Organizational Routines

Organizational routines are repetitive, recognizable patterns of interdependent actions, carried out by multiple organizational actors. Organizational routines can be found in production, customer service, hiring, budgeting, strategy formation, and every other part of an organization.

Each aspect of the definition is important to the concept of organizational routines. Routines must be repetitive. If a pattern of actions occurs only once, it makes no sense to call it a routine. The pattern must also be recognizable, at least to the participants. Recognition of the pattern of actions allows participants to describe and account for their actions and to orient their actions to others. The actions must be interdependent, in the sense that accomplishing one action depends on another. In a typical routine, the flow of information or materials from one action to the next creates interdependence between the actions. Finally, for a routine to be called organizational, the actions must be carried out by multiple actors. Organizational routines are not just individual routines that are performed in the context of an organization.

The emphasis on repetitive patterns of action in the definition of routines has led many people to assume that organizational routines are stable and unchanging. Because routines exhibit stable qualities, they are often mentioned as a source of organizational inertia and resistance to change. Recent empirical research has provided evidence that flexibility and change are also important aspects of organizational routines. New ways of conceptualizing organizational routines have been developed in order to understand their simultaneous relation to both stability and change.

Organizational routines are considered by many scholars to be fundamental to the way work is accomplished in organizations. The flow of information and materials within a routine transforms organizational inputs into outputs. Because routines involve multiple actors in an organization, they are a primary mechanism for coordination. Because routines embody organizational capabilities, they are often viewed as a repository for organizational knowledge and a vehicle for organizational learning.