INDIVIDUAL AMBIDEXTERITY AND ANTECEDENTS IN A CHANGING CONTEXT

Abstract

People and organisations should align their current goals and adapt to change to maintain and sustain their competitive advantages. That is the idea behind ambidexterity. Extant research has largely focused on ambidexterity at the organisational and unit levels, although individual ambidexterity is perhaps equally important to organisational success. To shed some light on the issue, this paper argues that two antecedents, handling work stress and trust building, influence individual ambidexterity and individual performance. Two hundred forty-five paired questionnaires were collected, and a construct of four items of ambidextrous behaviour was used to measure individual ambidexterity. The empirical findings indicate that an individual’s skills in handling work stress in performance management, building trust for social support and practicing individual ambidexterity, result in high performance. Individual ambidexterity mediates two of these positive relationships, between handling work stress and performance, and between trust building and performance. The research and practical implications are also discussed.