Management Science and Information Systems' Seminar (2015-09)

Topic:Contributive Roles of Multilevel Organizational Learning for the Evolution of Organizational Ambidexterity

Speaker:Mengling Yan,Guanghua School of Management, Peking University

Time:Wednesday, 11November, 3:30-5:00 P.M

Location:Room K217

Abstract:

Purpose:This paper aims to reveal how organizational learning at the strategic and operational levels (i.e., strategic learning and business learning, respectively) contribute to the development of organizational ambidexterity along the growth of enterprises from an evolutionary view.

Methodology:We conducted a longitudinal case study on Huawei- a leading Chinese firm in the telecommunication industry. Data was collected from various sources including interviews, CEO’s speeches, scholarly publications, company magazines and internal memos. The case was analyzed in line with the principles of grounded theory.

Findings:This research reveals that the case company (Huawei) constructed organizational ambidexterity with different foci during different development stages. The organization’s ambidextrous capability evolves over time, shifting from one domain to another. Such ambidexterity development was largely beneficial from the multilevel organizational learning at both the strategic level (focusing on the whole organization and long-term goals) and operational level (focusing on local interests and short-term goals).

Originality: This paper represents one of the earliest works to uncover the ambidexterity building process from an evolutionary approach that requires the collection of longitudinal data. Also, the paper proposes a multi-level learning framework for ambidexterity building in practice. This framework distinguishes strategic learning from business learning and projects the two types of learning into learning at four levels-individual, team, intra-organizational, and inter-organizational, which can be leveraged to guide division of labor among hierarchical levels during the progressive development of ambidexterity.

Keywords:Organizational ambidexterity, Organizational learning, Strategic learning, Business learning, Evolution

中文介绍：论文主要研究国内领先的电信企业华为公司如何通过不同层次的组织学习活动构建组织双元能力。 随着竞争的加剧，环境变化加快，企业既需要充分“利用”已有的知识和经验，保证短期的利润，又需要积极“探索”新的知识和机会，为未来的机遇与挑战做好准备，这种兼顾“探索”与“利用”的能力被称为“组织双元能力”，对组织在激烈竞争中存活和繁荣有重要的意义。然而，“探索”与“利用”争夺有限的组织资源和管理层注意力，对组织结构、流程、文化等有截然不同的要求，组织往往容易过分强调其中之一，而失去两者之间的平衡。本文借鉴组织学习理论，从领先企业的经验中寻找双元能力的构建方法和模式。在理论上，本文提出了一个多层次的学习模型，揭示了案例企业的双元能力演化路径，不仅丰富了双元能力构建的相关讨论，而且深化了组织学习理论的应用。在实践上，案例企业所采用的学习方法和学习原则能够为企业带来实践启示。

欢迎感兴趣的老师与同学参加！