Everyone working in organizations will, from time to time, experience frustrations and problems when trying to accomplish tasks that are a required part of their role. In such cases it is normal for people to find ways of completing their work in such a way that they can get around, or just simply avoid, the procedure or system that has caused the problem. This is an unusual routine - a recurrent interaction pattern in which someone encounters a problem when trying to accomplish normal activities by following standard organizational procedures and then becomes enmeshed in wasteful and even harmful subroutines while trying to resolve the initial problem. Using a wide range of case studies and interdisciplinary research, this book gives researchers and practitioners invaluable information on the nature of this pervasive organizational phenomenon and shows how they can be dealt with in order to improve organizational performance.

List of figures	p. viii
List of tables	p. ix
List of boxes	p. x
Preface	p. xi
Acknowledgments	p. xiv
Crazy systems, Kafka circuits, and unusual routines	p. 1
Two stories of mundane complexity and dysfunctional feedback	p. 1
Crazy systems	p. 5
Unusual routines	p. 17
The rest of the book	p. 19
Causes, symptoms, and subroutines of unusual routines in six computer information/communication systems	p. 21
Causes of unusual routines in three ICTs	p. 22
Causes, symptoms, and subroutines of unusual routines in three ICTs	p. 40
Conclusion	p. 60
Getting personal: unusual routines at the customer service interface	p. 67
Customer service, dissatisfaction, and complaining	p. 68
Examples and analysis of unusual service subroutines, routines, and organizational (non-)response	p. 81
Conclusion	p. 106
A multi-theoretical foundation for understanding unusual routines	p. 107
Five foundational theories for a preliminary model of unusual routines	p. 107
Developing a preliminary model of unusual routines	p. 139
Five propositions	p. 149
Conclusion	p. 152
A detailed case study of unusual routines	p. 155
Method	p. 155
Proposition 1	p. 160
Proposition 2	p. 167
Proposition 3	p. 173
Proposition 4	p. 177
Proposition 5	p. 191
Conclusion	p. 199
Summary and discussion of the case study results	p. 200
Proposition 1	p. 200
Proposition 2	p. 201
Proposition 3	p. 201
Proposition 4	p. 202
Proposition 5	p. 203
Discussion	p. 204
Conclusion	p. 215
Individual and organizational challenges to feedback	p. 217
Feedback challenges inherent in human communication behaviors	p. 218
Feedback challenges inherent in organizations	p. 227
Conclusion	p. 249
A multi-level and cross-disciplinary summary of concepts related to unusual routines	p. 252
Cognitive and social processing errors	p. 252
Social traps and dilemmas	p. 266
Organizational complexity	p. 269
Organizational paradoxes	p. 274
Organizational deviance	p. 280
Technological complexity	p. 287
Conclusion	p. 305
Recommendations for resolving and mitigating unusual routines and related phenomena	p. 306
Encourage customer service feedback from all stakeholders	p. 306
Apply socio-technical systems theory, involve stakeholders from design through walkarounds	p. 310
Reduce blaming and defensive approaches to cognitive dissonance	p. 312
Manage paradoxes and sensemaking	p. 314
Foster learning through feedback	p. 317
Heighten awareness of predictable surprises and avoid overreacting to worst-case scenarios	p. 319
Understand and resolve social traps and social dilemmas	p. 320
Discuss and resolve conflicting goals, vicious cycles, and workplace deviance	p. 321
Avoid simple and individual approaches to complex technology and system error	p. 322
Apply and combine linkage and routines analysis	p. 325
Conclusion	p. 329
Summary and a tentative integrated model of unusual routines	p. 331
The allure of unusual routines	p. 331
Our preliminary models	p. 333
A proposed integrative model of unusual routines	p. 336
Conclusion	p. 342
References	p. 344
Index	p. 373
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