Embracing Paradox: TMT Paradoxical Processes as a Steppingstone between TMT Reflexivity and Organizational Ambidexterity

2021 ◽  
pp. 017084062110586
Author(s):  
Pepijn Van Neerijnen ◽  
Michiel Pieter Tempelaar ◽  
Vareska Van de Vrande
Keyword(s):  
Cognitive Processing ◽  
Top Management Teams ◽  
Cognitive Factors ◽  
Top Management ◽  
Organizational Ambidexterity ◽  
Mediation Model ◽  
Exploration And Exploitation ◽  
Enabling Factors ◽  
Cognitive Perspective ◽  
Exploration Exploitation

Top management teams (TMTs) are crucial in managing the ambidexterity paradox. This endeavour, however, generates cognitive conflicts. Surprisingly, this particular topic has received little attention within the ambidexterity literature. We aim to address this lacuna, and in doing so, extend the paradox literature and the emerging socio-cognitive perspective on ambidexterity. In our hypothesized mediation model, TMTs embrace the exploration-exploitation paradox through reflexivity, then overcome this paradox through paradoxical cognitive processing -the capacity to cognitively differentiate and integrate exploration and exploitation- which finally fosters ambidexterity. We test and find support for our hypotheses using a sample of 335 Dutch and German SMEs. We end with a discussion on how socio-cognitive factors influence the management of the ambidexterity paradox. In doing so, we refine scholarly understanding of motivating and enabling factors that allow TMTs to deal with the paradoxical tensions surrounding ambidexterity.

scholarly journals The role of innovation narratives in accomplishing organizational ambidexterity

2020 ◽  
pp. 147612701989723 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mairi Maclean ◽  
Charles Harvey ◽  
Benjamin D Golant ◽  
John AA Sillince
Keyword(s):  
Real Time ◽  
Dynamic Process ◽  
Top Management Team ◽  
Management Team ◽  
Top Management ◽  
Organizational Ambidexterity ◽  
Top Executives ◽  
Exploration Exploitation ◽  
Polyphonic Model

Persistent tensions arising from the exploration–exploitation paradox continuously threaten the accomplishment of organizational ambidexterity. Structural, contextual, and sequential solutions designed to alleviate these tensions dominate the ambidexterity literature. None of these adequately explains how top executives implement tension-alleviating managerial initiatives or how they respond in real time to tension-induced organizational perturbations. In this article, through analysis of top management team speeches at Procter & Gamble over a 15-year period, we show how the construction and communication of four innovation narratives—contextualizing, mutualizing, dramatizing, and focalizing—reduced tensions and enhanced organizational ambidexterity. We demonstrate the importance of top management team reflexivity in devising and communicating performative narratives, illustrate the polyphonic model of narrative strategizing, and present a cyclical model suggesting that the accomplishment of organizational ambidexterity is an ongoing dynamic process.

scholarly journals Organizational Ambidexterity, Exploration, Exploitation and Firms Innovation Performance

Organizacija ◽  
2015 ◽  
Vol 48 (2) ◽  
pp. 112-119 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mladenka Popadić ◽  
Matej Černe ◽  
Ines Milohnić
Keyword(s):  
Innovation Performance ◽  
Organizational Level ◽  
Organizational Ambidexterity ◽  
Exploration And Exploitation ◽  
Community Innovation Survey ◽  
Trade Offs ◽  
Single Construct ◽  
Independent Effects ◽  
Exploration Exploitation ◽  
The Relationship

Abstract Background and Purpose: The construct of organizational ambidexterity (OA) has attracted the growing attention in management research. Previous empirical research has investigated the effect of organisational ambidexterity on performance from various perspectives. This study aims to resolve the contradictory previous research findings on the relationship between organisational ambidexterity and innovation performance. We unpack this construct with combined dimension of ambidexterity, which relates to a combination of high levels of both exploration and exploitation (introduction of products or services that were new to the market and new to the firm). Methodology: We frame our ambidexterity hypothesis in terms of firm’s innovation orientation. The hypothesis is tested by using Community Innovation Survey (CIS) 2006 micro data at the organizational level in twelve countries. To operationalize an ambidexterity and firms innovation outcome, we used self-reported measures of innovativeness. Results: To test our hypothesis, we developed a set of models and tested them with multiple hierarchical linear regression analyses. The results indicate that exploration and exploitation are positively related to firm’s innovation performances which supports our assumption that both are complementary. Furthermore, we find that above and over their independent effects, through combining them into a single construct of organizational ambidexterity, this variable remains negatively and significantly related to innovation performance. Conclusion: These results provides the managers with an idea of when managing trade-offs between exploration and exploitation would be more favorable versus detrimental. For firms with lower organizational ambidexterity, the relationship between exploration-exploitation and the firm’s innovation performance is a more positive one.

scholarly journals Organizational Ambidexterity in Family-Managed Firms: The Role of Family Involvement in Top Management

2020 ◽  
Vol 33 (4) ◽  
pp. 393-423
Author(s):  
Nadine Kammerlander ◽  
Holger Patzelt ◽  
Judith Behrens ◽  
Christian Röhm
Keyword(s):  
Family Involvement ◽  
Family Firms ◽  
Top Management ◽  
Organizational Ambidexterity ◽  
Firm Innovation ◽  
Nuanced Understanding ◽  
Curvilinear Relationships ◽  
Exploration Exploitation ◽  
Family Centered

Organizational ambidexterity is vital for family firms’ long-term success, yet we still lack sufficient insights into the role of family involvement in top management in this context. Building on research on family firm innovation and diversity, we argue there are curvilinear relationships between family involvement in top management and exploration, exploitation, and organizational ambidexterity. We further propose that these (inverse) U-shaped relationships are affected by family CEOs’ family-centered noneconomic goals. Multisource data on 109 family-managed firms support most of our hypotheses and provide a nuanced understanding of how diversity within top management affects family firms’ innovative behavior.

Top management teams’ shared leadership and ambidexterity: the role of management control systems

2018 ◽  
Vol 86 (3) ◽  
pp. 444-462 ◽  
Author(s):  
Timurs Umans ◽  
Elin Smith ◽  
William Andersson ◽  
William Planken
Keyword(s):  
Public Sector ◽  
Control Systems ◽  
Shared Leadership ◽  
Public Management ◽  
Top Management Teams ◽  
Management Control ◽  
Management Teams ◽  
Management Control Systems ◽  
Top Management ◽  
Organizational Ambidexterity

The study explores how top management teams’ shared leadership is related to organizational ambidexterity in public-sector organizations, theoretically and empirically considering how this relationship is contingent on the management control system. Using a sample of 85 Swedish municipal housing corporations, we find that shared leadership has a positive relationship with organizational ambidexterity in public-sector organizations. Moreover, increasing use of new public management control systems, based on combined reward and performance controls, positively moderates this relationship. The study also finds that traditional public management control systems, based on combined planning and administrative controls, do not moderate the relationship between top management teams’ shared leadership and organizational ambidexterity. Accordingly, this article contributes to the public and strategic management literature, as well as to managerial practice. Points for practitioners The article suggests that sharing leadership within top management teams can result in a balanced resource allocation in municipal corporations. To be more effective in achieving this balance, public sector managers might consider emphasizing new public management-inspired management control systems and de-emphasizing those of a more traditional type.

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