Abstract
Organizational scholars have highlighted the importance of interpretive ambivalence for mindfulness, creativity, and strategic change. Ambivalence occurs when an issue is seen simultaneously as positive and negative. We examine organizational factors that influence the propensity of organizational leaders to evaluate a new strategic issue ambivalently. Data come from a survey of 220 German CEOs confronted with the enlargement of the European Union. We find that CEOs of firms with a more ambidextrous strategic orientation and a moderate sense of organizational control over their environment are most likely to be ambivalent about this issue. Our findings affirm the prevalence of interpretive ambivalence at the executive level and suggest ways for organizations to promote or prevent ambivalence in strategic sensemaking.
| Original language | English (US) |
|---|---|
| Pages (from-to) | 689-710 |
| Number of pages | 22 |
| Journal | Strategic Management Journal |
| Volume | 31 |
| Issue number | 7 |
| DOIs | |
| State | Published - Jul 2010 |
Funding
We are grateful to Divya Sommerville, Michael Hickey and Dr Alieu Sartie for valuable technical assistance. We thank Dr Warren Williams, Brent Barrett and Dr And rew Griffiths for helpful comments during the preparation of this manuscript. The QTL experiment was supported by the AgResearch PreSeed fund. EST-SSR markers were developed within the Pasture Plant Genomics Program co-funded by AgResearch Ltd and the Department of Primary Industries, Victoria, Australia, with funding provided to AgResearch Ltd by the New Zealand Foundation for Research, Science and Technology (contract number C10X0203).
Keywords
- Ambivalence
- Managerial cognition
- Organizational context
- Organizational mindfulness
- Sensemaking
- Strategic issue diagnosis
ASJC Scopus subject areas
- Business and International Management
- Strategy and Management