Formation and Dynamics of Organizational Routines

该奖项是根据2009年美国复苏和再投资法案（公法111-5）资助的。“在组织中，例行公事对如何完成工作至关重要。例程是由多个参与者执行的相互依赖的动作的重复的、可识别的模式。这些模式可以是灵活的，也可以是刚性的；它们可以提高效率，也可以产生持续的低效率。本项目旨在提高我们对常规对组织绩效的理解，包括在创新、组织变革和新技术吸收方面的绩效。调查的中心是组织惯例是如何形成和随时间变化的。研究人员用三种方式解决了这个问题。首先，他们研究参与协调解决问题的个人网络的形成。完成日常工作的网络的形成尤为重要，因为一旦一种行动模式开始，它往往会影响参与其中的人以及随后完成的任务。其次，他们考察了在复杂多变的环境中形成和适应常规的挑战。这部分研究考虑了影响组织如何处理偶尔或持续变化的问题的因素。第三，他们确定了常规表现惯性或变化的条件，以及对组织效率的影响。项目的这一方面考察了环境不稳定性和组织特征如何解释组织常规中的不稳定性和变化。该项目将涉及一个基于主体的常规形成和演化的计算机模拟模型，该模型将用于运行一系列实验，以阐明三个中心研究问题。在进行三项模拟研究的同时，该团队将进行实地研究，以帮助验证模拟模型并提供参数空间的边界。他们还将创建一个独立的计算机模拟程序，具有简单的图形用户界面，可用于教授例程的动态。

This award is funded under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (Public Law 111-5)."Routines are vital to how work gets done in organizations. Routines are repetitive, recognizable patterns of interdependent actions carried out by multiple actors. These patterns can be flexible or rigid; they can produce efficiency gains or persistent inefficiency. This project seeks to advance our understanding about when routines are advantageous or disdvantageous to organizational performance, including performance in terms of innovation, organizational change, and assimilation of new technology. The inquiry centers on how organizational routines form and change over time. The researchers address this question in three ways. First, they look into the formation of networks of individuals who engage in coordinated problem solving. The formation of networks for accomplishing routines is especially important because once a pattern of action starts, it tends to influence who gets involved and what tasks get done subsequently. Second, they examine the challenges of forming and adapting routines in complex and changing environments. This portion of the research considers the factors that affect how well organizations handle problems that change occasionally or persistently. Third, they identify the conditions under which routines display inertia or change, and the implications for organizational efficiency. This facet of the project examines how environmental instability and organizational characteristics explain instability and change in organizational routines.The project will involve an agent-based computer simulation model of routine formation and evolution, which will be used to run a series of experiments that illuminate the three central research issues. In parallel with the three simulation studies, the team will conduct field studies to help validate the simulation model and provide bounds on the parameter space. They will also create a stand-alone computer simulation program with a simple graphical user interface that can be used to teach the dynamics of routines.