The how and why of organisational ambidexterity : a comparative analysis of multinational organisations

Organisational ambidexterity has been shown to improve organisational outcomes by almost every measure. Unfortunately, becoming ambidextrous is notoriously difficult. This research leverages extensive privileged access to conduct a comparative analysis of established, multinational organisations and finds evidence that ambidexterity is not a singular capability, but rather a composite of multiple attributes within an organisation, which must not only be implemented, but also enabled through key organisational features. A new measure of ambidexterity is also proposed which improves relevancy in a practitioner context.