Time and technical impressions : exploring the relationships between temporal experience, communication practices, and impression management in the contemporary workplace

The primary goal of this study is to explore the impact of dominant cultural patterns associated with the contemporary workplace on organizational members' experience of time. First, in order to investigate such potential relationships, three temporal factors---varying levels of synchronicity, temporal compression, and temporal expansion---are identified as contemporary dominant cultural patterns. Next, these dominant cultural patterns are isolated to reflect three growing communication practices: multicommunicating, virtual work practices, and primary work location. With a review of the literature, these communication practices are tested with seven dimensions of time (present time perspective, urgency, pace, flexibility, punctuality, separation, and linearity). A secondary goal is to also examine both organizational members' temporal experience and communication practices with the impression management strategy, exemplification. Taken together, each goal and subsequent findings helps to inform our understanding of contemporary communication phenomenon.