The Role of Tacit Routines in Coordinating Activity

Abstract

Abstract:We explore the influence of tacit routines in obtaining coordination. Our experiment uses simple laboratory "firms," in which we interfere with one kind of firm's ability to develop tacit routines. Thus, our firms vary in the degree to which they rely on this kind of knowledge -instead of other, explicit, mechanisms -for obtaining coordination. We find that interfering with the development of tacit routines harms firms' ability to coordinate. We then explore the extent to which firms are able to transfer their ability to coordinate activity, either to a new domain or to new members. Our results indicate that tacit routines transfer more easily than other mechanisms to a new, but closely related, domain. However, routine-based firms perform slightly worse in their ability to incorporate new members.

The behaviour of corporate actors: How much can we learn from the experimental literature?

“…For instance, when presented with the rich narrative of an artificial business case, executives had a strong tendency to see the central problem in their own area of expertise (Simon, 1997: 299 f.). With fixed roles, internal coordination is smoothed by tacit routines (Rick et al ., 2006). In coordination-intense groups, leaders emerge, even without explicit institutional intervention, and even if group members are not allowed to talk (Guastello and Bond, 2007).…”