Over the last two decades, Routine Dynamics has emerged as an international research community that shares a particular approach to organizational phenomena. At the heart of this approach is an interest in examining the emergence, reproduction, replication and change of routines as recognizable patterns of actions. In contrast to other research communities interested in those phenomena, Routine Dynamics studies are informed by a distinctive set of theories (especially practice theory and related process-informed theories). This Handbook offers both an accessible introduction to core concepts and approaches in Routine Dynamics as well as a comprehensive and authoritative overview of research in different areas of Routine Dynamics. The chapters of this Handbook are structured around four core themes: 1) Theoretical resources for research on the dynamics of routines, 2) Methodological issues in studying the dynamics routines, 3) Themes in Routine Dynamics research and 4) Relation of Routine Dynamics to other communities of thought.

'This important handbook lays the ground work for the systematic examination of routines in action across a wide range of organizational conditions, concerns, and consequences. In our unsettled times when so much is on the move, this timely compendium provides an extensive set of conceptual tools and rich array of applications for exploring the workings and entailments of routine dynamics. It will serve as an invaluable resource for scholars interested in practice-based investigations of contemporary organizational routines.'

Wanda J. Orlikowski - Alfred P. Sloan Professor of Information Technologies & Organization Studies, MIT Sloan School of Management, Massachusetts Institute of Technology

'The notion of routines as dynamic generative systems developed by the editors and contributors to this volume over the last 20 years has enriched our theorizing of routines as a central feature of organizing, stimulated methodological innovation, and raised novel research questions with important practical implications. This Handbook is a fabulous resource that pulls together these developments and lays out a rich and diverse agenda for future work.'

Ann Langley - Honorary Professor of Management, HEC Montreal

'The study of routines has significantly increased in the past two decades, and is now a central perspective within the organization theory community for exploring organizational change and stability. This Handbook provides a super introduction to, and overview of, this growing literature. It connects Routine Dynamics to multiple theoretical perspectives, and in doing so reveals how its language and methodological approaches generate new ways of seeing and digging into important organizational and social issues – such as ‘social injustice, fraud and organized crime’. This Handbook should become a ‘must read’ for organization and management scholars.'

Royston Greenwood - Professorial Emeritus, School of Business, University of Alberta and Professorial Fellow, University of Edinburgh Business School

'Routines, and how they change, are central to organizations. The editors have responded by engaging a fabulous array of theoretical perspectives - from agent-modelling to practice theory, from actor-network theory to path dependency. Organization Theorists of all stripes will want to grapple with the fundamental research challenges posed by this inspiring volume.’

Richard Whittington - Professor of Strategic Management, Saïd Business School, Oxford University

‘This handbook is an autobiography of an emerging field within a larger domain of organizational studies … [and] a point of entry into the domain of organizational studies. It also makes a larger contribution in its provision of insights, examples, and perspectives that can be recombined to deepen our understanding of the shifting degrees of permanence that characterize a (n)ever changing pattern of action in a (n)ever changing world.'

Karl E. Weick Source: Administrative Science Quarterly