Opprettelsen av en tohendig organisasjon for å lykkes i fremtiden
The purpose of this thesis was to create insight in how technology firms pursue organizational ambidexterity to survive revolutionary changes in their environment.
Research has shown that ambidextrous organizations are well suited to meet revolutionary and discontinuous changes in firms environment, providing short-term profits as well as long term survival. Ambidexterity refers to the ability of an organization to both explore and exploit. Exploit includes competing in mature markets, using existing knowledge to create incremental innovations and efficient processes. Explore includes competing in new technologies and markets, where flexibility, experimentation and radical innovation are needed.
By studying a Norwegian technology company’s strategic change process, we create a deeper understanding of how organizational structure can be used as a tool to meet increased pressure from the environment. The motive of the reorganization was to strengthen the ongoing operations and existing business, as well as strengthening innovation and future income possibilities. The company has created a new explorative business unit by structurally separating it from the remaining business. This unit does radical and incremental innovations to explore future sources of income. The change process further included efficiency measures of the three existing units in the organizations. These units optimize the ongoing operations, through a variation of radical and incremental innovations.
The study contributes to new insights into an industry affected by environments with high rates of change, and shows a practical example of how a technology company adapts by being ambidextrous. In addition, the study provides new insight on how a business balances exploration and exploitation. Our findings show that the distinction between exploitation and exploration in the company is not as clear as the theoretical distinction is in structural ambidexterity. It turns out to be the purpose of the balance between exploit and explore that determines the extent to which they operate daily operations, incremental or radical innovations.