Highlights

Abstract

Keywords

۱٫ Introduction

۲٫ Literature review

۳٫ Methodology

۴٫ Findings

۵٫ Discussion: Shaping a dynamic environment by the controlled renewal

۶٫ Summary and future research directions

References

Vitae

Abstract

This paper presents the findings of a longitudinal study of a large corporation’s journey towards becoming an ambidextrous organisation in the face of emerging technology. By investigating the interplay between the top and middle management, the results show that business intelligence systems allowed the firm to pursue a controlled renewal journey that was data-driven, automated, and supported fast organisational learning. This substituted for active frontline and middle managers. The change in organisational direction was driven by a small and powerful strategic top management group, even though this was a multi-unit firm with more than 100,000 employees. The main advantage of this type of journey is that the organisation can fully realize the advantage of highly centralised formal planning and control while becoming resilient and ambidextrous. A well-functioning decision support system, organisational policies and communication strategy can substitute for collective sense-making and shared strategic schemas. The results also suggest that management control systems can have a profound impact on developing organisational ambidexterity. The article also provides further details on the nature and implications of the rhetorical tactics used by the top management team to focus on organisational attention and action.

۱٫ Introduction

Despite its growing popularity as an area of study, many researchers agree that we still know little about how firms ensure their current and future viability. Organisations must renew themselves to close the gap between their existing competencies and the evolving basis of competitive advantage in their industry [1]. Scholarly attention has been focusing on the role of individuals in balancing exploitation and exploration for a long time and argued that the unit of analysis should be individuals because organisational ambidexterity reflects their collective actions (i.e. [2,3]. O’Reilly and Tushman [4] argued that future research should investigate how organisational members may assist or hinder such managerial decisions.

Previous studies concluded that large, multi-unit firms rely on the involvement of multiple levels of management in a co-evolutionary manner (i.e. [5] in which frontline managers can influence the organisational renewal process. Volberda et al. [6] and later Volberda [7]; suggested that for successful renewal in hypercompetitive environments calls for active middle management.

Second, for any strategy, no matter how well formulated, the middle managers are critical in implementing it. They are the ones who must interpret the strategy in the context of daily operations, identify the actions required to implement the strategy and communicate and clarify to their subordinates [8].

The research on how top management team interact with the middle management (MMs), how they influence strategy implementation, is still in its infancy [9]. Consequently, the interplay between the top and middle management in the creation and preservation of organisational ambidexterity needs further investigation. Third, despite its acknowledged importance, many high-technology ventures are failing in their strategic renewal [10,11]. Organisations fail to notice events and trends, external and internal signals, that have potential organizational consequences because they do not resonate with the priorities of the top management team [12].