Ambidextrous Organizations: Managing Evolutionary and Revolutionary Change

Tushman, M.L. & O’Reilly, C.A. (1996) - California Management Review, Vol. 38, No. 4, pp. 8-30

Award-winning paper by Michael Tushman and Charles O’Reilly III, winner of the Andersen Consulting Award for most impactful article. Organizations evolve through periods of incremental (evolutionary) change punctuated by discontinuous (revolutionary) change. The challenge for managers is to simultaneously pursue both types of innovation. The authors introduce the concept of structural Organizational Ambidexterity: creating separate units with distinct structures, cultures, and processes for exploitation and exploration, integrated at the senior leadership level.