Managing inter-institutional projects: The significance of isochronism, timing norms and temporal misfits

Conventional analysis of project organization has paid limited attention to projects in their institutional environment. Such analysis would be particularly relevant and important when dealing with projects in which actors represent different institutional environments. Accordingly, this paper suggests and defines the notion of “inter-institutional projects” and develops a conceptual framework consisting of three concepts and a set of guiding propositions. The following concepts are singled out: (1) isochronism highlights an important aspect of institutions and particularly how organizations within the same organizational field come to resemble each other in the tempos and phases of their activity cycles; (2) the notion of timing norms is used to analyze the surrounding rhythms and beats of the project at the institutional level and recognizes that different actors and involved units in the project adhere to conflicting timing norms; and (3) the concept of temporal fit/misfit is used to analyze the conflicting timing norms among organizations within the same project. The paper ends with implications and ideas for future research.