Leaders´ Conscious Experience Towards Time

Abstract

Time is the key resource in modern business. Every other resource can be added or reduced but time is imperative. Other resources such as personnel, capital or facilities are also crucial, but their usage is always time dependent. People’s productivity is heavily related to their time usage. On the one hand, some people can be very productive in a very short time period, even when work is not very efficient, and on the other hand, a person who is very efficient and works very much may even damage the organization. Therefore, organizations and especially leaders should focus on where they use their time. Time is not an easy concept to handle or even perceive. Time has many different faces towards people. The challenge is that chronological time is not suitable for everybody. Individuals experience time differently to one another and different situations can change the experience. Therefore, it is hard to have schedules to match or plans to actualize within a scheduled time. Business is normally done and agreed in terms of chronological time and the work is divided for specialists into smaller and smaller portions. Consequently, it is crucial for organizations to understand how its members experience their time and how time can be taken into account. This thesis will build an ontology for time in leadership regarding literature research. Literature research reveals the necessity of time in leadership theories and business culture. Features which should be taken into account in personal development are delivered from the time ontology. Propositions are then derived from these features. The thesis will also show how a decision-support system can be made from propositions for leaders’ personal development. The empirical part consists of testing and analyzing the system’s capability and usability. Future research suggestions are also proposed.