Artefacts and the dynamics of truces in organizational routines

Organizational routines can constitute a temporary settlement of individual actors’ diverging interests, described as a truce that enables the routine as a collective accomplishment to proceed. In this regard, scholars have recognized the central but ambiguous role of artefacts; they may be used to coordinate the interactions in routines but may also be mobilized to serve individual interests. Following this line of thinking, this chapter assumes a process perspective to advance our understanding of how such temporal settlements are continuously formed and in particular, the role artefacts play in this process. Based on a single case study over a period of thirty-three months, it analyses the use of a newly implemented artefact that inadvertently impeded smooth routine functioning as the artefact provided content that gave actors leeway to act out their interests in enacting the routine.