When a One-Hour Time Difference Is Too Much: Temporal Boundaries in Global Virtual Work Anu Sivunen Niina Nurmi Johanna Koroma Aalto University anu.sivunen@aalto.fi Aalto University niina.nurmi@aalto.fi Aalto University johanna.koroma@aalto.fi Abstract Coordinating across several time zones has been considered challenging in global collaboration, whereas small time differences have not received much attention in the literature. In this paper, we argue that instead of focusing on the time zone differences per se, temporal boundaries in global virtual work should be studied in terms of discontinuities and continuities. Drawing from organizational discontinuity theory, we argue that temporal boundaries are not symmetrical to global collaborators and, furthermore, that small time differences can sometimes be even more challenging than large time differences in global virtual work. Based on interview data from 93 participants from four different organizations, we show that the visibility of a temporal boundary (i.e., magnitude and direction of the time zone difference) and the physical, administrative, categorical, and individual characteristics related to temporality play important roles in how discontinuities emerge and how continuities are constructed in global virtual work. 1. Introduction Global virtual workers in multinational organizations face challenges related to geographical distance [6, 15] and temporal distribution of coworkers [5, 22, 19]. There is a common understanding that the more distributed or virtual the collaborations are, the more boundaries the collaboration partners have to cross, and the more challenging the virtual collaboration is [see, e.g., 2]. Therefore, it would seem likely that teams operating across small time zone differences (e.g., Sweden and Finland) would not face similar challenges as would organizations with operations spanning large temporal boundaries (e.g., between India and the US) (see also [10]). Hence, many of the studies investigating temporal coordination in global virtual work have focused on examining collaborations that occur around the globe and around the clock (e.g., [5]). However, recent studies have suggested that boundaries in global virtual work are not always perceived in similar ways and that there are discrepancies in findings related to the effects of boundary crossing. Watson-Manheim, Chudoba and Crowston [26] propose that these inconsistencies may result from researchers not having separated the boundaries from the effects that they cause when working across them. Organizational discontinuity theory operationalizes these boundary-crossing effects as “discontinuities” and “continuities”. Discontinuities emerge at a boundary when information and communication flows require conscious effort and attention to handle, whereas continuities exist when these flows are as expected and, hence, working across boundaries requires minimal attention to coordinate. Although boundaries are similar across various situations [26], it is through discontinuities and continuities that they can have different effects on collaboration. This mechanism is useful in understanding global virtual workers’ different experiences in collaboration across boundaries. Prior research has rarely scrutinized time differences in global work based on the magnitude and direction of temporal boundaries. Only a few studies have examined small time zone separations or the direction of time differences and their effects among employees collaborating across temporal boundaries [13, 9, 12]. Although this work is informative for team coordination, it does not compare the effects of different types of time zones on individual workers. Our study builds on the organizational discontinuity theory [26, 8] and aims to uncover the consequences of small and large time zone differences and the direction of the time difference (forward or backward from one’s own time zone) for global workers. Based on a qualitative analysis of interview data from 93 global workers at four Finland-based global organizations, we argue that very small time differences (such as a one-hour 2016 49th Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences 1530-1605/16 $31.00 © 2016 IEEE DOI 10.1109/HICSS.2016.70 511