This study uses a process perspective to examine the construction of task complexity as a social practice that is continuously created and recreated. For this approach, we conducted an ethnographic case study of an intensive care unit in a large university hospital. By shifting the analytical focus from measuring task complexity to task complexity as a social practice, our research provides insight into the microprocesses involved in constructing task complexity. This paper stresses the importance of a processual view of task complexity by analysing how paths form, keep open, are enacted in parallel and eventually dissolve. We conclude with a process model of how task complexity is constructed. Our findings contribute to research on task complexity by (1) elaborating on the process of enacting task complexity in practice, (2) explaining the mechanisms driving the dynamics of task complexity and (3) stressing the dynamics of task complexity.
BechkyB. A.OkhuysenG. A. (2011). Expecting the unexpected? How SWAT officers and film crews handle suprises. Academy of Management Journal, 54, 239–262.
2.
CampbellD. J. (1988). Task complexity: A review and analysis. Academy of Management Review, 13, 40–52.
3.
ChandlerA. D. (1962). Strategy and structure: Chapters in history of the industrial enterprise. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.
4.
ChristiansonM. K. (2019). More and less effective updating: The role of trajectory management in making sense again. Administrative Science Quarterly, 64, 45–86.
5.
CyertR. M.MarchJ. G. (1963). A behavioral theory of the firm. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall.
6.
CzarniawskaB. (2007). Shadowing and other techniques for doing fieldwork in modern societies. Malmö: Liber & Copenhagen Business School Press.
7.
EmirbayerM.MischeA. (1998). What is agency?American Journal of Sociology, 103, 962–1023.
8.
FarajS.XiaoY. (2006). Coordination in fast-response organizations. Management Science, 52, 1155–1169.
9.
FayolH. (1949). General and industrial management. London: Pitman Publishing Company.
10.
FeldmanM. (2000). Organizational routines as a source of continuous change. Organization Science, 11, 611–629.
11.
FeldmanM.OrlikowskiW. (2011). Theorizing practice and practicing theory. Organization Science, 22, 1240–1253.
12.
FeldmanM. (2016). Making process visible: Alternatives to boxes and arrows. In LangleyA.TsoukasH. (Eds.), The Sage handbook of process organization studies (pp. 625–635). Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE Publications.
13.
GawandeA. (2002). Complications: A surgeon’s notes on an imperfect science. Reading, MA: Addison-Wesley.
14.
GohK. T.PentlandB. T. (2019). From actions to paths to patterning: Toward a dynamic theory of patterning in routines. Academy of Management Journal, 62, 1901–1929.
15.
HackmanJ. R. (1969). Toward understanding the role of tasks in behavioral research. Acta Psychologica, 31, 97–128.
16.
HæremT.PentlandB. T.MillerK. D. (2015). Task complexity: Extending a core concept. Academy of Management Review, 40, 446–460.
17.
HannahS. T.Uhl-BienM.AvolioB. J.CavarrettaF. L. (2009). A framework for examining leadership in extreme contexts. Leadership Quarterly, 20, 897–919.
18.
HernesT. (2014). A process theory of organization. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
19.
JarzabkowskiP.LêJ. K.FeldmanM. S. (2012). Toward a theory of coordinating: Creating coordinating mechanisms in practice. Organization Science, 23, 907–927.
20.
KahnemanD. (2012). Thinking, fast and slow. London: Penguin Group.
KramerE. H. (2007). Organizing doubt: Grounded theory, army units and dealing with dynamic complexity. Copenhagen: Copenhagen Business School Press.
23.
KremserW.PentlandB. T.BrunswickerS. (2019). Interdependence within and between routines: A performative perspective. In FeldmanM. S.D’AdderioL.DittrichK.JarzabkowskiP. (Eds.), Research in the Sociology of Organizations: Routine Dynamics in Action: Replication and Transformation (pp. 79–98). Bingley, UK: Emerald Publishing Limited.
24.
LangleyA. (1999). Strategies for theorizing from process data. Academy of Management Review, 24, 691–710.
25.
LangleyA. (2007). Process thinking in strategic organization. Strategic Organization, 5, 271–282.
26.
LangleyA.SmallmanC.TsoukasH.Van De VenA. H. (2013). Process studies of chamge in organization and management: Unveiling temporality, activity, and flow. Academy of Management Journal, 56, 1–13.
27.
LangleyA.TsoukasH. (2010). Introduction: Perspectives on process organization studies. In HernesT.MaitlisS. (Eds.), Process, sensemaking, and organizing (pp. 1–26). Oxford: Oxford University Press.
28.
LangleyA.TsoukasH. (2016). Introduction: Process thinking, process theorizing and process researching. In LangleyA.TsoukasH. (Eds.), The Sage handbook of process organization studies (pp. 1–25). Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE Publications.
29.
MarchJ. G.SimonH. (1958). Organizations. New York: Wiley.
30.
McDonaldS. (2005). Studying actions in context: A qualitative shadowing method for organizational research. Qualitative Research, 5, 455–471.
31.
MiettinenR.Samra-FredericksD.YanowD. (2009). Re-turn to practice: An introductory essay. Organization Studies, 30, 1309–1327.
32.
OkhuysenG.BechkyB. (2009). Coordination in organizations: An integrative perspective. Academy of Management Annals, 3, 463–502.
33.
OrlikowskiW. J. (2000). Using technology and constituting structures: A practice lens for studying technology in organizations. Organization Science, 11, 404–428.
34.
OstermannS. (2014). Unerwartet sicher – Sicher unerwartet: Praktiken der Handhabung unerwarteter Ereignisse am Beispiel der unsicherheitsversierten Organisationseinheit der Intensivstation eines Universitätsklinikums. Köln: Kölner Wissenschaftsverlag.
35.
PattonM. Q. (1990). Qualitative evaluation and research methods. Newbury Park, CA: SAGE Publications.
36.
PentlandB. T.FeldmanM. (2007). Narrative networks: Patterns of technology in organizations. Organization Science, 18, 781–795.
37.
PettigrewA. M.WoodmanR. W.CameronK. S. (2001). Studying organizational change and development: Challenges for future research. Academy of Management Journal, 44, 697–713.
38.
RudolphJ. W.MorrisonJ. B.CarrollJ. S. (2009). The dynamics of action-oriented problem solving: Linking interpretation and choice. Academy of Management Review, 34, 733–756.
39.
SchatzkiT. R. (2006). On organizations as they happen. Organization Studies, 27, 1863–1873.
40.
SchneiderA.WickertC.MartiE. (2017). Reducing complexity by creating complexity: A systems theory perspective on how organizations respond to their environments. Journal of Management Studies, 54, 182–208.
41.
Schulz-HardtS.JochimsM.FreyD. (2002). Productive conflict in group decision making: Genuine and contrived dissent as strategies to counteract biased information seeking. Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, 88, 563–586.
42.
TaylorF. W. (1916). The principles of scientific management. Bulletin of the Taylor Society, December. In ShafritzJ. M.OttJ. S. (Eds.), Classic organization theory (pp. 66–79). Belmont, CA: Wadsworth Publishing Company.
43.
TsoukasH. (2017). Don’t simplify, complexify: From disjunctive to conjunctive theorizing in organization and management studies. Journal of Management Studies, 54, 132–153.
WaltonE. J. (1980). Formal structure: A review of the empirical relationships between task differentiation, role prescription, and authority dispersion. Organization Studies, 1, 229–252.
46.
WeickK. E. (1979). The social psychology of organizing. Reading, MA: Addison-Wesley.
47.
WeickK. E. (1988). Enacted sensemaking in crisis situations. Journal of Management Studies, 25, 305–317.
48.
WeickK. E. (1990). Technology as equivoque: Sensemaking in new technologies. In GoodmanP. S.SproullL. & Associates (Eds.), Technology and Organizations (pp. 1–44). San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass.
49.
WeickK. E. (2007). The generative properties of richness. Academy of Management Journal, 50, 14–19.
50.
WeickK. E.SutcliffeK. M. (2007). Managing the unexpected: Resilient performance in an age of uncertainty. San Francisco: John Wiley & Sons, Inc.
51.
WeickK. E.SutcliffeK. M.ObstfeldD. (2005). Organizing and the process of sensemaking. Organization Science, 16, 409–421.
52.
WoodR. E. (1986). Task complexity: Definition of the construct. Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, 37, 60–82.
53.
ZhouY. M. (2013). Designing for complexity: Using division and hierarchy to manage compley tasks. Organization Science, 24, 339–355.
Supplementary Material
Please find the following supplemental material available below.
For Open Access articles published under a Creative Commons License, all supplemental material carries the same license as the article it is associated with.
For non-Open Access articles published, all supplemental material carries a non-exclusive license, and permission requests for re-use of supplemental material or any part of supplemental material shall be sent directly to the copyright owner as specified in the copyright notice associated with the article.
