Amoeba Management and Organizational Ambidexterity: Similarities, Differences, and Implications

• In Event: Management Accounting 1

Abstract

Amoeba management and organizational ambidexterity are two performance management systems that are potentially well suited to firms operating in highly competitive environments. Unfortunately, these two systems have been understudied and poorly understood. This paper examines a wide-ranging literature and includes research published in non-English-language journals, which is particularly essential for understanding the amoeba management concept. As this paper shows, while amoeba management and organizational ambidexterity share such commonalties as the promotion of organizational agility and the call for small-sized business units, several significant differences prevail. Amoeba management and ambidextrous organizations differ in terms of the strategies, organizational structures, organizational cultures, planning horizons, performance measures, approaches to employee involvement, employee selection practices, and leadership styles they pursue/adopt. The paper’s wide-angle synthesis of ideas and its unique construction of a set of performance management-based parameters for distinguishing and differentiating amoeba management from organizational ambidexterity mean the paper offers readers fuller and richer understandings of the two performance management systems and, in the process, promotes scholars and practitioners’ ability to make more informed decisions about the future study and adoption of these two systems.

Authors

• Ralph Adler, University of Otago

• Toshiro Hiromoto, Accountants and Auditing Oversight Board of Japan

• Hiroyuki Suzuki, Manchester Business School