Organizational Routines

Abstract

Abstract Over the past fifteen years, organizational routines increasingly have been investigated from a process perspective to challenge the idea that routines are stable entities that are mindlessly enacted. We summarize in this chapter what constitutes a process perspective on organizational routines, and document some of the major areas of recent inquiry, including change in routines, the role of artifacts in routine performances, and emergence of routines. Three other themes emerge from the various chapters that constitute this volume: (1) Zooming out to understand routines in larger contexts; (2) Zooming in to reveal actor dispositions and skill; and (3) Innovation, creativity, and routines in ambiguous contexts. The chapters also inspire future research that can extend a process perspective on routines by further zooming out and in, and by potentially using this metaphor to connect distinct findings by scholars studying routines from different perspectives.