Le concept de "routine organisationnelle" entre cognition et institution
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Abstract EN:
The concept of organizational routine was avanced in 1982 by nelson et winter as means to explain the behavior of firms in an evolutionnist perspective. The thesis proposes an interpretation and redefinition of the concept which facilitates the integration of the institutional dimension of the economy into routine itself. Routine is associed with a general principle of behavioural explanation : the paradigm of "habits". Applied to organisations, this principle allows us to distinguish between (1) the "repertoires" of routines (or deposits) which memorize the situaded productive knowledges and (2) the actual performances or "routines in action" which express them in a certain context. The knowledges which are thus stocked are articuled or tacits, and this aspect of the theory leads to an approach which can be distinguished from other theories of the organization (simon, march, cyert). Routines facilitate the explanation of the overall performance of a firm according to the hypothesis of truce in "intra-organisational conflict". The truce maintains the totality of the members of an organization in the framework of a routine cycle within the repertoires. The relaxing the hypothesis of the truce leads a re-definition of organizational routines according to their cognitive and/or social dimensions. The repertoires can always be analysed as cognitive deposits, but they also crystallize social relationships into the form of institutions when they are sufficiently stabilised. Since the cognitive and institutional aspects do not belong to the same logic of formations, one is obliged to differentiate the processes by which different routines are transformed.
Abstract FR:
Le concept de routine organisationnelle a ete avance par nelson et winter en 1982 pour expliquer le comportement des firmes dans une perspective evolutionniste. La these propose une interpretation et redefinition du concept qui permet d'integrer dans la routine elle-meme la dimension institutionnelle de l'economie. La routine est rattachable a un principe general d'explication du comportement, le paradigme des "habits". Ce principe applique aux organisations conduit a distinguer (1) des "repertoires" de routines (ou depots) qui memorisent des connaissances productives situees, (2) et les performances actuelles ou "routines en acte" qui en sont l'expression dans un certain contexte. Les connaissances ainsi stockees sont articulees ou tacites, et cet aspect de la theorie conduit a separer cette approche d'autres theories de l'organisation (simon, march, cyert). Les routines permettent d'expliquer la performance d'ensemble d'une firme dans une hypothese de treve du "conflit intra- organisationnel". Cette treve maintient l'ensemble des membres de l'organisation dans le cadre d'un circuit routinier inscrit dans les repertoires. En levant l'hypothese de la treve, on aboutit a une redefinition des routines organisationnelles selon deux dimensions, cognitive et sociale. Les repertoires sont toujours analysables comme des depots cognitifs, mais cristallisent aussi des relations sociales, lesquelles sont des institutions quand elles sont suffisamment stabilisees. Le cognitif et l'institutionnel ne relevent pas des memes logiques de formation, ce qui oblige a penser differemment les processus de transformation des differentes routines.