Organizational Ambidexterity and the Hybrid Middle Manager: The Case of Patient Safety in UK Hospitals

TY - JOUR

T1 - Organizational Ambidexterity and the Hybrid Middle Manager

T2 - The Case of Patient Safety in UK Hospitals

AU - Burgess, Nicola

AU - Strauss, Karoline

AU - Currie, Graeme

AU - Wood, Geoffrey

N1 - Publisher Copyright: © 2015 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

PY - 2015/12/1

Y1 - 2015/12/1

N2 - This article focuses on knowledge management in UK hospitals as an area in which organizational ambidexterity (OA) is a necessary condition. In contrast to much of the literature on OA that looks at senior managers, we focus on the role of "hybrid" middle managers, professional workers who hold managerial responsibilities, in ensuring that the quality of care delivered is at an optimum "safe" level for patients. We examine the influence of prevailing tensions and competing agendas characteristic of a professionalized, public-sector context upon knowledge exploitation and exploration at the middle levels of the organization. Our study investigates how these tensions are experienced and reconciled at the individual level. We examine the contextual and personal circumstances that enable hybrid middle managers to forge workable compromises between exploration and exploitation to facilitate OA. We find that this process is contingent on professional legitimacy, social capital, and a holistic professional orientation. This has wider implications for human resource practice to support the discretion and motivation of hybrid middle managers to facilitate OA for enduring performance and advancement of best practice.

AB - This article focuses on knowledge management in UK hospitals as an area in which organizational ambidexterity (OA) is a necessary condition. In contrast to much of the literature on OA that looks at senior managers, we focus on the role of "hybrid" middle managers, professional workers who hold managerial responsibilities, in ensuring that the quality of care delivered is at an optimum "safe" level for patients. We examine the influence of prevailing tensions and competing agendas characteristic of a professionalized, public-sector context upon knowledge exploitation and exploration at the middle levels of the organization. Our study investigates how these tensions are experienced and reconciled at the individual level. We examine the contextual and personal circumstances that enable hybrid middle managers to forge workable compromises between exploration and exploitation to facilitate OA. We find that this process is contingent on professional legitimacy, social capital, and a holistic professional orientation. This has wider implications for human resource practice to support the discretion and motivation of hybrid middle managers to facilitate OA for enduring performance and advancement of best practice.

KW - Contextual ambidexterity

KW - Health care

KW - Knowledge management

KW - Middle managers

KW - Organizational ambidexterity

KW - Public-sector HRM

UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=84952716989&partnerID=8YFLogxK

U2 - 10.1002/hrm.21725

DO - 10.1002/hrm.21725

M3 - Article

AN - SCOPUS:84952716989

SN - 0090-4848

VL - 54

SP - s87-s109

JO - Human Resource Management

JF - Human Resource Management

ER -