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Von der individuellen Routine zur organisationalen Praktik — Ein neues Paradigma für die Organisationsforschung?

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Zusammenfassung

Das Konzept der organisationalen Routine ist in den letzten Jahren zunehmend in den Mittelpunkt der organisationsforschung gerückt und wird als ein zentrales Erklärungsmuster für eine Vielzahl von organisationalen Phänomenen wie Wissen, Lernen und Kompetenzen herangezogen. Dabei werden Routinen jedoch nicht mehr lediglich im Sinne von eindeutig vordefinierten und wiederholten individuellen Handlungsvollzügen gedacht, sondern zunehmend im Sinne von komplexen sozialen Praktiken verstanden. Die sich abzeichnende Hinwendung zur Thematisierung komplexer sozialer Praktiken und die damit einhergehende Bedeutungserweiterung des Konzeptes haben eine Reihe von Implikationen für die Organisationstheorie und unser Verständnis von Organisationen. Der vorliegende Beitrag thematisiert diese Entwicklung und fragt nach der Tragfähigkeit und dem Erkenntnisgewinn, der mit der Hinwendung zu sozialen Praktiken für die betriebswirtschaftliche Organisationsforschung verbunden ist.

Summary

In recent years the concept of organizational routines has deserved increasing attention in organization studies. It is used to conceptualize, explain and understand a variety of diverse organizational phenomena such as knowledge, learning, innovation or competence. This implies that routines are no longer understood as mindless, repetitive individual action patterns but rather as complex organizational practices. This shift toward an understanding of routines as complex, collective and idiosyncratic practices nevertheless has significant consequences for our understanding of organizations. The aim of this paper is firstly to reconstruct the heterogeneous meanings of the routine concept within organization studies and secondly to critically evaluate the explanatory power of the recent shift toward a practice-based understanding of routines. It will be argued that the concept of organizational practices is a fruitful lens for studying organizations, but should, however, not be used as a substitute to the concept of routine.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Institut für Organisation, Johannes Kepler Universität Linz, Altenberger Straße 69, A-4040, Linz, Österreich

    Daniel Geiger

  2. Institut für Management, Freie Universität Berlin, Garystr. 21, 14195, Berlin, Deutschland

    Jochen Koch

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  1. Daniel Geiger
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  2. Jochen Koch
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Correspondence to Daniel Geiger.

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Die Autoren danken einem anonymen Gutachter für wertvolle Hinweise und Anmerkungen.

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Geiger, D., Koch, J. Von der individuellen Routine zur organisationalen Praktik — Ein neues Paradigma für die Organisationsforschung?. Schmalenbachs Z betriebswirtsch Forsch 60, 693–712 (2008). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF03372811

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