Bridging Organizational Context and Individual-Level Cognition to Explain Individual Ambidexterity

Abstract

Research on contextual ambidexterity points to the need for individuals to autonomously integrate exploration and exploitation. To date, research has either focused on antecedents in the social context or on individual-level antecedents. We integrate these two perspectives by using Social Cognitive Theory as a vintage point. We segment contextual antecedents into proximal and distal social context and illustrate how these two interact to influence individual ambidexterity through shaping the individual-level congitive basis of autonomous agentic behavior. Building on primary, multi-source data of 245 employees from a large Central European Company we find strong support for our model. With our research, we illuminate the syntax of causal mechanisms from the social context and individual-level.