The Covid-19 pandemic brings time to the foreground as a multidimensional force that pervades diverse phenomena. For example, ‘flattening the curve’ – the key crisis management strategy pursued by many governments – is about slowing down the spread of the virus so that hospitals gain time to ramp up capacities and to heal patients without overflowing. Stimulus programs are about bridging the time between the pre- and post-pandemic pace of economic activity, because the virus is slowing down large parts of the global economy. Time is also of the essence in the development, production, and distribution of vaccines, complex tasks permeated by questions of timing (‘When will vaccines be available?’), pacing (‘How fast can people get vaccinated?’), and sequencing (‘In what order should people be vaccinated?’).

The pandemic also brings to light diverse experiences of time. For some, rushed rhythms of busy lives are slowed down. Others, for whom work has been disrupted, grapple with being stuck in a never-ending, ‘future-less’ moment of distress, in which it is difficult to distinguish days, weeks or months. Yet others must cope with the experience of all spheres of their lives (e.g., work, family, and private life) suddenly happening simultaneously, leading to what feels like never-ending fatigue. With space disappearing as a coordination device for many people (e.g., going to an office away from home), time is often the most salient coordination mechanism that structures days and weeks.

These examples lay bare multiple, interwoven temporal dimensions usually hidden from view. Whereas management scholars are increasingly drawing attention to individual dimensions of time, the pandemic thus calls for a more holistic approach. In this commentary, we highlight the complexity of time – a perspective that is gaining momentum in management research (e.g., Bansal et al., 2020; Blagoev et al., 2021). Such research incorporates multiple time dimensions and their interplay, and draws on concepts and theories of time rooted in social sciences, economics, natural sciences, humanities, and organizational practice. We illustrate what such research should address.

Covid-19 大流行将时间作为一种遍及各种现象的多维力量推向前台。例如，“拉平曲线”——许多政府奉行的关键危机管理战略——是关于减缓病毒的传播，以便医院有时间提高能力并治愈患者而不会人满为患。经济刺激计划是关于缩小之间的时间前和后-pandemic步伐的经济活动，因为病毒放缓全球经济的很大一部分。时间也是在研发，生产的精髓，和疫苗的分配，通过时间的问题，贯穿复杂的任务（“当将疫苗可‘），起搏（’如何快能让人接受疫苗注射？”），和测序（“人们应该按什么顺序接种疫苗？”）。

大流行还揭示了不同的时间体验。对于一些人来说，忙碌的生活节奏被放慢了。其他人的工作受到干扰，他们努力应对陷入永无止境、“没有未来”的痛苦时刻，在这种时刻难以区分是几天、几周或几个月。然而，其他人必须应对他们生活的所有领域（例如，工作、家庭和私人生活）突然同时发生的经历，导致感觉像是永无止境的疲劳。随着空间不再是许多人的协调工具（例如，离开家去办公室），时间通常是构成几天和几周的最显着的协调机制。

这些例子暴露了通常隐藏在视线之外的多个相互交织的时间维度。尽管管理学者越来越关注时间的个人维度，但大流行因此需要更全面的方法。在这篇评论中，我们强调了时间的复杂性——一种在管理研究中获得动力的观点（例如，Bansal 等人，2020 年；Blagoev 等人，2021 年）。这种研究结合了多个时间维度及其相互作用，并借鉴了植根于社会科学、经济学、自然科学、人文科学和组织实践的时间概念和理论。我们说明了此类研究应解决的问题。