It’s about time: Essays on temporal anchoring devices

This thesis seeks to shed light on the ubiquitous, yet rarely studied, phenomenon temporal anchoring devices (TADs). TADs are short references to time often accompanied by a descriptor, such as “since year”. They are used, for instance, on organizations’ buildings, products, logos, etc. In the introduction, chapter 1, TADs are explored conceptually, both their meanings and origins. Chapter 2 shows that TADs cross organizational field boundaries and are used by varying organizations. Chapter 3 focuses on the use of TADs over 200-years by three chocolate producers. Not only do the studied organizations vary in their use of TADs, from almost no use to very extensive use, the use of TADs over time by these organizations is not stable. Chapter 4 focuses on how TADs affect audience perception of the organization, with the use of two experiments. The results of the first experiment that TAD are noticed and capture the attention of observers. The results of the second experiment show that each TAD, whether referring to the past, present, or future, affects audience members’ perception of an organization. Overall this thesis contributes to the literatures on organizational symbolism, history, and temporality.