【管理辞典】组织惯例/organisational routines

「释义」

组织惯例是指多人参与的为了完成特定工作任务的互动模式。在战略管理研究中，组织惯例常被作为组织能力和动态能力的微观基础。

学者认为组织惯例既是稳定的来源，也是组织变革的动力。

「应用场景」

成功的组织都有成熟的惯例流程。任务有大有小，大到收购竞争对手公司，小到填写考勤表，但如果仔细观察，这些任务都能找到相对固定的处理流程。在比较稳定的时期，这类惯例往往被视为理所当然。不过倘若公司面临的状况高度不确定，或者需要在危机中迅速行动，日常惯例就可能会分崩离析。组织努力一边运营一边调整，成果不一定尽如人意。在下次危机来袭之前，最好投入时间对目前由多个基本环节组成的流程进行全面思考，并尝试备用方案。

Successful organizations all have well-established routines for getting things done. The task may be as lofty as acquiring a competitor or as prosaic as filling out a time sheet, but if you look closely, you’ll find a reliable process to guide you through it. These routines are often taken for granted in stable periods. However, they tend to break down when a company faces high levels of uncertainty or needs to move quickly in a crisis. Organizations scramble to make adjustments on the fly—with varying degrees of success. Before the next crisis hits, it’s wise to spend time thinking systematically about the granular nuts-and-bolts processes you use—and to experiment with alternatives.

研究者发现，完成任务的方式有三大类。这方面的研究成果可以帮助管理者更有效地应对多变的环境。第一类就是前文所说的组织惯例，在工作内容可以预测时很有效。第二类是简单的规则，或者叫归纳法，在可预测性较低的情况下确定一些简单的原则协助加速决策流程，优化资源利用。第三类是即兴发挥，随机应变、发挥创意应对某个机遇或问题（例如工厂的自动化生产线突然停工，团队设法进行手动生产）。

Researchers have identified three broad approaches to getting work done, and what they’ve learned can help managers respond more effectively to highly changeable environments. The first approach is the one we’ve just described: organizational routines, which are efficient when work is predictable. The second approach is simple rules, or heuristics—rules of thumb that help you speed up processes and decision-making and prioritize the use of resources in less-predictable contexts. And the third is improvisation—spontaneous, creative efforts to address an opportunity or a problem (for example, when a team figures out how to do manual production because a factory’s automated line has suddenly broken down).

以上文字选自《哈佛商业评论》中文版2020年11月刊《构建组织适应力》

费尔南多·苏亚雷斯（Fernando F. Suarez）胡安·蒙特斯（Juan S. Montes）丨文

马冰仑 丨编辑