Reshuffling routines in the face of embeddedness. The case of forest planning at the ONF in a context of grand challenges

Practice-based theories see grand challenges as broad patterns of action rooted in our everyday actions, especially organizational routines, while the endogenous dynamics of these routines are presented as a lever for action in the face of grand challenges. However, routines are also influenced by their embeddedness, the very foundations of which are called into question by grand challenges. We therefore study the capability of routines to reconfigure themselves on the sole basis of their endogenous dynamics, once the embeddedness that guides them is rendered definitively obsolete. Based on the singular but emblematic case of forest planning at the Office National des Forêts, we explore the reshuffling of this routine in the case of the "ForInnov" forest. Our findings help to reposition the notion of embeddedness as central to organizational routines, highlighting the decisive role and persistence that embeddedness imposes on routine dynamics. We thus contribute to nuancing the idea that routine dynamics alone enable their reconfiguration.