Routines+and+Business+Processes

Routines and Business Processes All organizations, including business firms, become very efficient over time because individuals in the firm develop routines for producing goods and services. Routines—sometimes called standard operating procedure are precise rules, procedures, and practices that have been developed to cope with virtually all expected situations. As employees learn these routines, they become highly productive and efficient, and the firm is able to reduce its costs over time as efficiency increases. For instance, when you visit a doctor’s office, receptionists have a well-developed set of routines for gathering basic information from you; nurses have a different set of routines for preparing you for an interview with a doctor; and the doctor has a well-developed set of routines for diagnosing you.Business processes, which we introduced in Chapters 1 and 2, are collections of such routines. A business firm in turn is a collection of business processes