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The Adaptive OrganisationWEEK 1 (Foundations of Adaptation) Reconceptualizing Organizational Routines as a Source of Flexibility and Change
(Feldman & Pentland, ’03)
Model for the course: Routine = repetitive, recognizable, pattern of interdependent actions, involving
Where do we want to go? - Strategic intent multiple actors (determine reaction to changing conditions + are persistent over time)
What’s required? – Basis of CA – External selection environment Problem with ET (at least deterministic part): you need a mechanism for the
How do we make sense of it? – Internal selection environment retention of information – routines – this works if routines are stable and do not
What do we have to work? – Competencies and capabilities change over time (thus lack of agency in existing research on routines) – views:
How do we change? – Adaptation Routines are stable/inert (genes) ó Routines are changeable
Deterministic ó Strategic choice/voluntaristic
Organizations change – adapt – to meet the requirements of their environment Punctuated equilibrium (radical change) ó Continual/gradual change
Thus: (1) organizations are not solely deterministic of voluntaristic when enacting
change, (2) by involving agency, we have a more realistic lens to look at the way
Images of Organization (Morgan, ’06) firms adapt to changing circumstances, and (3) Burgelman also acknowledges this
What value does an evolutionary theory add? by proposing the internal selection environment, which drives firm-level adaptation
Old perspective: mechanistic/closed system (organization in control, changing
independently of its environment) – data does not support this perspective
New perspective: organic/open system (‘everything depends on everything else’ – Intraorganizational Ecology of Strategy Making and Organizational Adaptation:
whole is more; holistic; fit for change; open – adapting to the environment) Theory and Field Research (Burgelman, ’91)
Inputs which energize the organization (human, financial, informational, and Can we predict impactful change?
material resources) => organizational subsystems (strategic, technological, More black swans (= unlikely events with big impact) because of (1) global economy
human-cultural, and structural) => organizational outputs (production of goods (interconnectedness through trade, financial flows, markets, and communication)
and services at a level of efficiency and effectiveness which will influence future and (2) small changes can have big impact (butterfly effect)
resource availability and system operations) + input-output flow of materials,
energy, and information What does an interconnected, dynamic market mean for strategy?
Contingency theory: the match between the adaptation and the situation influences (1) it is easily disrupted, (2) red-queen effect (unsuccessfully trying to get ahead of
performance (not every organization can adapt + not every adaptation is successful) competition), (3) change is non-trivial and frequent, and (4) often hypercompetitive
Strategic intent
Research in Organizational Evolution. What comes next? (Abatecola, ’14) (1) focus on the ability to adapt rather than on what to adapt to, (2) thus, it is the
Two perspectives on change: process of strategizing, not the content which is important for adaptation, (3) two
(1) determinism (inactive/reactive organizational adaptation), and (2) voluntarism strategy processes: (a) induced (variation-reducing: top-down, prescriptive, clear
(strategic choice) (proactive/strategic organizational response) objectives), and (b) autonomous (variation-increasing: bottom-up)
Dialectical thinking and co-evolution:
Adaptation is a dynamic (!) process that is the result of the relative strength and type Balance-challenge:
of power or dependency between organization and the environment * balance induced and autonomous strategies for survival
Both strategic choice and environmental determinism provide thrust for change * focus on change, but don’t deviate too much from past success
* combine strategic context with structural context
The evolutionary process (internal + external VSR = environmental fitness)
(1) variation (requires a ‘creative spark’ + innovation drive variation), (2) selection
(who determines + internal selection), and (3) retention (requires learning and
sensemaking + firms’ action co-determines survival as opposed to biological species)
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