calls for incorporating time in the group literature, our understanding of faultlines is bound by assumptions that constrain our ability to incorporate the crucial role of time as it relates to faultlines and their effects. Drawing together guidance for exploring temporal phenomena, with the faultline and group literatures, we embark on an understanding of the temporal nature of faultlines. We distinguish faultlines from specific subgroup configurations by introducing the concept of subgroup entrenchment – the agreement among group members about the existence and composition of strong and stable subgroups. We highlight how a group’s history influences its current and future experience of faultlines and subgroups, by exploring concepts such as duration, temporal alignment, and sequencing patterns. Our theory highlights how the dynamic features of multiple faultlines can influence subgroup entrenchment at any point in time.

Digital Object Identifier (DOI)

10.1111/joms.12538

APA Citation

Meister, A., Thatcher, S., Park, J., & Maltarich, M. (2019). Toward A Temporal Theory of Faultlines and Subgroup Entrenchment. Journal Of Management Studies.

Rights

© 2019 The Authors. Journal of Management Studies published by Society for the Advancement of Management Studies and John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

This is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

Download

Share

COinS