Linking organizational trust and performance through ambidexterity
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.1108/PR-07-2018-0239 |
| Pages | 956-973 |
| Published date | 22 November 2019 |
| Date | 22 November 2019 |
| Author | Odette Chams-Anturi,Maria D. Moreno-Luzon,Juan P. Escorcia-Caballero |
| Subject Matter | HR & organizational behaviour,Global HRM |
Linking organizational trust and
performance through ambidexterity
Odette Chams-Anturi
Department of Science Economics,
Universidad de la Costa, Barranquilla, Colombia
Maria D. Moreno-Luzon
Department of Business Management,
University of Valencia, Valencia, Spain, and
Juan P. Escorcia-Caballero
Department of Finance and Organizations,
Universidad del Norte, Barranquilla, Colombia
Abstract
Purpose –The literature provides mixed empirical evidence on the trust–performance relationship. The
purpose of this paper is to shed additional light on this relationship, using organizational ambidexterity as an
explanatory variable.
Design/methodology/approach –A structural equation technique was used to examine survey data
obtained from 377 Spanish organic agro-food industries.
Findings –The results obtained provide support to show that organizational ambidexterity has a mediating
role in the relationship between organizational trust and firm performance, in the organic agro-food industry.
Research limitations/implications –This study used a sample taken from only one industry and
country. Future research could expand the model to other countries and industries.
Practical implications –This study suggests that managers could use tools to enhance organizational
trust that would help to improve firm performance, given that trust can cause employees to adopt behaviors
related to ambidexterity. Therefore, managers can use trust as a mechanism to encourage more stable
relationships, increase the transfer of existing knowledge, facilitate experimentation and express ideas to
promote organizational ambidexterity, thus benefiting firm performance.
Originality/value –This research paper offers a new insight into how ambidexterity affects the
organizational trust-firm performance relationship. Even though there is growing theoretical importance
given to the concepts of trust and ambidexterity, the empirical evidence that demonstrates how both variables
are related to firm performance, especially in emerging sectors, is scarce.
Keywords Quantitative, Firm performance, Organizational ambidexterity, Organizational trust,
Organic agro-food industry
Paper type Research paper
Introduction
The study of trust at organizational level has received growing interest in recent years
(Fainshmidt and Frazier, 2017; Guinot, Chiva and Mallén, 2014). Trust is recognized as a
source of competitive advantage for organizations (Tan and Lim, 2009), and as an important
factor to achieve long-term organizational stability. Therefore, trust is necessary for the
proper functioning of organizations (Gulati and Nickerson, 2008). Several studies show a
positive relationship between trust and performance (Heavey et al., 2011; Mayer and
Gavin, 2005; Salamon and Robinson, 2008), though other studies reveal contradictory
relationships (Katsikeas et al., 2009; Zaheer et al., 1998), which has led to different
conclusions being drawn about this relationship. Accordingly, some authors have suggested
Personnel Review
Vol. 49 No. 4, 2020
pp. 956-973
© Emerald PublishingLimited
0048-3486
DOI 10.1108/PR-07-2018-0239
Received 4 July 2018
Revised 16 April 2019
9 September 2019
Accepted 22 September 2019
The current issue and full text archive of this journal is available on Emerald Insight at:
www.emeraldinsight.com/0048-3486.htm
This research is part of the Project ECO2015-71380-R funded by the Spanish Ministry of Economy,
Industry and Competitiveness and the State Research Agency. Co-financed by the European Regional
Development Fund (ERDF).
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PR
49,4
introducing different moderator and mediator variables to offer a better understanding of
the trust-performance relationship (Gaur et al., 2011).
Numerous researchers have stated that a firm’s survival depends on achieving
a balance between the exploitation of existing knowledge and the exploration of
new opportunities, and they have adopted the characteristic of ambidexterity to
describe this capability (D’Souza et al., 2017; He and Wong, 2004; O’Reilly and Tushman,
2008, 2013). The turning point and the consequent increase in interest and in research on
this capability date back to March (1991) who highlighted the importance of finding a
suitable balance between exploitation and exploration activities. A large number of
studies have also supported the positive effect of ambidexterity on firm performance
(Gualandris et al., 2018; Hsu et al., 2013; Jansen et al., 2012; Kauppila, 2015; Lee, Woo
and Joshi, 2017).
Following Gibson and Birkinshaw (2004), who proposed a relationship between
organizational contextual characteristics, ambidexterity and business performance, this
paper focuses on organizational trust since this is considered to be a key facilitator to
guarantee a cooperative environment. Organizational trust improves cooperation, facilitates
honest and open exchange of information, and the expression of ideas, enabling the
resolution of conflicts and problems through discussion (Arranz and Arroyabe, 2012;
Fryxell et al., 2002). Therefore, it seems reasonable to state that ambidexterity could mediate
the relationship between trust and firm performance.
Gibson and Birkinshaw (2004) argued that a context characterized by a combination of
stretch, discipline, support and trust facilitates ambidexterity. Furthermore, ambidexterity
mediates the relationship between these contextual features and performance. However,
when they measured organizational context by developing multi-item scales to represent the
dimension of discipline, stretch, support and trust identified by Ghoshal and Bartlett (1994),
the factor analysis revealed that four distinct constructs could not be identified using these
items. Instead, two factors became apparent. One of these factors represented a combination
of the items developed for discipline and stretch, and was referred to as “performance
management context.”The other factor represented a combination of the items developed
for support and trust, and was referred to as “social context”to represent the content of the
items in this construct.
Our general model, although backed by the research carried out by Gibson and
Birkinshaw (2004) as a framework for our objectives, has concentrated on measuring the
individual effect of organizat ional trust on ambidexterity and fi rm performance.
Accordingly, the goal of this research is to improve the understanding of how trust
affects firm performance through ambidexterity. In spite of the increasing theoretical
importance given to concepts such as organizational trust and ambidexterity, there is no
empirical evidence that shows how these variables are simultaneously related to
organizational performance. To achieve our objective, we carried out a quantitative analysis
of these relationships in the Spanish organic agro-food industry. We chose this industry
because of its fast growth worldwide and its need to be ambidextrous. Organic agro-food
companies face major challenges when harnessing the potential of this emerging sector,
since they have to efficiently manage current demands to reduce their costs and compete
with conventional products. In addition, they also have to anticipate market changes to
guarantee their survival (Moreno-Luzon, Gil-Marques and Chams-Anturi, 2018). Trust is a
fundamental factor in this as it enables them to promote the capabilities required to tackle
these fundamental challenges.
In this paper, we first review the literature related to the concepts of organizational trust
and ambidexterity, setting out specific hypotheses about relationships between constructs.
This is followed by the methodology and the results from the empirical study. Finally, we
discuss the results obtained and we put forward some conclusions.
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Linking
organizational
trust and
performance
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