Exploring diversity and depth of knowledge, metacognition, and individual ambidexterity

• Main Author: TEDJAKUMARA, Deddi
• Format: text
• Language: English
• Published: Institutional Knowledge at Singapore Management University 2023
• Subjects: Individual ambidexterity; ambidexterity; exploration; exploitation; diversity of knowledge; depth of knowledge; metacognition; job complexity; Business Administration, Management, and Operations; Management Sciences and Quantitative Methods
• Online Access: https://ink.library.smu.edu.sg/etd_coll/457; https://ink.library.smu.edu.sg/context/etd_coll/article/1455/viewcontent/GPGM_AY2017_PhD_Deddi_Tedjakumara.pdf
• Institution: Singapore Management University

Recent data show that the average lifespan of a company listed in the Standard and Poor's 500 (S&P 500) Index has declined from 32 years in 1965 to 21 years in 2020 (Clark, 2021), and it is estimated that 75% of the companies listed in the S&P 500 today will disappear from the list by 2027 (Hillenbrand, 2019). Organizational theory holds that for a company to be sustainable, it must strike a balance between exploring new possibilities and exploiting old certainties (March, 1991). The ability to manage the tension between exploration and exploitation is important at both organizational and individual levels (Gibson & Birkinshaw, 2004; Birkinshaw & Gupta, 2013) Complementing previous studies on the antecedents of individual exploration and exploitation behavior, this study examines diversity of knowledge and depth of knowledge as antecedents to employee exploration and exploitation behaviors. It was also theorized that metacognition interacts with depth of knowledge and diversity of knowledge to predict individual exploration and exploitation behaviors. Data (N = 414) were collected from participants randomly sampled from two large companies in Indonesia. Results indicated that exploration and exploitation behaviors were positively correlated with diversity of knowledge, depth of knowledge and metacognition. When metacognition, knowledge diversity, and knowledge depth were considered simultaneously, results indicated that only knowledge diversity and metacognition predicted exploration behavior. Also when simultaneously considering the predictors, only metacognition uniquely predicted exploitation behavior, whereas diversity and depth of knowledge did not. Results did not support the hypothesized interactions between knowledge diversity, knowledge depth, and metacognition in predicting exploration and exploitation behaviors. However, exploratory analyses revealed that job complexity positively predicted exploration and exploitation behavior. These results provide insight into factors affecting exploration and exploitation. Results can be used to inform practitioners to develop or facilitate exploration and exploitation behaviors.