What types of managers are better positioned in combining exploitation and exploration?

Friday, February 26, 2021 - 15:30

In today’s competitive and ever-changing business environment, an organisation needs to be efficient in its current business (i.e. exploitation) and also adaptable for coping with tomorrow’s changing demand (i.e. exploration). Read a recent publication by Dr Ruifang Wang and Prof Patrick Gibbons  (University College Dublin).

Organisational ambidexterity describes this simultaneous focus. Organisations rely on their people, especially their managers across different levels, to embrace the tension between exploitation and exploration and integrate both. For example, these ambidextrous managers familiarise with existing operations and promote critical thinking on new alternatives; serve current customers and search for new markets; use and refine current technologies and experiment with new solutions.
 
However, it is not easy for managers to combine these competing tasks. So what types of managers are better positioned to be ambidextrous? And under what conditions?    
 
To know more: Wang R and Gibbons P (forthcoming) Understanding managerial ambidexterity: a people–situation interaction approach.  Journal Of Strategy And Management