Organizational Psychology

The research aims at exploring the key aspects of time management in shift workers’ lives. The results of empirical study, based on the data gained through in-depth interviews, semantic differential method and the locus of control scale, are provided. The total number of research participants is 147 including 107 shift workers and 40 non-shift workers. The findings reveal that shift workers own both a common concept of time which was acquired by them through the process of socialization and a specific concept of time acquired during shift work by interiorisation of time-related aspect sof their specific professional way of life. Time management in shift workers’ lives is based on socialdesynchronosis experience. Two types of social desynchronosis are described – inner and outer. Theinner desynchronosis arises as a result of conflict between a common time concept owned by shiftworkers and their specific time concept; The outer desynchronosis is based on clash of shift workers’social rhythms and social rhythms of their significant others who work without shifts. Specificaspects of time management in shift workers’ lives are as following: a shortened work-leisure cycle, predominance of short-term planning over long-term planning, preference for pastimes which are notlinked to communicating with others. In order to cope with social desynchronosis, shift workers use mostly spontaneously situational approach characterized by responding to particular situations and acting according to circumstances. Shift workers also tend to demonstrate less internal locus of control compared to non-shift workers.