Unpacking the dynamics of ecologies of routines: Mediators and their generative effects in routine interactions

Abstract

Building on an in-depth ethnographic study at a renowned research laboratory, we show how the interactions of organizational routines can be more or less generative by tracing and analyzing how human and nonhuman actors (actants) connect routines. Adopting a performative perspective, we compare the connecting of such actants and study how they are engaged in routine performances. We relate observed differences in the generativity of routine interactions to whether actants become mediators or intermediaries. Whereas intermediaries merely maintain connections between routines, mediators can modify them when performing routine connections. We identify three generative effects mediators can lead to: (1) the creation of innovative outcomes, (2) the adaptation of existing routine performances, and/or (3) the emergence of new routine performances. Similar to the conception of organizational routines as dynamic and generative systems, we show that the way actants operate through their engagement renders routine interactions and thus ecologies of routines more or less generative.