Organization Studies · 2026
How can innovation teams collectively act under uncertainty when the way forward is unclear?
Mahringer, C. A., Dittrich, K., & Renzl, B. (2026). Provisional directionality: Unpacking the prospective dimension of organizational routines. Organization Studies, 47(6), 847–870. 10.1177/01708406251400483
Teams working on innovation, agile development, and emergent strategy frequently have to act before they know exactly what the outcome should be or which path will lead there. In these generative settings, too little direction can make coordinated action difficult, while overly specific plans can close down possibilities before actors understand which possibilities matter.
The article examines how familiar patterns of work can help teams navigate this tension. It focuses on the prospective side of organizing: how people use what they already know about how work is usually organized to make possible next steps visible and actionable while the future remains open.
We ask: How do routine participants use typical action patterns to prospectively guide their actions?
To examine this process, we conducted a 12-month ethnographic study of a Scrum software development team, with observation two to three days per week, approximately 1,000 pages of fieldnotes, 35 interviews, 122 hours of recorded meetings, documents, and Jira trace data. We also analyzed the action sequences used to resolve 481 software issues. Of these sequences, 447 were unique, indicating that the substantive path for solving an issue was usually not given in advance. This combination of longitudinal observation and trace analysis allowed us to examine how a stable procedural structure could nevertheless help actors move forward when the content of their work remained uncertain.
While it is well known that organizational routines guide actions in practice, the prospective dimension of this guiding function remains underexplored. We examine the prospective dimension of routines through an ethnographic study of Scrum software development teams. Our findings show how actors continuously (re)create a tentative realm of possible paths in what we refer to as provisional directionality. The findings describe how provisional directionality is continuously (re)created through three patterning mechanisms: initiating possible paths, including or excluding possible paths, and reorienting possible paths. Provisional directionality contributes to routine dynamics research by, first, unpacking the prospective dimension of patterning in routines, second, emphasizing temporality in routine performances as flow, and third, showing how heavily scripted routines enable action when it is unclear how to proceed. We also discuss how provisional directionality may inspire future research on routines in contexts such as product and service innovation, agile software development, and emergent strategizing.
The study explains how teams create enough direction to coordinate action while keeping multiple possibilities open.
We introduce provisional directionality as a tentative realm of possible paths that actors can enact to proceed. It gives a team a coherent way forward without fixing one path or end state in advance, allowing coordination and open-ended exploration to coexist.
Provisional directionality is recreated through three mechanisms: initiating possible paths, including or excluding possible paths, and reorienting possible paths. Together, these mechanisms make possibilities intelligible and actionable as situations evolve.
Heavily scripted routines need not determine the substantive content of work. They can organize how people interact while leaving what they ultimately do open. This provides a generative middle ground between rigid prescription and action without orientation.
Provisional directionality offers a mechanism for explaining how collective direction develops when the future is still unfolding. Beyond routine dynamics, this is relevant to product and service innovation, agile software development, and emergent strategizing, where actors often have to coordinate before outcomes or suitable paths are known.
The concept also connects research on possibilities, wayfinding, and temporality. It directs attention to how actors make the near future actionable in the present and how repeated situated choices can eventually contribute to innovation outcomes or emergent strategies.
The findings suggest that uncertainty does not necessarily require teams to abandon structure. Familiar routines can provide procedural orientation while leaving substantive solutions open, which is particularly relevant for innovation work and agile teams facing ambiguous requirements or multiple possible solutions.
For managers and teams, the relevant question is therefore not only whether people follow an established process. It is also whether recurring practices help participants initiate useful possibilities, narrow or defer paths when needed, and reorient collectively when the current direction no longer helps them move forward.
