Why organizations have routines: A critical synthesis of the routinization process

The question that originated this article (why organizations have routines) has several answers. Our current understanding of routines doubts the precise meaning of this parsimonious theory. This study performed a critical synthesis concentrated on a single answer: Organizations have routines because they solve recurrent problems. The synthesis selects sufficient conditions or limits to conclude that the routinization process solves recurrent problems. Recent advances in routine theories facilitated the formalization of a routinization concept associated with collective and conflictive problem-solving processes. In particular, this article demonstrates that if actors share an extension of bounded rationality, a routine as a procedure can emerge, implementing a valuable solution for a specific type of recurrent and ill-structured problem. Likewise, the routinization process could become a persistent iteration in problem