Change of Organizational Routines under Malleable Information Technology: Explaining Variations in Momentum

Abstract

Malleable technology bears the promise of allowing users to flexibly change organizational routines. Although the benefits from malleable technology depend on the extent to which users make use of such technology to change organizational routines, we know little about the factors that shape the intensity of routine change. We report the results of a case study in which we analyzed changes of 24 routines under malleable technology over a period of three years. Our results show that actors often perform a series of consecutive changes rather than one discrete change. We build on the concept of momentum to describe the intensity of these changes. Our emergent theory suggests that momentum is affected by the embeddedness of routines, by existing artefacts, by lead actor traits, and by external knowledge. Our study contributes to theory of routine change by developing explanations for variations in momentum of routine change under malleable technology