Routine Rigidity and Environmental Sustainability: Why Rational Innovations are Regularly Ignored

Abstract

Rigidities describe the sluggishness of an organization's response in the face of discontinuous external change, and routine rigidity is the failure to change the organization's processes. This article aims to provide empirical evidence that substantiates the relevance of routine rigidity in the discussion on environmental sustainability. A qualitative approach employs a logic model to analyse two sequences of events and tracks the implementation of innovations that had been overlooked for some time. The evidence shows that the selected organizational innovations were previously inhibited by a failure to change the organization's formal processes and informal cultural norms. This is especially true of innovations that altered the daily routines of the focal firm's employees and of innovations that potentially alienated customers. The characteristics of the innovations (high impact and low barrier to implementation) indicate that firms are now less able to justify inaction through the traditional barriers of environmentally focused innovation.

Translating green strategic intent into green process innovation performance: the role of green intellectual capital

“…This result suggests that stronger management systems and more deeply rooted operations create stronger organizational routines that can lead to organizational rigidity. Prior studies argue that strong organizational routines and rigidity may influence innovative efforts negatively (Dooley, 2018; Zhou and Wu, 2010), as a rigid system locks creative employees into the existing routines, thereby precluding any variation from the established process architecture (McKinley et al , 2014).…”

Influence of organisational innovation and innovation in general on eco-innovation in European companies

“…(1) Cost savings: Often, the development of eco-innovation occurs for purely operational reasons and not so much for a defined strategic concept. Therefore, the need to reduce costs to maintain competitiveness in the market or being forced by external economic factors such as a recession will drive the company to find new and more efficient ways to use its resources (Dooley, 2018). In the application of savings measures, organisations frequently require internal restructuring, transformation of processes, and adaptation of the supply chain, among others.…”

“…These transformations in the organisational structure, together with the drive and determined commitment of the management that contributes to capillarisation at all levels of the company, are key factors for success (Boons et al, 2013). Companies that are able to integrate environmental considerations into corporate strategy will be the most successful in establishing ecoinnovation practices (Hazarika and Zhang, 2019) while contributing decisively to overcoming the resistance to changes in procedures inherent in all organisations, which is one of the main inhibitors of eco-innovation (Dooley, 2018).…”

How can facilities management benefit from offices becoming more user-centred?

“…Facility management’s (FM) importance has been increasingly acknowledged in recent years (Nota et al , 2021), especially in this post-COVID era when hybrid work has become a new norm in office buildings and increasing attention has been paid to indoor environment conditions (Babapour, 2019; Chua et al , 2022; Gocer et al , 2022; Juchnowicz and Kinowska, 2021; Leesman, 2023; Vyas, 2022). Furthermore, flexible work, activity-based working (ABW) and hot-desking have created additional challenges for FM, especially considering space usage and occupancy rates (Chua et al , 2022; Dooley, 2018; Shifrin and Michel, 2022; Vyas, 2022). Failing to implement these new ways of working might cause dissatisfaction among the occupants (Marzban, et al , 2022).…”