Workarounds are goal-driven deviations from standard operatingprocedures, performed to overcome obstacles constraining day-to-day work.Related research has elicited antecedents and types of workarounds but not investigatedhow and why workarounds diffuse in an organization, leaving theirmark on co-workers, IT artifacts, and organizational structures. Drawing onorganizational routines and business processes as complementary theoreticallenses, we perform a multiple case study to elicit how and why workaroundsoccur and impact organizations. We start by pinpointing workarounds as individualtemporary fixes for technology, or for organizational, and strategicmisfits in organizations. Once established, workarounds can diffuse in an organizationif observed by or communicated to co-workers, initiating processesof restructuration and re-design on an organizational level. If appropriategovernance structures are in place, workarounds can become official workpractices or trigger the innovation of processes and IT artifacts that resolvetheir underlying misfits. Our results provide unique empirical insights intothe mechanisms of bottom-up initiated change in organizations, substantiatedby integrating previously unconnected theory on organizational routines andBusiness Process Management (BPM).