Managing organization agility when there is no time to manage: the impact of temporal-scarcity on managerial decision-making

With the growing complexity and uncertainty underlying business conditions worldwide, academics and practitioners alike are working to identify more time and context-sensitive strategies to give firms the means to adapt quickly to these changes. The present report provides a different perspective on the topic noting that efforts to improve organizational agility may also pose a threat to the firm as well when operating under resource-scarce conditions. Of special interest is how temporal scarcity may impede the strategic-decision making process resulting in poor quality solutions and mitigating organization’s efforts to be more agile. The psychology of scarcity literature is reviewed to provide a framework to understand how temporal scarcity taxes mental bandwidth and negatively impacts both individual manager’s and groups’ decision-making quality. Research recommendations on where within the organization and under what market conditions temporal scarcity effects are likely to occur are offered.