Organizations coordinate activities among interdependent agents using two broad mechanisms: mutual adjustment and plan. Planning reduces the need for mutual adjustment by sorting and sequencing organizational actions but, at the same time, enhances the ability to use mutual adjustment by freeing cognitive resources. Thus, how organizations rely on mutual adjustment after adopting a plan remains unclear. We propose an integrative conceptual model that articulates the effects of planning on the pattern of mutual adjustment. We test such model using a longitudinal dataset spanning 20 years of Linux Kernel development, leveraging the introduction of a plan to regulate software development in 2005 and instances where the plan failed. Our findings suggest that after the plan introduction, the organization can provide mutual adjustment to more actions but with a lower communication volume per action. Conversely, when the plan fails, cognitive resources are exhausted by attending more actions with a higher communication volume. Lastly, we find that agents' redistribution of the freed resources is contingent on activities' epistemic interdependence.
