Organizational Routines as Sources of Connections and Understandings

Abstract

Organizational routines are increasingly identified as an aspect of organizations that allows them to achieve the balance between adaptability and stability. We contribute to this discussion by showing that the connections that organizational routines make between people contribute to both stability and the ability to adapt. We argue that the connections between people that are formed as they engage together in organizational routines are important for developing understandings about both what needs to be done in a specific instance of performing a routine and about the goals of the organization that routines presumably help accomplish. Together the two sets of understandings influence organizational performance by affecting the ability of organizations to adapt to changing circumstances. These arguments lead to a general recognition of the importance to organizations of connections and the suggestion that the connections, themselves, may be an important outcome of organizational routines.

Theorizing Practice and Practicing Theory

“…The cycle provides the possibility for both effortful and emergent accomplishments as people take different actions and create and recreate connections (Feldman and Rafaeli 2002) in the course of enacting multiple iterations of a routine. Pentland and Rueter (1994) articulate the notion of routines as effortful accomplishments and note the work that goes into reproducing a relatively stable routine.…”

Why resilience managers aren’t resilient, and what human resource management can do about it

“…Second, extant research on resilience has tended to focus at either the organisational or the individual level, with little or no research examining the microprocesses that link resilience at individual and organisational levels of analysis (Jaaron & Backhouse, 2014). Third, much of the extant research on resilience is conceptual in nature and there is a dearth of empirical work that explores the practices and processes involved in promoting organisational resilience (van der Vegt et al, 2015) identify both evidential and conceptual gaps in relation to the micro-processes that impede or produce organisational resilience, and Feldman and Rafaeli (2002) argue that there is value in opening the 'black box' of resilience.…”

Developing Routines in Large Inter-organisational Projects: A Case Study of an Infrastructure Megaproject

“…First, routines enable coordination by establishing connections (e.g., face-to-face and electronic) and shared understandings, which creates benefits even without explicit outcomes or results (Feldman and Rafaeli, 2002). Second, they provide some degree of stability of behaviour by reducing uncertainty, as well as by helping individuals to understand what to do in particular circumstances (Feldman and Rafaeli, 2002) and by enabling them to predict the behaviour of others (Becker, 2004). Third, at times referred to as habitual routines (Gersick and Hackman, 1990), some routines are subconsciously executed and can thus economise with limited cognitive resources.…”

“…This tendency can be an advantage-for example, if completing tasks becomes more efficient because everyone knows what to do-or disadvantageous, particularly if desirable opportunities are lost. Fourth and lastly, routines store both tacit and explicit knowledge in organisations (Becker, 2004;Pentland et al, 2012), which can help to clarify their structure and culture (Feldman and Rafaeli, 2002).…”