The role of multiple points of view in non-envisioned routine creation: Taking initiative, creating connections, and coping with misalignments

Large corporate policy changes usually take the form of a top-down approach
based on a clearly envisioned routine and an implementation plan. Yet, the
authors report on a study of a bottom-up approach in which key members of
a service company created a new hiring routine that supported a companywide
new human resource management (HRM) hiring policy without any
prior envisioned plan. We pay particularly close attention to the perspectives of
this company’s HRM professionals, line managers, and middle-level managers.
The authors used the literature on routine dynamics to examine in detail which
actions were taken by key members in this organization to create the new hiring
routine. Through in-depth interviews, the authors found that line managers,
HRM professionals, and middle-level managers significantly differed in their
points of view regarding their role in the new hiring routine, and how it should
work best. As a result of these different points of view, the actors took different actions that nonetheless contributed to building the new routine including creating new internal and external connections, supplying expertise, and ensuring oversight of the new way of hiring. The authors also observed that the creation of this new routine also implied conflicts as a result of different points of view and actions. Nonetheless, the end result was the establishment of a new
company-wide accepted hiring routine that even surpassed the expectations of
top management. With this study, the authors contribute to the literature on
routine dynamics by demonstrating the generative potential of multiple points
of view and conflicts in creating new routines involved in large corporate policy
change by showing how misalignments between the actors’ perspectives do not
need to hamper the creation of new action patterns but rather support it.