Managing the Tensions to Achieve Ambidexterity in a Small Growing Frim

In this paper we report on what tensions arise, as a small growing clean tech company attempt to keep their innovative culture, while striving to improve their efficiency. The company provides a particularly interesting case as it is in a midst of a strong growth phase in combination with that its management has both an awareness of and a willingness to take bold actions to achieve an ambidextrous organization. Both managers and employees are interviewed complementing the rather single sided focus on managers in existing literature. The two groups are found to have different views on what tensions are most crucial to manage; managers tend to focus on handling the tension between innovation understood as idea generation and efficiency while employees found the tension arising from managers inability to make decisions on what innovation projects to select more crucial. In addition, employees found the internal effort to increase sales and administrative process efficiency enabling also for innovation and do not perceive a tension between innovation and efficiency. Based in the study the use of a shared leadership model with a clear division between sensing and developing opportunities and managing procedures for efficiency is identified as a novel and interesting approach for achieving ambidexterityQC 20190430