In: Operations Management
What are the attributes of an effective ambidextrous organizational structure? Please explain.
Ambidextrous organizational structure-
Ambidextrous organizations make their processes efficient and effective through exploring and exploiting. Ambidextrous organizations are adept in exploiting the present and also explore the future to be strategy. Once they explore the future, they try to adapt to it.
Important characteristics of ambidextrous organizational structure-
- Exploratory and exploitive units are treated as two different units
- Traditional exploitive units focus on the traditional process and culture
- Exploratory units are new and separated from exploitive units to focus more on new processes, structures, technological growth, cultures, etc.
- Exploratory units are highly innovative and creative
- There are tight links among the senior management team between the different units.
- This organizational separation (exploration and exploring) is managed via an integrated senior management team.
- The managers are forward-looking, having a foresight about the future.
- Employees and management seeks to create disruptive innovation and/or pioneer innovations while at the same time focus on the incremental revenue from their existing traditional operations.
- Ambidextrous organizations should be consistent in seeking incremental innovations wherein they are improvements in the existing products that actually provides great value to the product resulting in great customer service
- Companies having ambidextrous organizations have architectural innovations wherein they apply technological advancements to basically change a part or the process of the business.
- Companies having ambidextrous organizations have discontinuous innovations wherein they are disruptive innovation such as digital photography.
Thus, it is pertinent to say that companies with ambidextrous organizational structure are more successful than companies with the regular organizational structures.
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