Continuously Hanging by a Thread: Managing Contextually Ambidextrous Organizations

Continuously Hanging by a Thread: Managing Contextually Ambidextrous Organizations

Summary for agile leaders

Case study of contextual ambidexterity in business units of a medium-sized (1000 employees) research-intensive firm, based on researcher's interactions over several years (1999, 2005, 2006, 2008).

Determined if a unit was mono- or ambidextrous with contextual indicators (eg. number of patents, publications, etc.) and whether "a significant percentage of individuals switch between exploratory and exploitative activities." Identified "performance orientation and group norms", and "an integrative frame of reference" as important cultural aspects of contextual ambidexterity.

Implication for management is that contextual ambidexterity can provide competitive advantages in dynamic environments because knowledge is quickly created and transferred between different domains.

"Contextual ambidexterity is much like hanging by a thread, since one learning mode could crowd out the other, leading to a collapse of the ambidextrous business model."

Reviewed: 30 Dec 2022 by Russ Lewis
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Authors: 
Wolfgang H. Güttel, Stefan W. Konlechner
Publication date: 
2009
DOI: 
10.1007/BF03396782

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Abstract

Ambidexterity can be defined as an organization’s ability to simultaneously reconcile exploration and exploitation. In this paper, we focus on contextual ambidexterity, i.e. ambidexterity that derives from the creation of a context that allows employees to pursue exploratory and exploitative activities. B uilding on empirical case study data from contextually ambidextrous organizations, we describe their idiosyncratic characteristics and we explain how their mode of knowledge transmission between exploratory and exploitative domains, based on fluid project structures, serves to generate competitive advantage. Furthermore, we analyze the role of balancing and orchestrating capabilities for enabling the firm to perform concurrently in exploration and exploitation.

Cite as (Harvard referencing)

Güttel, W.H., Konlechner, S.W., 2009. Continuously Hanging by a Thread: Managing Contextually Ambidextrous Organizations. Schmalenbach Bus Rev 61, 150–172

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