Purpose This study aims to understand how middle managers reconfigure time-space relations to articulate strategic intent and operational realities in decision-making practices within volatile organisational environments. Design/methodology/approach Adopting a qualitative methodology, this study conducted a single-case study in one of Brazil’s most prominent educational organisation dedicated to professional development. Data were collected through semi-structured interviews, observation and documentary analysis. Reflexive thematic analysis was applied to the data. Findings The findings reveal that volatility disrupts established routines and decision modalities, prompting middle managers to reconfigure temporal sequences and spatial arrangements to articulate strategic intent with operational realities. This articulation process operates through adjustments in temporal rhythms, decision sequencing and spatial coordination across organisational levels, thereby expanding strategic possibilities and enhancing organisational adaptability under conditions of volatility. Research limitations/implications The main limitations include the restricted availability of interviewees and the fact that data were collected before, during and after the pandemic, which limited real-time observation in the post-pandemic period. The study advances research by explicating the process linking time-space relations to middle managers’ strategic agency. It extends role-based and processual frameworks of middle management by conceptualising the middle manager as a “time-space articulator”, whose agency emerges through the deliberate reconfiguration of temporal and spatial process in decision-making practices. Practical implications The study contributes to managerial practice by deepening the understanding of how middle managers reconfigure temporal and spatial dimensions in strategic decision architectures, conceptualised here as time-space decision architectures. By conceptualising middle managers as time-space articulators, the findings clarify how strategic adaptability can be enabled through the deliberate design of decision processes rather than solely through structural change. It offers actionable guidance for senior leaders by indicating how granting situational autonomy at critical temporal junctures and redesigning decision processes around temporal sequencing and spatial coordination can institutionalise articulation practices that enhance organisational adaptability while preserving strategic coherence. Social implications By reconfiguring temporal and spatial arrangements of decision-making practices, middle managers influence how organisations sustain service continuity, equity and quality in socially sensitive contexts such as education. These practices link micro-level decision processes to broader societal outcomes, including students’ access to education and alignment with Sustainable Development Goal 4. Originality/value While prior studies have examined multiple roles of middle managers or the micro-processes of strategising, this research advances the discussion by integrating a time-space structuration perspective with role-based theory. It introduces a process-based explanation of how middle managers reconfigure temporal and spatial relations to articulate strategic intent with operational realities, thereby positioning them as time-space articulators in volatile contexts.
Rodrigues et al. (Tue,) studied this question.