Creativity Configurations and Individual Ambidexterity: The Lens of Change Management Process

Chan, Yoong Wai (2019) Creativity Configurations and Individual Ambidexterity: The Lens of Change Management Process. Masters thesis, Tunku Abdul Rahman University College.

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Abstract

As the world moves towards the digitalisation or disruption era, the demand for ambidextrous employees has also risen in tandem. The shortage of ambidextrous individuals is a serious constraint in Malaysia and 97 per cent of employers in Malaysia are still struggling in seeking for ambidextrous employees, 69 per cent of employers in Malaysia concern that they do not have the right talents to achieve current business objectives, as well as 48 per cent of employers in Malaysia believe that skill shortages have the potential to hamper effective business operations. Therefore, it appears that there is an almost intractable and mismatch between the types of employees demanded by organisations and those supplied in the labour market resulting in the struggle encountered by employers in Malaysia. The literature suggests that there is a dearth of research regarding the roles of creativity configurations and the change management process played on individual ambidexterity. Ambidexterity can be concluded as a learning-related activity that facilitated by creativity and change management process in undertaking the exploitative and explorative activities. Therefore, this research focuses on creativity configurations and the change management process by employing the componential theory of creativity and Lewin’s three-phase model of change in studying ambidexterity at the individual level. Hence, the objectives of this research are; first, to investigate the existing direct relationships between the constructs of domain-relevant skill, creativity-relevant process, and intrinsic task motivation towards individual unlearning and individual ambidexterity. In addition, this research is to establish the mediator roles played by individual unlearning on the relationship between domain-relevant skill and individual IV ambidexterity; between creativity-relevant process and individual ambidexterity; and between intrinsic task motivation and individual ambidexterity. Moreover, this research is to establish the mediator role played by individual relearning on the relationship between individual unlearning and individual ambidexterity. Lastly, this research is to establish the moderator role played by cognitive strain on the relationship between individual unlearning and individual ambidexterity. To achieve the above research objectives, a total of 460 samples were collected through a self-administered questionnaire survey data collection method. The data is analysed using Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) and Partial Least Square – Structural Equation Modelling (PLS-SEM). The findings show that under the aspect of creativity configurations, creativity-relevant process is found to be the key driver to achieve individual ambidexterity. In addition, this research also reveals individual unlearning emerges as a partial mediator in facilitating individual employees who possess creativity configurations to achieve individual ambidexterity. Furthermore, this research also found that individual relearning partially mediates the relationship between individual unlearning and individual ambidexterity. Lastly, the findings show that the positive relationship between individual unlearning and individual ambidexterity is stronger, when the level of cognitive strain is low. The results of this research contribute to the literatures of innovation management and organisational psychology where ambidexterity can be concluded as a learning-related activity and creativity configurations are found to facilitate individuals in managing tensions between exploitative and explorative activities through a complete change process by unlearning the obsolete knowledge and relearning the updated knowledge. Moreover, this research reveals that when the level of cognitive strain is low, the V positive relationship between individual unlearning and individual ambidexterity is stronger; and vice-versa.