Organizational ambidexterity refers to an organization’s ability to be efficient in their management of today’s business and also adaptable for coping with tomorrow’s changing demands.

Origin and Development

Duncan (1976) was the first to use the term organizational ambidexterity. However, it was March’s (1991) article, “Exploration and exploitation in organizational learning

Organizational learning

Organizational learning is an area of knowledge within organizational theory that studies models and theories about the way an organization learns and adapts....

” that has been credited for developing and generating greater interest in this concept, especially in the late twentieth and early twenty-first century.

Different Ambidextrous Models

Some scholars as well as practitioners have argued that established companies simply lack the flexibility to explore new territories. Others suggest that big companies should adopt a venture capital model- funding exploratory expeditions but otherwise not interfering too much with their operations. Another suggestion is for the use of cross-functional teams to achieve breakthrough innovations. Still others have suggested that a company may be able to alternate between different organizational models, focusing on exploitation and exploration at different time periods.

Organizational ambidexterity can be considered primarily from two angles. The first is architectural or structural ambidexterity which uses dual structures and strategies to differentiate efforts towards exploitation and exploration. The second is contextual ambidexterity which uses behavioural and social

Social

The term social refers to a characteristic of living organisms...

 means to integrate exploitation and exploration, even at the organizational unit level. Contextual ambidexterity was first defined in Gibson and Birkinshaw (2004) and has been recently described in Andriopoulos and Lewis (2009). Senior managers may be key for facilitating the context and social base for ambidexterity. Noting that ambidextrous organizations require significant amount of mobilization, coordination, and integration activities to maintain both exploitation and exploration, Jansen et al. (2009) found that the informal, social integration of the senior team as well as the cross-functional interfaces of the formal organization

Formal organization

Formal organization is a fixed set of rules of intra-organization procedures and structures. As such, it is usually set out in writing, with a language of rules that ostensibly leave little discretion for interpretation...

 contribute to the success of structural differentiation on organizational ambidexterity.

See also

• Ambidexterity
  Ambidexterity
  Ambidexterity is the state of being equally adept in the use of both left and right appendages . It is one of the most famous varieties of cross-dominance. People that are naturally ambidextrous are rare, with only one out of one hundred people being naturally ambidextrous...
  
  
• Communities of innovation
  Communities of Innovation
  Communities that support innovation have been referred to as Communities of Innovation , Communities for Innovation , Innovation Communities , Open Innovation Communities , Communities of Creation .- Origin :...
  
  
• Contingency Theory
  Contingency theory
  Contingency theory is a class of behavioral theory that claims that there is no best way to organize a corporation, to lead a company, or to make decisions. Instead, the optimal course of action is contingent upon the internal and external situation...
  
  
• Organization design
  Organization design
  Organization design can be defined narrowly, as the process of reshaping organization structure and roles, or it can more effectively be defined as the alignment of structure, process, rewards, metrics and talent with the strategy of the business...
  
  
• Organizational learning
  Organizational learning
  Organizational learning is an area of knowledge within organizational theory that studies models and theories about the way an organization learns and adapts....
  
  
• Organizational structure
  Organizational structure
  An organizational structure consists of activities such as task allocation, coordination and supervision, which are directed towards the achievement of organizational aims. It can also be considered as the viewing glass or perspective through which individuals see their organization and its...
  
  

• Knowledge management
  Knowledge management
  Knowledge management comprises a range of strategies and practices used in an organization to identify, create, represent, distribute, and enable adoption of insights and experiences...
  
  
• Tacit knowledge
  Tacit knowledge
  Tacit knowledge is knowledge that is difficult to transfer to another person by means of writing it down or verbalising it. For example, stating to someone that London is in the United Kingdom is a piece of explicit knowledge that can be written down, transmitted, and understood by a recipient...