Routines in the process of organizational evolution

The purpose of this article is to outline the cognitive model of organizational evolution taking into account the routines. Organizational evolution requires explanation and understanding of the mechanisms of development: variation, selection and retention. It is necessary also to define the object of evolution. The research results show that organizational routines constitute that object. As for the research purposes, it is important to determine the types of organizational routines. The logic of Nelson and Winter presents that routines appear as operating, generic, and search ones. As a result of the findings in the article, a cognitive model of organizational evolution has been proposed, in which organizational routines are the objects that affect the pattern of organization's behavior and consequently its effectiveness, which in evolutionary terms is manifested by organization's survival.