Tight-Loose Ambidexterity: Exploring How Leaders Can Effectively Balance Order and Constraint
Abstract
Organizational culture is highly influential in guiding the effective performance of its members. Branches of the military typically epitomize tight cultures (having strong norms and low tolerance for deviance), which accords them the vital capabilities of group synchrony and order, but in the extreme, can produce pendulum shifts of counterproductive loose behaviors as a reaction when personnel are off duty. Striking a balance of tight- and loose-based organizationalnorms is theorized to enable groups like the U.S. Navy to both foster alignment and order, but avoid excessive counterproductive behaviors. Using field studies, surveys, and in-lab group experiments, our multi-method research program will develop the means to diagnose, intervene, and best manage organizational norms to achieve both group order and latitude.For our first field study, we will do a large field study to assess the impact of tight and loose unit cultures on performance and the leadership styles that facilitate success. To develop measures on a work unit~s tight-loose culture and corresponding leadership styles, we will first conduct focus groups with employees and leaders in a large civilian organization that we have partneredwith. Through these interviews, we will develop measures of tightness-looseness in organizational units, as well as TL leadership ambidexterity. The final survey will be distributed company-wide to both leaders and employees across units to examine our hypotheses. The company will also grant us access to archival data on performance of units in this period.Simultaneously, we will apply a similar protocol in our research collaboration with the Navy. First, we will visit multiple Naval bases to conduct focus groups with service members and meet with individual officers. Through interviews with leadership and focus groups with service members, we will gain insight into obstacles units face in trying to balance their tight and loose norms. With this knowledge, we will finalize and deploy our survey of employees and leaders inNavy units to understand how the strength of unit norms and leadership styles facilitate each unit~s ability to strike a balance between order and autonomy. We will also work with Naval officials to obtain archival data on unit effectiveness, which we will use to examine linkages between tight-loose norms, leadership, and unit effectiveness, including counterproductive behaviors. We will use our results to formulate recommendations for achieving tight-loose ambidextrous leadership and norms, especially catered toward helping the Navy~s low performance units.In addition to field studies, we will also design new laboratory simulations to test the causal impact of the strength of norms on group effectiveness, along with how leadership moderates these effects. In these simulations, we will explore how tight and loose organizational cultures impact performance on various group tasks. We will also develop a manipulation to examine how leaders can influence their tight or loose teams. This will allow us to see how effectivelyleaders can alter a group~s cultural norms, and whether such an intervention can produce the ultimate balance of unit outcomes. These simulations will not only advance theory and enable us to test for causality, but will also offer a new platform that can be used in applied interventionsThis research program proposes major advancements in the study of organizational norms and its leaders. We believe the development of this body of knowledge, as well as the development of practical interventions that can activate tighter or looser cultures, will advance cultural studies and prove to be highly valuable to the U.S. Navy. This research will provide the Navy with theability to diagnose their multiple units~ tight-loose cultures and establish key ways to make their norms more ambidextrous.
Document Details
- Document Type
- DoD Grant Award
- Publication Date
- Aug 15, 2019
- Source ID
- N000141912403
Entities
People
- Michele J. Gelfand
Organizations
- Office of Naval Research
- United States Navy
- University of Maryland