Organizational Routine and Coordinated Imitation

Abstract

The technical term "organizational routine" has been broadly used in management and organizational science. The study by Nelson and Winter (1982) is considered to be the origin of this terminology. However, Nelson and Winter (1982) were not management scientists, but they were evolutionary economists. Researchers in both evolutionary economics and management science used organizational routine as a unit of analysis, but three major conceptual differences exist with the definition of organizational routine used in management science. In recent years, scholars have regarded routine dynamics as a new framework for the theory of organizational routine. However, routine dynamics tends to focus less on the need for the coordination. This study employs a case study of the failure of Company A – an automaker – to implement Toyota's production methods and to indicate that future analysis for changes in organizational routines must be considered from the perspective of coordination.