It takes More than One: Toward a Social Exchange Foundation of Organizational Routine Performance

Abstract

In this paper we address a fundamental question within the current debates around organizational routines: How do people interact with each other to align their actions and understandings. To explore this question in depth we draw on social exchange theory to understand interaction processes among individual actors. By building on these insights we propose a framework to explain the alignment or misalignment of shared understandings and actions influenced by relational aspects. Specifically, we focus on interpersonal trust as an indicator of relationship quality and power asymmetries among actors. Thereby, we propose a new perspective to enrich the routine debate: the relationship level (social side) of organizational routines. Our research not only contributes to routine performance (alignment), but also to a better understanding of routine interruption and routine dissolution (misalignment) and advances our understanding of power in routine processes.