Unravelling the Motor of Patterning Work: Toward an Understanding of the Microlevel Dynamics of Standardization and Flexibility

Published Online:https://doi.org/10.1287/orsc.2016.1055

References

  • Ashford BE, Fried Y (1988) The mindlessness of organizational behaviors. Human Relations 41(4):305–329.CrossrefGoogle Scholar
  • Baden-Fuller C, Winter SG (2005) Replicating organizational knowledge: Principles or templates? Working paper, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia.Google Scholar
  • Bechky BA, Okhuysen GA (2011) Expecting the unexpected? How SWAT officers and film crews handle suprises. Acad. Management J. 54(2):239–262.CrossrefGoogle Scholar
  • Bigley GA, Roberts KH (2001) The incident command system: High-reliability organizing for complex and volatile task environments. Acad. Management J. 44(6):1281–1299.CrossrefGoogle Scholar
  • Birnholtz JP, Cohen MD, Hoch SV (2007) Organizational character: On the regeneration of Camp Poplar Grove. Organ. Sci. 18(3):15–332.Google Scholar
  • Brown JS, Duguid P (1991) Organizational learning and communities-of-practice: Toward a unified view of working, learning, and innovation. Organ. Sci. 2(1):40–57.LinkGoogle Scholar
  • Brown JS, Duguid P (2001) Knowledge and organization: A social-practice perspective. Organ. Sci. 12(2):198–213.LinkGoogle Scholar
  • Chia R, Holt R (2007) Strategy as practical coping: A Heideggerian perspective. Organ. Stud. 27(5):635–655.CrossrefGoogle Scholar
  • Cohen MD (2007) Reading Dewey: Reflections on the study of routine. Organ. Stud. 28(5):773–786.CrossrefGoogle Scholar
  • Cohen MD, Bacdayan P (1994) Organizational routines are stored as procedural memory—Evidence from a laboratory study. Organ. Sci. 5(4):554–568.LinkGoogle Scholar
  • Cyert RM, March JG (1963) A Behavioral Theory of the Firm (Prentice-Hall, Englewood Cliffs, NJ).Google Scholar
  • D’Adderio L (2003) Configuring software, reconfiguring memories: The influence of integrated systems on the reproduction of knowledge and routines. Indust. Corp. Change 12(3):321–350.CrossrefGoogle Scholar
  • D’Adderio L (2008) The performativity of routines: Theorising the influence of artefacts and distributed agencies on routines dynamics. Res. Policy 37(5):769–789.CrossrefGoogle Scholar
  • D’Adderio L (2011) Artifacts at the centre of routines: Performing the material turn in routines theory. J. Institutional Econom. 7(2): 197–230.CrossrefGoogle Scholar
  • D’Adderio L (2014) The replication dilemma unravelled: How organizations enact multiple goals in routine transfer. Organ. Sci. 25(5):1325–1350.LinkGoogle Scholar
  • Dionysiou D, Tsoukas H (2013) Understanding the (re)creation of routines from within: A symbolic interactionist perspective. Acad. Management Rev. 38(2):181–205.CrossrefGoogle Scholar
  • Dougherty D (1992) Interpretive barriers to successful product innovation in large firms. Organ. Sci. 3(2):179–202.LinkGoogle Scholar
  • Emirbayer M (1997) Manifesto for a relational sociology. Amer. J. Sociol. 103(2):281–317.CrossrefGoogle Scholar
  • Faraj S, Xiao Y (2006) Coordination in fast-response organizations. Management Sci. 52(8):1155–1169.LinkGoogle Scholar
  • Farjoun M (2010) Beyond dualism: Stability and change as a duality. Acad. Management Rev. 35(2):202–225.CrossrefGoogle Scholar
  • Feldman M (2000) Organizational routines as a source of continuous change. Organ. Sci. 11(6):611–629.LinkGoogle Scholar
  • Feldman M (2004) Resources in emerging structures and processes of change. Organ. Sci. 15(3):295–309.LinkGoogle Scholar
  • Feldman M, Orlikowski WJ (2011) Theorizing practice and practicing theory. Organ. Sci. 22(5):1240–1253.LinkGoogle Scholar
  • Feldman M, Pentland BT (2003) Reconceptualizing organizational routines as a source of flexibility and change. Admin. Sci. Quart. 48(1):94–118.CrossrefGoogle Scholar
  • Feldman M, Rafaeli A (2002) Organizational routines as sources of connections and understandings. J. Management Stud. 39(3): 309–331.CrossrefGoogle Scholar
  • Geiger D (2009) Revisiting the concept of practice: Toward an argumentative understanding of practicing. Management Learning 40(2):129–144.CrossrefGoogle Scholar
  • Geiger D (2010) The role of argument and narration in knowledge sharing: Coping with context, validity, and coherence. Schmalenbach Bus. Rev. 62(3):291–316.CrossrefGoogle Scholar
  • Geiger D, Antonacopoulou E (2009) Narratives and organizational dynamics: Exploring blind spots and organizational inertia. J. Appl. Behavioral Sci. 45(3):411–436.CrossrefGoogle Scholar
  • Geiger D, Schröder A (2014) Ever-changing routines? Toward a revised understanding of organizational routines between rule-following and rule-breaking. Schmalenbach Bus. Rev. 66(4):170–190.CrossrefGoogle Scholar
  • Gergen KJ (1985) The social constructionist movement in modern psychology. Amer. Psychologist 40(3):266–275.CrossrefGoogle Scholar
  • Gherardi S (2000) Practise-based theorizing on learning and knowing in organizations. Organization 7(2):211–223.CrossrefGoogle Scholar
  • Gherardi S (2006) Organizational Knowledge. The Texture of Workplace Learning (Blackwell, Oxford, UK).Google Scholar
  • Gherardi S (2009) Practice? It’s a matter of taste. Management Learning 40(5):535–550.CrossrefGoogle Scholar
  • Glaser BG, Strauss AL (1967) The Discovery of Grounded Theory: Strategies for Qualitative Research (Aldine Publishing, New York).Google Scholar
  • Hernes T (2008) Theory for a Tangled World (Routledge, London).Google Scholar
  • Howard-Grenville JA (2005) The persistence of flexible organizational routines: The role of agency and organizational context. Organ. Sci. 16(6):618–636.LinkGoogle Scholar
  • International Search and Rescue Advisory Group (2011) INSARAG guidelines and methodology. Accessed February 1, 2012, http://www.ifrc.org/docs/idrl/I927EN.pdf.Google Scholar
  • Kirk J, Miller ML (1986) Reliability and Validity in Qualitative Research (Sage, Newbury Park, CA).CrossrefGoogle Scholar
  • Knorr-Cetina KD (1999) Epistemic Cultures: How the Sciences Make Knowledge (Harvard University Press, Cambridge, MA).CrossrefGoogle Scholar
  • Langer E, Blank A, Chanowitz B (1978) The mindlessness of ostensibly thoughful action: The role of “placebic” information in interpersonal interaction. J. Personality Soc. Psych. 36(6):635–642.CrossrefGoogle Scholar
  • Latour B (1992) Where are the missing masses? The sociology of a few mundane artefacts. Bijker WE, Law J, eds. Shaping Technology/Building Society: Studies in Sociotechnical Change (MIT Press, Cambridge, MA), 225–258.Google Scholar
  • Levinthal D, Rerup C (2006) Crossing an apparent chasm: Bridging mindful and less-mindful perspectives on organizational learning. Organ. Sci. 17(4):502–513.LinkGoogle Scholar
  • Liang D, Moreland R, Argote L (1995) Group versus individual training and group performance: The mediating role of transactive memory. Personality Soc. Psych. Bull. 21(4):384–393.CrossrefGoogle Scholar
  • Luhmann N (1995) Social Systems (Stanford University Press, Stanford, CA).Google Scholar
  • March JG, Simon H (1958) Organizations (Wiley, New York).Google Scholar
  • Maturana HR, Varela FJ (1998) The Tree of Knowledge: The Biological Roots of Human Understanding (Shambhala Publications, Boston).Google Scholar
  • Miles MB, Huberman AM (1994) Qualitative Data Analysis: An Expanded Sourcebook (Sage, Thousand Oaks, CA).Google Scholar
  • Miller KD, Pentland BT, Choi S (2012) Dynamics of performing and remembering organizational routines. J. Management Stud. 49(8):1536–1558.CrossrefGoogle Scholar
  • Moreland RL, Myaskovsky L (2000) Exploring the performance benefits of group training: Transactive memory or improved communication? Organ. Behav. Human Decision Processes 82(1):117–133.CrossrefGoogle Scholar
  • Nelson RR, Winter SG (1982) An Evolutionary Theory of Economic Change (Belknap Press, Cambridge, MA).Google Scholar
  • Nicolini D (2009) Zooming in and out: Studying practices by switching theoretical lenses and trailing connections. Organ. Stud. 30(12): 1391–1418.CrossrefGoogle Scholar
  • Okhuysen G (2005) Understanding group behavior: How a police SWAT team creates, changes, and manages group routines. Elsbach KD, ed. Qualitative Organizational Research (Information Age, Greenwich, CT), 139–168.Google Scholar
  • Orlikowski WJ (1992) The duality of technology—Rethinking the concept of technology in organizations. Organ. Sci. 3(3):398–427.LinkGoogle Scholar
  • Orlikowski WJ (2002) Knowing in practice: Enacting a collective capability in distributed organizing. Organ. Sci. 13(3):249–273.LinkGoogle Scholar
  • Orlikowski WJ, Scott SV (2008) Sociomateriality: Challenging the separation of technology, work and organization. Acad. Management Ann. 2(1):433–474.CrossrefGoogle Scholar
  • Parmigiani A, Howard-Grenville J (2011) Routines revisited: Exploring the capabilities and practice perspectives. Acad. Management Ann. 5(1):413–453.CrossrefGoogle Scholar
  • Pentland BT (1995) Grammatical models of organizational processes. Organ. Sci. 6(5):541–556.LinkGoogle Scholar
  • Pentland BT (1999) Building process theory with narrative: From description to explanation. Acad. Management Rev. 24(4):711–724.CrossrefGoogle Scholar
  • Pentland BT (2003) Sequential variety in work processes. Organ. Sci. 14(5):528–540.LinkGoogle Scholar
  • Pentland BT, Feldman MS (2005) Organizational routines as a unit of analysis. Indust. Corp. Change 14(5):793–815.CrossrefGoogle Scholar
  • Pentland BT, Feldman MS (2007) Narrative networks: Patterns of technology and organization. Organ. Sci. 18(5):781–795.LinkGoogle Scholar
  • Pentland BT, Feldman MS (2008) Designing routines: On the folly of designing artifacts, while hoping for patterns of action. Inform. Organ. 18(4):235–250.CrossrefGoogle Scholar
  • Pentland BT, Rueter HH (1994) Organizational routines as grammars of action. Admin. Sci. Quart. 39(3):484–510.CrossrefGoogle Scholar
  • Pentland BT, Hærem T, Hillison D (2010) Comparing organizational routines as recurrent patterns of action. Organ. Stud. 31(7):917–940.CrossrefGoogle Scholar
  • Pentland BT, Hærem T, Hillison D (2011) The (n)ever-changing world: Stability and change in organizational routines. Organ. Sci. 22(6): 1369–1383.LinkGoogle Scholar
  • Pentland BT, Feldman MS, Becker MC, Liu P (2012) Dynamics of organizational routines: A generative model. J. Management Stud. 49(8):1484–1508.CrossrefGoogle Scholar
  • Pentland BT, Shabana A, Soe L, Ward S, Roldan M (1994) Lexical and sequential variety in organizational processes: Some preliminary findings and propositions. Accessed October 1, 2014, http://ccs.mit.edu/papers/CCSWP195/CCSWP195.html.Google Scholar
  • Polanyi M (1966) The Tacit Dimension (University of Chicago Press, Chicago).Google Scholar
  • Reckwitz A (2002) Towards a theory of social practices: A development in cultural theorizing. Eur. J. Soc. Theory 5(2):243–263.CrossrefGoogle Scholar
  • Rerup C, Feldman MS (2011) Routines as a source of change in organizational schemata: The role of trial-and-error learning. Acad. Management J. 54(3):577–610.CrossrefGoogle Scholar
  • Star SL (1989) The structure of ill-structured solutions: Boundary objects and heterogeneous distributed problem solving. Huhns M, Gasser L, eds. Readings in Distributed Artificial Intelligence (Morgan Kaufman, Menlo Park, CA), 37–54.CrossrefGoogle Scholar
  • Strati A (1992) Aesthetic understanding of organizational life. Acad. Management Rev. 17(3):568–581.CrossrefGoogle Scholar
  • Strati A (2007) Sensible knowledge and practice-based learning. Management Learning 38(1):61–77.CrossrefGoogle Scholar
  • Strauss AL, Corbin J (1990) Basics of Qualitative Research: Grounded Theory Procedures and Techniques (Sage, Newbury Park, CA).Google Scholar
  • Sydow J, Schreyögg G, Koch J (2009) Organizational path dependence: Opening the black box. Acad. Management Rev. 34(4):689–709.CrossrefGoogle Scholar
  • Thompson JD (1967) Organization in Action (McGraw-Hill, Chicago).Google Scholar
  • Tsoukas H, Chia R (2002) On organizational becoming: Rethinking organizational change. Organ. Sci. 13(5):567–582.LinkGoogle Scholar
  • Turner SF, Rindova V (2012) A balancing act: How organizations pursue consistency in routine functioning in the face of ongoing change. Organ. Sci. 23(1):24–46.LinkGoogle Scholar
  • van Maanen J (2011) Ethnography as work: Some rules of engagement. J. Management Stud. 48(1):218–234.CrossrefGoogle Scholar
  • Weick KE (1993) The collapse of sensemaking in organizations: The Mann Gulch disaster. Admin. Sci. Quart. 38(4):628–652.CrossrefGoogle Scholar
  • Weick KE, Sutcliffe KM (2007) Managing the Unexpected—Resilient Performance in an Age of Uncertainty (John Wiley & Sons, Inc., San Francisco).Google Scholar
  • Yin RK (2009) Case Study Research: Design and Methods (Sage, Thousand Oaks, CA).Google Scholar
  • Zbaracki MJ, Bergen M (2010) When truces collapse: A longitudinal study of price-adjustment routines. Organ. Sci. 21(5):955–972.LinkGoogle Scholar
INFORMS site uses cookies to store information on your computer. Some are essential to make our site work; Others help us improve the user experience. By using this site, you consent to the placement of these cookies. Please read our Privacy Statement to learn more.