The evolving organizational routine

An understanding of the changing nature of the routine is important in studies relating to creativity and innovation within organizations (Belussi & Staber, this volume; Tushman & Romanelli, 1985), as organizations adapt to changing external environments by exploring and exploiting knowledge (March, 1991). The process of creativity and innovation can be interpreted at different levels of analysis (Belussi & Staber, this volume), and this chapter will use a Universal Darwinist approach to develop an understanding of the tension between exploitation and exploration in organizations, by studying the coevolution of routines and cognitive frameworks at different hierarchical levels within the firm. Building on the work of a number of authors (Aldrich, 1999; Campbell, 1965; Dawkins, 1983; Hodgson & Knudsen, 2004), this chapter uses a Universal Darwinist approach to describe the behavior of an organization as a hierarchy of evolving systems using the mechanisms of variation, selection, and retention.