Ambidextrous Organization: Managing Evolutionary and Revolutionary Change

Each organization during its life cycle has to keep passing through following two phases
continuously and alternately.
Evolutionary Change Phase: Gradual changes in External environment, organization has
to adopt slow changes to continue and maintain its success.
Revolutionary Change Phase: Dramatic/Rapid changes in External environment.
Organisation have to adopt a rapid pace of change and it will either succeed or get
destroyed in the process.
 Managing both types of changes effectively is required for survival and success of
organization
 Evolutionary change can be managed by increasing the alignment or fit by achieving
congruence among strategy, structure, culture, and processes.
 Revolutionary change can be managed by developing the ability to create and
manage simultaneous shift in strategy, structure, culture, and processes, (remaining
radically innovative and flexible is a prerequisite)
 Focussing on one type of change is easy but leads to short-term success and long-
term failures.
 Need for going through Revolutionary changes phase are sometimes necessitated by
organizational growth but they are many a times caused by technology cycles
especially by the emergence of dominant design.

Dominant Design: In any product or service class (e.g., microprocessors, automobiles,

baby
diapers, cash management accounts) there is a common pattern of competition that
describes the development of the class over time. A competition between different
technology/processes/products goes on increasing till a time when a design emerges which
becomes the standard preferred by customers. Once this occurs the basis of competition
shifts to price and features, not basic product or service design. This phenomenon is called
as emergence of dominant design and it starts a technological cycle. Once it emerges, the
basis of competition shifts to process innovation, driving down costs, and adding features.
This competition continues until there is a major new product, service, or process
substitution event and the technology cycle kicks off again as the basis of competition shifts
back again to product or service variation and paves way for new technological cycle.

 The structure created to tackle evolutionary change i.e. achievement of congruence

between strategy, structure, culture, and processes creates inertias like structural
inertia (a resistance to change rooted in the size, complexity, and interdependence
rooted in the organization's structures, systems, procedures, and processes) and
cultural inertia (resistance to change rooted in informal norms, values, social
networks and in organizational myths, stories, and heroes that have evolved over
time) and these inertias especially cultural inertia creates obstacles in organizations
attempts to navigate through revolutionary change

This divergence between requirements to tackle evolutionary change and revolutionary

change creates a dilemma for managers and organizations .

In the world of evolutionary change i.e.in short run organizations must constantly increase
the fit or alignment of strategy, structure, and culture. But for sustained success. In the long-
run, they are required to destroy the very alignment of strategy, structure, and culture that
has made their organizations successful In order to reconstruct a new organization better
suited for the next wave of competition or technology.
Ambidextrous organizations are those organisations which have the ability to
simultaneously pursue both incremental(Evolutionary Change) and
discontinuous(Revolutionary Change) innovation and change results from hosting multiple
contradictory structures, processes, and cultures within the same firm. Ex of such firms
Hewlett-Packard, Johnson & Johnson, and ABB(Asea Brown Boveri).

How to develop Ambidexterity in Organization?

Three Ways mentioned in Article on the basis of study on above three ambidextrous
organizations

1. By Tweaking Organizational Architecture

I. Avoid large centralized organizations and keep units small and autonomous so that
employees feel a sense of ownership and are responsible for their own results and
thus create a culture of autonomy and risk taking
II. Do not do that on expense of firm size or speed in execution. Retain the benefits of
size, especially in marketing and manufacturing.
III. Limit the role of headquarters to facilitate operations and make the units go faster
and become better.
IV. Redesign Reward systems to be appropriate to the nature of the business unit and to
be able to encourage results and risk taking by managers
2. By Allowing multiple cultures to flourish
I. Place reliance on strong social controls and not on formal structures
II. Org Culture is to be simultaneously tight and loose.
III. Org culture is to be tight in the respect that it is broadly shared amongst all units
and emphasizes norms critical for innovation such as openness, autonomy,
initiative, and risk taking.
IV. Org Culture is to be loose in the manner in which the common values are
expressed varies according to the type of innovation required. Ex Allow openness
and consensus while developing new technologies but when implementation is
critical, do not bother about openness and consensus.
V. Have common standards but unique personalities. .
3. By Hiring/Developing Ambidextrous Managers
I. Allow Managing units to pursue widely different strategies and that have varied
structures and cultures
II. Allow lower level managers to come up with solutions and encouraging reasonable
failures.
III. Let the senior team continually reinforces the core values of autonomy, teamwork,
initiative, accountability, and innovation and ensure that the organization avoids
becoming arrogant and remains willing to learn from its competitors.
IV. Use variation through strong efforts to decentralize, to eliminate bureaucracy, to
encourage individual autonomy and accountability, and to experiment and take risks.