Routines in Project-based Organizations: an Exploratory Study

Routines are a vehicle of organizational behavior and contribute to learning, coordination and efficiency. Our understanding of their dynamics draws mainly on research on large functional firms. However, project-based organizations (PBOs) are typical in a growing number of sectors. We still know very little about routines in these contexts. Based on original empirical evidence, collected in a Public Relation and Communication agency, this is the first book that delves deeply into the dynamics of routines in PBOs, through an inductive case study approach. Due to the process nature of routines, the book combines top-down and bottom-up approaches to identify and analyze routines in depth. It draws on and further develops a recent conceptualization of routines, showing how the context in which the routine unfolds shapes its aspects and the interplay between them. Scholars and students in management, organizational behavior, organizational learning, coordination, project-based organizing and business process reengineering, present growing interest in routines. For consultancies and business advisors, the methods in the book represent the basis to develop new software to detect procedur