Routines and Practices in Cross-boundary Creative Projects

In the past decades, literature on routines and practices has substantially contributed to our understanding of how actors accomplish organizational tasks through repetitive and recognizable patterns of interdependent actions situated in time and space. Yet, research is still needed to uncover how routines and practices unfold in complex and uncertain contexts that require the collaboration across disciplinary and organizational boundaries. Drawing on the literature of routine dynamics and practice theory (Feldman and Pentland 2003, Feldman and Orlikowski 2011), this PhD dissertation adopts qualitative methods to explore routines and practices in temporary, cross-boundary projects that have the goal to develop creative outcomes (i.e., design objects, corporate visual identities). By doing so, this dissertation makes three contributions to the literature. First, it uncovers the dynamics underpinning the temporary clusters of interrelated routines spanning multiple boundaries that concur to accomplish creative outcomes. Second, it enhances our understanding of the role of emotions in routine performance. Finally, it adds to the literature that studies how creative outcomes come about through everyday bottom-up processes. Altogether, this dissertation provides insights on the situated micro- dynamics underpinning temporary collaborations when they involve individuals with heterogeneous skills and different occupational affiliations.