Abstract

The Organizational Routines Framework can be used to describe and examine how individuals perform and change work activities in organizations. Employees who believe that a misfit limits their work can implement a workaround and thus renew a routine (Alter 2014). The causes and types of workarounds, their diffusion mechanisms, and consequences are already described in detail in the literature. However, the research on the antecedents that impact them still lacks depth. One impact factor that is of fundamental importance but has almost been neglected in the scientific discourse is organizational culture, although we know that it significantly influences the behavior of individuals. Therefore, this TREO talk paper addresses the following research question: How can we describe and assess the impact of organizational culture on workarounds? To answer the research question, we instantiate a conceptual-to-empirical research process developing a maturity model comprising three dimensions and 19 elements (see Figure 1) and a questionnaire as transfer media to describe and assess the cultural elements that impact the occurrence and diffusion of workarounds in organizations. By introducing the maturity model, we offer a dual contribution to both theory and practice. Firstly, it provides researchers with a framework to study how organizational culture influences the occurrence and capacity for innovation in workarounds. Secondly, practitioners can utilize the model and transfer media to assess their organizational culture's readiness for fostering bottom-up process innovation and to devise strategies for enhancement.

Paper Number

tpp1216

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