Senior Team Attributes and Organizational Ambidexterity: The Moderating Role of Transformational Leadership

Abstract

Organizations capable of pursuing exploration and exploitation simultaneously have been suggested to obtain superior performance. Combining both types of activities and achieving organizational ambidexterity, however, leads to the presence of multiple and often conflicting goals, and poses considerable challenges to senior teams in ambidextrous organizations. This study explores the role of senior team attributes and leadership behaviour in reconciling conflicting interests among senior team members and achieving organizational ambidexterity. Findings indicate that a senior team shared vision and contingency rewards are associated with a firm's ability to combine high levels of exploratory and exploitative innovations. In addition, our study shows that an executive director's transformational leadership increases the effectiveness of senior team attributes in ambidextrous organizations and moderates the effectiveness of senior team social integration and contingency rewards. Hence, our study clarifies how senior executives reconcile conflicting demands and facilitate the balancing of seemingly contradictory forces in ambidextrous organizations. Implications for literatures on senior team attributes, transformational leadership and organizational ambidexterity are discussed. Copyright (c) Blackwell Publishing Ltd 2008.

The impact of leadership on organizational ambidexterity and employee psychological safety in the global acquisitions of emerging market multinationals

“…Ambidexterity is defined as the organizational ability to engage in the dual aspects of organizational growth-namely, exploration and exploitation (Jansen et al, 2008;Nemanich & Vera, 2009;Junni et al, 2013). It has also been linked with management paradox (Yoon & Chae, 2012).…”

“…It has also been linked with management paradox (Yoon & Chae, 2012). In the context of acquisitions, ambidextrous organizations will be capable of creating synergies between the acquirer and target to generate valuable future exploitative opportunities (Jansen et al, 2008;Nemanich & Vera, 2009;RaoNicholson et al, 2016). The role played by leadership is undeniably quite pertinent to organizational survival and essential to the development of an ambidextrous organization (Jansen, Tempelaar, Van den Bosch & Volberda, 2009;Cao, Simsek & Zhang, 2010;Rosing, Frese & Bausch, 2011;Tushman et al, 2011).…”

“…Leader role is important for the development of systems, structures and cultures that support the assimilation of knowledge during mergers (Kavanagh & Ashkanasy, 2006), and successful integration following M&As (Vasilaki, 2011). Scholars indicate that contextual factors such as senior team integration helps in balanced resource allocation, forms cross-fertilization and synergies towards ambidextrous activities (e.g., Jansen et al 2008), and the ambidexterity performance link is also suggested to be the outcome of contextual variables and it is positively related to performance (Junni et al, 2013). The ability of the senior leadership teams to adopt to conflicting demands between old and new activities is a key indicator of organization success , and ambidexterity requires leaders with stock of behavioural skills (Raisch & Birkinshaw, 2008).…”

“…It has also been noted that ambidexterity necessitates top leadership teams shared vision (Jansen et al, 2008), as well as s coordination and information processing demands skills (Lubatkin et al, 2006). At the same time, different leadership styles will have different impacts on an organization's ambidexterity (Jansen et al, 2008;O'Reilly & Tushman, 2011).…”

“…Organizational ambidexterity is the organizational ability to engage in the dual aspects of exploration and exploitation (Benner & Tushman 2003, Jansen et al 2008Nemanich & Vera, 2009;Junni et al, 2013). In the acquisitions context, an ambidextrous organization is capable of creating synergies between acquirer and target to generate valuable future exploitative opportunities (Nemanich & Vera, 2009;Junni et al, 2013;Rao-Nicholson, Khan & Stokes, 2016).…”