Inertia in routines: A hidden source of organizational variation

摘要

The article examines whether organizational routines hinder or help organizational adaptation. Previous research suggests that routines have a double role in processes of organizational adaptation. They are associated with a strong drive toward organizational stability and inertia. However, based on conventional wisdom and recent research on routines, the authors examine the implications of routine dynamics for organizational adaptation. In particular, the research focus on the stability-change dilemma that routine generate inertial forces, as a by-product of their stability, which slow down organizational change and thus hinder organizational adaptation. A model is developed on the basis of grounded theory to show the adaptive process of an organization consisting of interdependent routines. Then the consequence of routine-level inertia for a process of organizational adaptation that involves changes to the routines has also been done in the absence and presence of endogenous change of routines. The results showed that inertia in routines may engender variation that is potentially useful for organizational adaptation: delays in the implementation of planned changes to routines may cause unintended variation in the pace and sequence with which the changes and their effects take place. As a result, in the ongoing process of organizational adaptation, the planned changes are selectively retained by boundedly rational agents. The stability of routines then facilitates the retention of the selected changes and their consequences. Hence it is concluded that routine-level inertia, in conjunction with bounded rationality, plays a hidden role of generating and retaining potentially useful variations in organizational adaptation. (96 refs.)