Agile Routines – Analyzing Performed Agility Through Organizational Routines

Organizational routines constitute how work is accomplished in organizations. This dissertation thesis draws on recent routine research and is anchored in the field of organization theory. The thesis consists of four separate manuscripts that contribute to related research fields such as agility or coordination research from a routine perspective while also extending routine dynamics research. Recent routine dynamics research offers a wide perspective on how situated actions within and across routines unfold as emergent accomplishments. This allows us to analyze other organization research phenomena, such as agility and coordination. Accordingly, the first and second manuscripts argue for the adoption of a very dynamic perspective on routines and the incorporation of these insights into agility and coordination research. This is followed by two empirical manuscripts that expand the routine literature based on qualitative research within agile software development. The third manuscript of this dissertation analyzes how situated actions address different temporal orientations (i.e., past, present, and future). Last, the fourth manuscript addresses the performing of roles within and through routines. In general, this dissertation contributes to overall organization research in two ways: (1) by outlining and examining how agility is enacted; (2) by highlighting that actions are performed flexibly to consider the situation at hand

Trying not to try: The paradox of intentionality in jazz improvisation and its implications for organizational scholarship

Organizational scholars have long been interested in how jazz musicians manage tensions between structure and freedom, plans and action, and familiarity and novelty. Although improvisation has been conceptualized as a way of managing such paradoxes, the process of improvisation itself contains paradoxes. In this essay, we return to jazz improvisation to identify a new paradox of interest to organizational scholars: the paradox of intentionality. To improvise creatively, jazz musicians report that they must “try not to try,” or risk undermining the very spontaneity that is prized in jazz. Jazz improvisers must therefore control their ability to relinquish deliberate control of their actions. To accomplish this, they engage in three interdependent practices. Jazz musicians intentionally surrender their sense of active control (“letting go”) while creating a passive externalized role for this sense of active control (using a “third ear”). Letting go allows new and unexpected ideas to emerge, while the metaphorical third ear can identify promising ideas or problematic execution and, in doing so, re-engage active agency (“grabbing hold”). Examining the practices within creative improvisation reveals the complexity of the lived experience of the paradox, which we argue suggests further integration among organizational research on improvisation, creativity, and paradox

Triggers and damages of organizational defensive routines

Existing research on organizational defensive routines (ODRs) posits that they have strong and intertwined individual and organizational components. However, the literature has not yet systematically isolated and analyzed factors at both levels that trigger ODRs. This paper first utilizes theory on organizational routines to explain the characteristics of ODRs. Next, it identifies their individual and organizational level triggers. At the individual level factors generating ODRs are general self-efficacy, locus of control, and neuroticism while those operating at the organizational level are organizational politics, red tape, and organizational structure. The paper finally explores the potential damages ODRs could cause to individuals and organizations related to individuals’ job satisfaction, work engagement, organizational ambidexterity, and organizational learning. The theoretical model in this paper builds a foundation for future empirical study and extends theoretically the nomological network of ODRs

Modular Change in Platform Ecosystems and Routine Mirroring in Organizations

Organizational routines involve modular digital technologies that are part of larger platform ecosystems that often transcend organizational boundaries. Change in organizational routines is thus interwoven with innovation and associated change in digital platforms. To get at this “embedded” routine change, we use the concept of modular operators to conceptualize how changes to digital technologies in platform ecosystems are mirrored in changes in the organizational routines in which these technologies are implicated. We distinguish between enabling and constraining impacts and develop a set of propositions to move towards a theory of “routine mirroring.” We use the Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) as a base example

Context and how it matters: Mobilizing spaces for organization-community sustainable change

There are growing expectations that organizations should contribute to the sustainability of our planet. These have increased recognition of relationships between organizations and their external communities and what they might accomplish together. However, such recognition does not extend to appreciation of the contextual dynamics inherent in organization–community relationships that affect their ability to reach common ground in their joint efforts. In this essay we explore how interpretive, relational, and spatial contextual features previously addressed within organizations play roles in joint organization–community sustainability efforts. We present an example of the multi-decade development of a local foods economy in Cleveland, Ohio, USA, that has been spearheaded by multiple communities and organizations. We show how an Appreciative Inquiry Summit, one of a set of large group interventions developed by Organization Development consultants, made use of the contextual characteristics we discuss to foster shared overarching logics that enabled collaboration. We conclude with a research agenda designed to explore how relational, interpretative, and spatial contexts affect organization–community initiatives to accomplish sustainability, how planned change interventions might affect these contexts, and how such initiatives and their contexts unfold over time. </jats:p