The Origins of organizational routines

Building on the Cognitive-Affective Personality System (CAPS) theory of personality, the paper develops a model of the origins of organizational routines defined as recurrent action patterns. It proposes that routines evolve from repeated group-level behaviors that are triggered by features of situations and mediated by cognitive-affective processes. Comparable processes mediate personality in the CAPS theory. As a consequence, the paper conceives of personalities and organizations as complementary situation-behavior systems mediated by similar cognitiveaffective processes. Implications are discussed for research into organizational routines, organizational learning and change, and the theory of the firm.29 page(s