The impact of emotions at work on the experienced engagement in individual ambidexterity
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School of Business |
Master's thesis
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en
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42+3
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Abstract
The demands of modern work and the constant transformation of working life has emphasized the importance of employees to the success of organizations. Previous research has shown the importance of multiple individual competences and psychological characteristics, such as emotions, in the success of organizations. Emotions and emotional skills have been accompanied by other transferable skills, of which individual ambidexterity can be considered one. Research on individual ambidexterity has grown in recent years. It has emerged as a key skill for coping in working life and it can be seen as one of the factors behind the success of organizations. Individual ambidexterity refers to an individual`s ability to be both explorative, i.e. to be able to explore and experiment, and exploitative, i.e. to be able to per-form routine tasks and activities, and moreover to move smoothly between these activities. However, research analyzing individual characteristics that may impact on individual ambidexterity is still rare. Especially the role of emotions remains slightly unknown. This quantitative study aims to investigate the impact of positive and negative emotions at work on the experienced level of engagement in individual ambidexterity, that is, the level of engagement in exploitative and explorative activities as perceived by employees themselves. The significance of this study is to increase the organizations’ understanding of the impact of emotions on individual ambidexterity and thereby potentially strengthen the understanding of the key role of emotions for transferable skills and organizations performance. The data used in this study were part of the larger TUNTO2-project funded by the Finnish Work Environment Fund. The data were cross-sectional, and it was collected by an online survey (N=834) conducted in three Finnish organizations from different sectors. The data was analyzed by using a three-step model hierarchical regression analysis model. Based on the survey-data from 834 Finnish employees, findings indicated that the role of emotions on the level of engagement in individual ambidexterity is significant, but the impact of emotions differs between the two dimensions of ambidexterity. Results from regression analysis indicated that positive emotions have a positive impact on the level of engagement in both explorative activities and exploitative activities. Negative emotions, however, have a significant negative impact on the level of engagement in exploitative activities alone. When considering both negative and positive emotions together, the impact of negative emotions appears to be significant also related to decreased level of engage-ment in exploration. Overall, the study aimed to increase the knowledge of the impact of emotions on the engagement in individual ambidexterity. Contrary to the hypothesized, experienced negative emotions do not have a strong negative impact on the engagement in exploration alone. Based on this, it might be more effective to create and enable positive emotional climates to increase the experienced engagement on exploration and exploitation, rather than to focus on reducing workplace distress.Description
Thesis advisor
Koveshnikov, AlexeiKoulouri, Anastasia