The Temporary Marketing Organization

What is it about?

This study offers novel insights into the temporary organization, an organizational form in which ad-hoc teams are assembled to complete a specific task within a predetermined time frame and expected to disband upon task completion.

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Why is it important?

Temporary organizations are increasingly important in marketing and uniquely suited to promoting various marketing outcomes, including output creativity and decision-making speed. However, they are not well understood, and their inherent characteristics – notably, the absence of a shared history among its members and the uncertainty of their future interactions – create organizational challenges. The latter, if not appropriately managed, can compromise performance. This article provides managers with a topical and user-friendly ‘playbook’ that uses three drivers (the “3 T’s” of task novelty, time duration, and likely team heterogeneity) and the three main temporary organizational forms (stand-alone, hybrid and fully embedded) as inputs to assist them, particularly in two ways. First, managers should use the playbook to help them design and exploit temporary organizations to best effect in a marketing context. Second, managers should use the playbook to determine the mechanisms necessary to ensure the optimal selection of temporary organization members and the enforcement of their behavior throughout the completion of the temporary organization’s task, depending on the recommended form of temporary organization. Doing so will lead managers to achieve multiple performance outcomes, including output novelty and decision-making speed, for and within the temporary organizations they are responsible for.