Skip to main content Accessibility help
×
Hostname: page-component-76fb5796d-skm99 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-04-27T04:25:15.665Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Chapter 2 - Practice Theory and Routine Dynamics

from Part I - Theoretical Resources for Routine Dynamics Research

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 December 2021

Martha S. Feldman
Affiliation:
University of California, Irvine
Brian T. Pentland
Affiliation:
Michigan State University
Luciana D'Adderio
Affiliation:
University of Edinburgh
Katharina Dittrich
Affiliation:
University of Warwick
Claus Rerup
Affiliation:
Frankfurt School of Finance and Management
David Seidl
Affiliation:
University of Zurich
Get access

Summary

This chapter deals with the role practice theory has played and can play in developing routine dynamics and the community of scholars associated with Routine Dynamics. It provides a short introduction to practice theory. It presents an analysis of how scholars in the field of Routine Dynamics relied on practice theory to build the foundation of the field and how scholars have continued to engage practice theory as the field has grown. The chapter ends with suggestions for how practice theory could help Routine Dynamics address questions of wide social relevance.

Type
Chapter
Information
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2021

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Aroles, J. and McLean, C. (2016). Rethinking stability and change in the study of organizational routines: Difference and repetition in a newspaper-printing factory. Organization Science, 27(3), 535550.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Barley, S. R. (1986). Technology as an occasion for structuring: Evidence from observations of CT scanners and the social order of radiology departments. Administrative Science Quarterly, 31, 78108.Google Scholar
Berente, N., Lyytinen, K., Yoo, Y. and King, J. L. (2016). Routines as shock absorbers during organizational transformation: Integration, control, and NASA’s Enterprise Information System. Organization Science, 27(3), 551572.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bertels, S., Howard-Grenville, J. and Pek, S. (2016). Cultural molding, shielding, and shoring at Oilco: The role of culture in the integration of routines. Organization Science, 27(3), 573593.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Birnholtz, J., Cohen, M. D. and Hoch, S. (2007). Organizational character: On the regeneration of Camp Poplar Grove. Organization Science, 18(2), 315332.Google Scholar
Bourdieu, P. (1977). Outline of a Theory of Practice. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Bourdieu, P. (1984). Distinction: A Social Critique of the Judgement of Taste. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.Google Scholar
Bourdieu, P. (1987). Choses dites. Paris: Editions de Minuit.Google Scholar
Bourdieu, P. (1990). The Logic of Practice. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press.Google Scholar
Bourdieu, P. (2005). The Social Structures of the Economy. Cambridge: Polity Press.Google Scholar
Bourdieu, P. and Wacquant, L. (1992). An Invitation to Reflexive Sociology. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
Brown, J. S. and Duguid, P. (1991). Organizational learning and communities-of-practice: Toward a unified view of working, learning and innovation. Organization Science, 2(1), 4057.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Brown, J. S. and Duguid, P. (1996). Learning and communities-of-practice: Toward a unified view of working, learning, and innovation. In Cohen, M. D. and Sproull, L. S., eds., Organizational Learning. London: Sage, pp. 5982.Google Scholar
Brown, J. S. and Duguid, P. (2000). The Social Life of Information. Cambridge, MA: Harvard Business School Press.Google Scholar
Brown, J. S. and Duguid, P. (2001). Knowledge and organization: A social-practice perspective. Organization Science, 12(2), 198213.Google Scholar
Bruns, H. (2009). Leveraging functionality in safety routines: Examining the divergence of rules and performance. Human Relations, 62(9), 13991426.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bucher, S. and Langley, A. (2016). The Interplay of reflective and experimental spaces in interrupting and reorienting routine dynamics. Organization Science, 27(3), 594613.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Carlile, P. R. (1997). Understanding knowledge transformation in product development: Making knowledge manifest through boundary objects. Unpublished doctoral dissertation, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor.Google Scholar
Carlile, P. R. (2002). A Pragmatic View of Knowledge and Boundaries: Boundary Objects in New Product Development. Providence, RI: Organization Science.Google Scholar
Cohendet, P. S. and Simon, L. O. (2016). Always playable: Recombining routines for creative efficiency at Ubisoft Montreal’s Video Game Studio. Organization Science, 27(3), 614632.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
D’Adderio, L. D. (2003). Configuring software, reconfiguring memories: The influence of integrated systems on the reproduction of knowledge and routines. Industrial and Corporate Change, 12(2), 321350.Google Scholar
D’Adderio, L. D. (2008). The performativity of routines: Theorising the influence of artifacts and distributed agencies on routines dynamics. Research Policy, 37, 769789.Google Scholar
D’Adderio, L. D. (2011). Artifacts at the centre of routines: Performing the material turn in routines theory. Journal of Institutional Economics, 7(2), 197230.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
D’Adderio, L. D. (2014). Replication dilemma. Organization Science, 25(5), 13251350.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Danner-Schröder, A. and Geiger, D. (2016). Unravelling the motor of patterning work: Toward an understanding of the microlevel dynamics of standardization and flexibility. Organization Science, 27(3), 633658.Google Scholar
Deken, F., Carlile, P. R., Berends, H. and Lauche, K. (2016). Generating novelty through interdependent routines: A process model of routine work. Organization Science, 27(3), 659677.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
DeSanctis, G. and Poole, M. S. (1994). Capturing the complexity in advanced technology use: Adaptive structuration theory. Organization Science, 5, 121147.Google Scholar
Dionysiou, D. and Tsoukas, H. (2013). Understanding the creation and recreation of routines from within: A symbolic interactionist perspective. Academy of Management Review, 38, 181205.Google Scholar
Dittrich, K., Guérard, S. and Seidl, D. (2016). Talking about routines: The role of reflective talk in routine change. Organization Science, 27(3), 678697.Google Scholar
Emirbayer, M. (1997). Manifesto for a relational sociology. American Journal of Sociology, 103(2), 281317.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Emirbayer, M. and Mische, A. (1998). What is agency? American Journal of Sociology, 103, 9621023.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Feldman, M. S. (2000). Organizational routines as a source of continuous change. Organization Science, 11(6), 611629.Google Scholar
Feldman, M. S. (2003). A performative perspective on stability and change in organizational routines. Industrial and Corporate Change, 12(4), 727752.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Feldman, M. S. and Orlikowski, W. J. (2011). Theorizing practice and practicing theory. Organization Science, 22(5), 12401253.Google Scholar
Feldman, M. S. and Pentland, B. T. (2003). Reconceptualizing organizational routines as a source of flexibility and change. Administrative Science Quarterly, 48, 94118.Google Scholar
Feldman, M. S., Pentland, B. T., D’ Adderio, L. and Lazaric, N. (2016). Beyond routines as things: Introduction to the Special Issue on routine dynamics. Organization Science, 27, 505513.Google Scholar
Feldman, M. S. and Rafaeli, A. (2002). Organizational routines as sources of connections and understandingsJournal of Management Studies, 39(3), 309331.Google Scholar
Feldman, M. S., and Worline, M. (2016). The practicality of practice theoryAcademy of Management Learning & Education, 15(2), 304324.Google Scholar
Gherardi, S. (2000). Practice-based theorizing on learning and knowing in organizations. Organization, 7(2), 211223.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gherardi, S. (2006). Organizational Knowledge: The Texture of Workplace Learning. Malden, MA: Blackwell Publishing.Google Scholar
Gherardi, S. (2009). Practice? It’s a matter of taste. Management Learning, 40(5), 535550.Google Scholar
Gherardi, S. (2012). How to Conduct a Practice-Based Study: Problems and Methods. Cheltenham: Edward Elgar Publishing.Google Scholar
Gherardi, S. and Nicolini, D. (2000). To transfer is to transform: The circulation of safety knowledge. Organization, 7, 329348.Google Scholar
Gherardi, S. and Nicolini, D. (2002). Learning the trade: A culture of safety in practice. Organization, 9, 191223.Google Scholar
Gherardi, S., Nicolini, D. and Odella, F. (1996). What do you mean by safety? Conflicting perspectives on accident causation and safety management in a construction firm. Journal of Contingencies and Crisis Management, 6, 202213.Google Scholar
Giddens, A. (1979). Central Problems in Social Theory: Action, Structure and Contradiction in Social Analysis. Berkeley: University of California Press.Google Scholar
Giddens, A. (1984). The Constitution of Society. Cambridge: Polity Press.Google Scholar
Giddens, A. (1989). A reply to my critics. In Held, D. and Thompson, J. B., eds., Social Theory of Modern Societies: Anthony Giddens and His Critics. New York: Press Syndicate of the University of Cambridge, pp. 248301.Google Scholar
Giddens, A. (1993). New Rules of Sociological Method, 2nd ed. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press.Google Scholar
Hales, M. and Tidd, J. (2009). The practice of routines and representations in design and development. Industrial and Corporate Change, 18(4), 551574.Google Scholar
Howard-Grenville, J. A. (2005). The persistence of flexible organizational routines: The role of agency and organizational context. Organization Science, 16(6), 618636.Google Scholar
Jarzabkowski, P., , J. K. and Feldman, M. S. (2012). Toward a theory of coordinating: Creating coordinating mechanisms in practice. Organization Science, 23(4), 907927.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Jones, M. R. and Karsten, H. (2003). Review: Structuration theory and information systems research. Working Paper 2003/11, Judge Institute of Management, Cambridge: Cambridge University.Google Scholar
Knorr-Cetina, K. (1999). Epistemic Cultures: How the Sciences Make Knowledge. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.Google Scholar
Kremser, W. and Schreyögg, G. (2016). The dynamics of interrelated routines: Introducing the cluster level. Organization Science, 27(3), 698721.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Latour, B. (1986). The powers of association. In Law, J., ed., Power, Action and Belief: A New Sociology of Knowledge? London: Routledge & Kegan Paul, pp. 264280.Google Scholar
Lave, J. (1988). Cognition in Practice: Mind, Mathematics and Culture in Everyday Life. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Lave, J. and Wenger, E. (1991). Situated Learning: Legitimate Peripheral Participation. Cambridge, MA: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lazaric, N. and Denis, B. (2005). Routinization and memorization of tasks in a workshop: The case of the introduction of ISO norms. Industrial and Corporate Change, 14 5, 872896.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
LeBaron, C., Christianson, M. K., Garrett, L. and Ilan, R. (2016). Coordinating flexible performance during everyday work: An ethnomethodological study of handoff routines. Organization Science, 27, 514534.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Levinthal, D. and Rerup, C. (2006). Crossing an apparent chasm: Bridging mindful and less-mindful perspectives on organizational learning. Organization Science, 17(4), 502513.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Manning, P. K. (1977). Police Work: The Social Organization of Police Work. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.Google Scholar
Manning, P. K. (1982). Organizational work: Enstructuration of the environment. British Journal of Sociology, 33, 118139.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Michel, A. A. (2014). The mutual constitution of persons and organizations: An ontological perspective on organizational change. Organization Science, 25(4), 10821110.Google Scholar
Nicolini, D. (2009). Zooming in and out: Studying practices by switching theoretical lenses and trailing connections. Organization Studies, 30(12), 13911418.Google Scholar
Nicolini, D. (2010). Medical innovation as a process of translation: A case from the field of telemedicine. British Journal of Management, 21(4), 10111026.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Nicolini, D. (2013). Practice Theory, Work, and Organization: An Introduction. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Nicolini, D., Gherardi, S. and Yanow, D., eds. (2003). Knowing in Organizations: A Practice-Based Approach. Armonk, NY: M.E. Sharpe.Google Scholar
Orlikowski, W. J. (1992). The duality of technology: Rethinking the concept of technology in organizations. Organization Science, 3(3), 398427.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Orlikowski, W. J. (1996). Improvising organizational transformation over time: A situated change perspective. Information Systems Research, 7(1), 6392.Google Scholar
Orlikowski, W. J. (2000). Using technology and constituting structures. Organization Science, 11(4), 404428.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Orlikowski, W. J. (2002). Knowing in practice: Enacting a collective capability in distributed organizing. Organization Science, 13(3), 249273.Google Scholar
Orlikowski, W. J. (2007). Sociomaterial practices: Exploring technology at work. Organization Studies, 28(9), 14351448.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Orlikowski, W. J. (2010). Practice in research: Phenomenon, perspective and philosophy. In Golsorkhi, D., Rouleau, L., Seidl, D. and Vaare, E., eds., Cambridge Handbook of Strategy as Practice. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, pp. 2333.Google Scholar
Orlikowski, W. J. and Barley, S. R. (2001). Technology and institutions: What can research on information technology and research on organizations learn from each other? MIS Quarterly, 25(2), 145165.Google Scholar
Orlikowski, W. J. and Iacono, C. S. (2001). Research commentary: Desperately seeking the IT in IT research – A call to theorizing the IT artifact. Information Systems Research, 12(2), 121134.Google Scholar
Orlikowski, W. J. and Scott, S.V. (2008). Sociomateriality: Challenging the separation of technology, work and organization. Academy of Management Annals, 2(1), 433474.Google Scholar
Orlikowski, W. J. and Yates, J. (1994). Genre repertoire: The structuring of communicative practices in organizations. Administrative Science Quarterly, 39(4), 541574.Google Scholar
Orr, J. E. (1990). Sharing knowledge, celebrating identity: War stories and community memory in a service culture. In Middleton, D. S. and Edwards, D., eds., Collective Remembering: Memory in Society. Beverley Hills, CA: Sage Publications.Google Scholar
Ortner, S. B. (1984). Theory in anthropology since the sixtiesComparative Studies in Society and History, 26(1), 126166.Google Scholar
Ortner, S. B. (1989). High Religion: A Cultural and Political History of Sherpa Buddhism. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.Google Scholar
Østerlund, C. and Carlile, P. R. (2005). Relations in practice: Sorting through practice theories on knowledge sharing in complex organizations. The Information Society, 21(2), 91107.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Parmigiani, A. and Howard-Grenville, J. (2011). Routines revisited: Exploring the capabilities and practice perspectives. Academy of Management Annals, 5(1), 413453.Google Scholar
Pentland, B. T. and Feldman, M. S. (2005). Organizational routines as a unit of analysis. Industrial and Corporate Change, 14(5), 793815.Google Scholar
Pentland, B. T. and Feldman, M. S. (2007). Narrative Networks: Patterns of Technology and Organization. Organization Science, 18(5), 781795.Google Scholar
Pentland, B. T. and Feldman, M. S. (2008). Designing routines: On the folly of designing artifacts, while hoping for patterns of action. Information and Organization, 18(2008), 235250.Google Scholar
Pentland, B. T., Haerem, T. and Hillison, D. (2010). Comparing organizational routines as recurrent patterns of action. Organization Studies, 31(7), 917940.Google Scholar
Pentland, B. T. and Rueter, H. H. (1994). Organizational routines as grammars of action. Administrative Science Quarterly, 39, 484510.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Pickering, A. (1994). After representation: Science studies in the performative idiom. Proceedings of the Biennial Meeting of the PSA, (2), 413–419.Google Scholar
Pickering, A. (1995). The Mangle of Practice: Time, Agency and Science. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
Polanyi, M. (1966). The logic of tacit inference. Philosophy, 41(155), 118.Google Scholar
Reckwitz, A. (2002). Towards a theory of social practices: A development in culturalist theorizing. European Journal of Social Theory, 5(2), 243263.Google Scholar
Rerup, C. and Feldman, M. S. (2011). Routines as a source of change in organizational schemata: The role of trial-and-error learning. Academy of Management of Journal, 54(3), 577610Google Scholar
Reynaud, B. (1998). Les propriétés des routines: Outils pragmatiques de decision et modes de co-ordination collective. Sociologie du Travail, 1998(4), 465477.Google Scholar
Reynaud, B. (2005). The void at the heart of rules: Routines in the context of rule-following. The Case of the Paris Metro Workshop. Industrial and Corporate Change, 14(5), 847871.Google Scholar
Salvato, C. (2009). Capabilities unveiled: The role of ordinary activities in the evolution of product development processes. Organization Science, 20(2), 384409.Google Scholar
Salvato, C. and Rerup, C. (2011). Beyond collective entities: Multilevel research on organizational routines and capabilities. Journal of Management, 37(2), 468490.Google Scholar
Schatzki, T. R. (2011). Where the Action Is (on Large Social Phenomena Such as Sociotechnical Regimes). Sustainable Practices Research Group, Working Paper 1, University of Kentucky, Lexington.Google Scholar
Schatzki, T. R. (2012). A primer on practices: Theory and research. In Higgs, J., Barnett, R., Billett, S., Hutchings, M. and Trede, F., eds., Practice-Based Education: Perspectives and Strategies. Rotterdam: Sense Publishers, pp. 1326.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Schatzki, T. R., Knorr-Cetina, K. and von Savigny, E., eds. (2001). The Practice Turn in Contemporary Theory. London: Routledge.Google Scholar
Schön, D. A. (1983). The Reflective Practitioner: How Professionals Think in Action. New York: Basic Books.Google Scholar
Schreyögg, G. and Sydow, J. (2010). CROSSROADS – Organizing for fluidity? Dilemmas of new organizational forms. Organization Science, 21(6), 12511262.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Searle, J. R. (1989). How performatives work. Linguistics and Philosophy, 12(5), 535558.Google Scholar
Sele, K. and Grand, S. (2016). Unpacking the dynamics of ecologies of routines: Mediators and their generative effects in routine interactions. Organization Science, 27(3), 722738.Google Scholar
Sevon, G. (1996). Organizational imitation in identity transformation. In Czarniawska, B. and Sevon, G., eds., Translating Organizational Change. New York: Walter de Gruyter.Google Scholar
Sewell, W. (1992). A theory of structure: Duality, agency and transformation. American Journal of Sociology, 98(1), 129.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Shotter, J. (2006). Understanding process from within: An argument for ‘withness’-thinking. Organization Studies, 27(4), 585604.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Sonenshein, S. (2016). Routines and creativity: From dualism to duality. Organization Science, 27(3), 739758.Google Scholar
Spee, P., Jarzabkowski, P. and Smets, M. (2016). The influence of routine interdependence and skillful accomplishment on the coordination of standardizing and customizing. Organization Science, 27(3), 759781.Google Scholar
Strati, A. (2007). Sensible knowledge and practice-based learning. Management Learning, 38(1), 6177.Google Scholar
Swidler, A. (2001). Talk of Love: How Culture Matters. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
Tyre, M. and Orlikowski, W. (1994). Windows of opportunity: Temporal patterns of technological adaptation in organizations. Organization Science, 5(1), 98118.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Weick, K. E. (1979). The Social Psychology of Organizing, 2nd ed. Reading, MA: Addison Wesley.Google Scholar
Yi, S., Knudsen, T. and Becker, M. C. (2016). Inertia in routines: A hidden source of organizational variation. Organization Science, 27(3), 782800.Google Scholar
Zbaracki, M. J. and Bergen, M. (2010). When truces collapse: A longitudinal study of price-adjustment routines. Organization Science, 21(5), 955972.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Zimmerman, D. H. (1970). The practicalities of rule use. In Douglas, J., ed., Understanding Everyday Life: Toward the Reconstruction of Sociological Knowledge. Chicago: Aldine, pp. 221238.Google Scholar

Save book to Kindle

To save this book to your Kindle, first ensure coreplatform@cambridge.org is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.

Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.

Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.

Available formats
×

Save book to Dropbox

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.

Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

Available formats
×