Navigating Temporary Organizations: A Narrative Perspective
通过长期实地研究一个服务印度农村教育的临时项目，发现多作者叙事与组织实践相互影响：叙事一致时促进项目，分歧时引发自利行为阻碍项目。
Temporary organizations (TOs) can be viewed as a collection of narratives about the past and the future that can potentially shape organizational outcomes. An in-depth, longitudinal study of a time-bound inter-organizational project that served rural India's educational needs shows how multi-authored narratives and practices in temporary organizations influence each other. When the narratives are coherent with respect to the past and the future, the actors engage in mitigative practices, and the project develops. If the narratives diverge, the actors engage in self-serving practices hindering the project. The narrative view affords us a novel lens to understand the dynamics that shape practices and outcomes within temporary organizations. Our findings also have practical implications for TO management—understanding the plurality of narratives and emphasizing the importance of aligning them.