Abstract
An understanding of organizing routines as phenomena that are constituted by communication is advanced. Data drawn from an ethnography of a cosmetics firm illustrates the performative power of a communicationally formed makeup routine. We argue that framing organizational routines as relational accomplishments, unfolding on the terra firma of interaction, extends existing debates that fail to account for how work actually gets done. The chapter points towards the need for future research to center how the communicational moves of actors (in human and nonhuman entanglements) produce routinized practice. Following a short introduction, how routines are regarded in organization and management theory is briefly reviewed; this is followed by an outlining of a communication-inspired understanding of routinization that centers relationality and performativity; next, data from our empirical setting is analyzed and discussed; a conclusion ends the chapter.