همدلی کارکنان: نقش توانمندسازی و اشتراک دانش بین کارکنان Ambidexterity of employees: the role of empowerment and knowledge sharing

Introduction Firms are constantly pressured to think beyond satisfying the existing customers. They have to focus on identifying and anticipating potential changes in customer desires. This requires balancing between exploitation of what is done well, and exploration of new fields that may generate profitability in the future (Kang and Snell, 2009). The ability to do both is referred to as ambidexterity and consists of pursuing explorative as well as exploitative activities (March, 1991). Explorative activities are related to risk-taking, experimentation and innovation, while exploitative activities are associated with refinement, selection and improving existing products, services, organizational routines and procedures (March, 1991). Several studies have investigated various organizational outcomes of ambidexterity (Donate and Guadamillas, 2011; Darroch, 2005), or antecedents of organizational ambidexterity, such as organizational structure (Gibson and Birkinshaw, 2004), team hierarchy (Peretti and Negro, 2006), knowledge transfer and integration (Gibson and Birkinshaw, 2004), and managerial leadership and commitment (Smith and Tushman, 2005). While ambidexterity at the organizational level has been widely explored and debated, much less studies focus on ambidexterity at the employee level. Yet, the firm’s employees are the ones who generate new knowledge and perform explorative and exploitative activities (Minbaeva, Mäkelä and Rabbiosi, 2012). Authors have coined the term “employee ambidexterity” in this respect. Employee ambidexterity is defined as the behavioural orientation of employees towards combining exploitation and exploration related activities within a certain period of time (Mom, Van Den Bosch, & Volberda, 2009; Caniëls & Veld, 2016). Employee ambidexterity has received remarkably little attention from a theoretical and empirical perspective. Several studies have called for a more focused analysis of employee ambidexterity and its antecedents (e.g. Prieto and Santana, 2012; Junni, Sarala, Taras and Tarba, 2013; Caniëls and Veld, 2016).