Fit Between Organization Design and Organizational Routines

Abstract

Despite decades of research on both organization design and organizational routines, little research has analyzed the relationship between them. Here we propose a normative theory in which the effectiveness of organization design and redesign depends on the characteristics of routines. The analysis shows which types of organization designs may be useful as well as which design changes may or may not succeed depending on (a) the specificity of routines and (b) the dynamic versus static purposes of organizational routines.