INTRODUCING THE CONTEXTUAL AMBIDEXTERITY SCALE FOR PUBLIC ORGANIZATIONS (CASPO): SCALE DEVELOPMENT AND INITIAL EVIDENCE

Francisco G. Nunes (), Generosa do Nascimento () and Luís M. Martins ()
Additional contact information
Francisco G. Nunes: Professor, PhD, ISCTE-IUL, BRU-IUL, Lisbon, Portugal
Generosa do Nascimento: Professor, PhD, ISCTE-IUL, BRU-IUL, Lisbon, Portugal
Luís M. Martins: Professor, PhD, BRU-IUL, Lisbon, Portugal

REVISTA ADMINISTRATIE SI MANAGEMENT PUBLIC, 2021, vol. 2021, issue 37, 74–89

Abstract: Contextual ambidexterity describes the organizational capacity of being simultaneously able to adapt and change in the face of contextual requirements while keeping alignment and predictability. Contextual ambidexterity has been recognized as an appropriate explanation of organizational performance, and its influence has already permeated accounts of public organizations’ dynamics. We join this line of reasoning by suggesting that some specific characteristics of public organizations call for refinement of the contextual ambidexterity concept, and the correspondent evolution in measuring this organizational ability, thus introducing the Contextual Ambidexterity Scale for Public Organizations (CASPO). We suggest going beyond the original measure of alignment and adaptability created by Gibson and Birkinshaw (2004), to include psychological safety, reflexive spaces, and flexibility as sub-dimensions of adaptability and imprinting, rule-following and shared vision as sub-dimensions of alignment. On the basis of a sample of civil servants (n=200), we used exploratory factor analysis to identify a six-dimensional solution covering alignment and adaptability. Using another sample of civil servants (n=200), we used confirmatory factor analysis to test CASPO’s construct validity and regression analysis in testing the criterion validity. The results reveal that CASPO shows appropriate metric qualities and that it surpasses Gibson and Birkinshaw’s (2004) scale in predicting both their measure of generic organizational performance and a measure of performance specific for public organizations. This study contributes to the creation of sound measures of relevant concepts explaining the performance of public organizations.

Keywords: Contextual ambidexterity; scale development; public organizations; organizational performance; organizational paradoxes (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: C83 D22 L23 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.ramp.ase.ro/vol37/37-05.pdf (application/pdf)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:rom:rampas:v:2021:y:2021:i:37:p:74-89

Access Statistics for this article

REVISTA ADMINISTRATIE SI MANAGEMENT PUBLIC is currently edited by Androniceanu Armenia

More articles in REVISTA ADMINISTRATIE SI MANAGEMENT PUBLIC from Faculty of Administration and Public Management, Academy of Economic Studies, Bucharest, Romania Contact information at EDIRC.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Androniceanu Armenia ().