Recent research suggests that employees who engage in work routines have better performance and well-being. Yet, the field uses proxy operationalizations that do not align with work routine definitions and fail to capture their features, complexity, and specificity. This severely hampers the advancement of our thorough understanding of work routines. We develop the Work Routine Scale (WRS) that captures all features of work routines and their self-regulatory functions (cognitive, affective, and motivational). Drawing from self-regulatory and habit theory, we provide a clear conceptualization of work routine and analyze its nomological network. In two cross-sectional studies (N = 749) and one daily diary study (N = 107), we establish the WRS factor structure, examine its convergent and discriminant validity, establish a short-scale version, and examine predictive validity. Results support the psychometric properties of the WRS and its associations with and distinctiveness from related constructs. Multilevel structural equation modeling shows that daily work routine enactment is related to more comfort, pride, task motivation, and goal velocity. Additionally, individuals who enact work routines experience higher performance and meaningfulness, feel more calm, comfort, enjoyment, pride and motivation, and report more goal velocity and less mind-wandering, with no associations with emotional exhaustion. This study provides a theoretically grounded, psychometrically sound tool that enables future research to properly study the role of routines at work.
