This technical note introduces and expounds routine dynamics, the research field that are getting widespread attention in management science. It is found that there are some key points in routine dynamics. Routine dynamics sees change of organizational routine (OR) as an ordinal thing based on the observations of university-related organizations. For this kind of change, organizational agents have important effects. Agents refer ostensive aspect of OR as a rule, but improvise concrete actions depending on the situations. After that, interactions among agents select and retain new ORs. Organizations change in this way from the routine dynamics viewpoint. Routine dynamics is a fruitful view, but some unsolved questions also exist.

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This article reviews Albert and Whetten (1985) which was the start of research of organizational identity in business administration. The general images of identity had been a) only one, b) unique, and c) unchangeable. In contrast, Albert and Whetten (1985) argued that organizational identity are a′) stated and single-or-multiple, b′) compatible and self-classified, and c′) changeable, which they expanded the previous interpretation of identity and made it applicable more broadly. However, the following researches cited the three criteria of organizational identity in Albert and Whetten (1985) with three simple words as central, distinctive and enduring, which made the original meanings of what it referred to dragged into vague words. Indeed, there are some researches which misunderstand Albert and Whetten (1985) such as Ashforth and Mael (1989). In order to make sure what the three criteria of organizational identity are this paper explains each criterion of organizational identity using the examples from Albert and Whetten (1985).

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[in Japanese]

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