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Time pressure is often cited as a problem experienced by members of formal organizations. Moreover, it is an administratively interesting factor, since it is one over which management may have substantial influence. The folklore about managing scientific laboratories includes two com-peting approaches to the management of time pressure: (1) provide pro-fessional staff with an unhurried "academic " environment, and (2) establish tight schedules and deadlines to avoid the Parkinsonian nightmare of work expanding to meet the time available. What is the relationship between time pressure and scientific per-formance? Does time pressure tend more to predict performance or to be predicted by past performance? What characteristics of a scientist's working environment are associated with his sense of tim'e pressure? It is to these questions that the present article is addressed. Despite the acknowledged importance of time pressure in organizations, surprisingly little research has been directly devoted to it. In group in