Rules and Routines in Organizations: A Review and Extension

Rules and organizational routines constitute essential parts of organizational life. In this paper, we aim to precisely distinguish the two concepts and advance the understanding of their relationship with one another. We review selected literature on both phenomena, identify relevant stakeholders, and propose several clarifications in terminology. Building on the understanding of rules as artifacts and routines as patterns of behavior, we develop propositions in regard to their relationships: Alignment between rules and routines is influenced by the type of rule, by how rules are perceived and enforced, and whether or not rule-followers can influence the creation of rules. Furthermore, under certain conditions, rule violations can lead to improvements in the rule system