Uncertainty in the regulation systems of temporary organizations: A challenge for improving the organizational reliability

Mainstream economic and sociological theories tend to analyse organizations as permanent entities. However, industry provides many examples of organizations that are not permanent: construction projects, maintenance tasks, crisis management units, the decommissioning of nuclear plants, etc. In addition, classical theories that argue organizations should be long-lasting are inherited from the industrial revolution. Today, many organizations are becoming less rigid and are moving towards more flexible structures oriented to the short-term. Temporary organizations differ from permanent organizations in that they are designed to have a short lifespan. They are generally created with a specific goal in mind and dissolved once this goal is reached. Different market players interact in these structures: they include distinct legal entities, freelancers or consultants who coordinate their work on a single site or from different geographic areas. Typically the temporary organization is linked to a permanent organization. In other cases, it is fully independent and those involved do not expect to work together once their objectives have been achieved. The unsustainable dimension of these organizations raises many issues in terms of risk and uncertainty. This paper provides a better understanding of temporary organizations, their coordination, their regulatory systems and their links with the permanent parent organization (if there is one). The research described in this paper is based on a literature review. It provides a typology of temporary organizations and analyses their coordination, regulatory systems and reliability issues