Flexible Organizational Forms

This theme will investigate how various flexilbe organizational forms and restructuring enabel social innovation. In particular theme 1 will study how organizations increase the velocity of internal change, optimise self-organisation and synchronize advanced levels of efficiency and productivity (exploitation) with investment in creation of new opportunities (exploration).

Many companies tend to concentrate on only one of the two, but long term survival of firms requires a sophisticated combination of exploitation and exploration, also known as ambidexterity. The traditional hierarchical structures of "command and control" are not sustainable in t he face of this requirement and increasing competitive environments. Conswquently, alternatives based on self-organisation, delegation and maximum development of capabilities at all levels need to be further explored.

Researchers working on this theme:

  • Justin Jansen (Coordinator)

    Justin Jansen is associate professor of Strategic Management at the Rotterdam School of Management, Erasmus University.

  • Structural Differentiation and Ambidexterity
    28 January 2009, Article

    Prior studies have emphasized that structural attributes are crucial to simultaneously pursuing exploration and exploitation, yet our understanding of antecedents of ambidexterity is still limited. Structural differentation can help ambidextrous organizations to maintain multiple inconsistent and conflicting demands; however, differentiated exploratory and exploitative activities need to be mobilized, coordinated, integrated, and applied. Based on this idea, we delineate formal and informal senior team integration mechanisms (e.g. contingency rewards and social integration) and formal and informal organizational integration mechanisms (e.g. cross-functional interfaces and connectedness) and examine  how they mediate the relationship between structural differentiation and ambidexterity. Overall, our findings suggest that the previously asserted direct effect of structural differentation on ambidexterity operates through informal senior team (i.e., senior team social integration) and formal organizational (i.e., cross-functional interfaces) integration mechanisms. Through this richer explanation and empirical assessment, we contribute to a greater clarity and better understanding of how organizations may effectively pursue exploration and exploitation simultaneously to achieve ambidexterity.