Volume 29, Issue 5, 2020
DOI: 10.24205/03276716.2020.1199
Transactive Memory Systems in Top Management Teams and Organizational Ambidexterity: Evidence from Palestine
Abstract
Purpose – While several extant studies have found that transactive memory systems (TMS) among top management teams (TMTs) empowers innovation ambidexterity (IA), and individual innovation behavior (IIB). Yet, most of these studies have not paid sufficient attention on how the differentiated knowledge inherent in TMS is integrated. Our paper objectives to contribute to the literature by investigating how TMS promotes ambidexterity while exploring how TMT shared leadership and behavioral integration accounts for the TMS-IA and TMS-IIB paths.
Design/methodology/approach – This study is based on a questionnaire survey of 124 top managers in Palestinian banks. (within two times), the dependent variables in the first time, and the independent variable in the second time.
Findings – Our study finds that TMS has a positive and significant direct effect on shared leadership, behavioral integration, and innovation ambidexterity, and that shared leadership, while exhibiting a positive effect on innovation ambidexterity, also mediates the positive effect of TMS on innovation ambidexterity. While TMS does not exhibit any significant direct effect on (IIB), it did exhibit a significant total effect on IIB. However, shared leadership not only exhibited a positive and significant direct effect on IIB but also mediated the non-significant direct effect (but significant total effect) of TMS on IIB, thereby exhibiting an indirect-only mediation effect (full mediation). Behavioral integration exhibited a positive and significant effect on individual innovation behavior and innovation ambidexterity. However, unlike shared leadership, behavioral integration has no significant mediation effect on the TMS-IA path, neither does it mediate the TMS-IIB path. Finally, we find evidence for the significant moderating effect of TMT involvement on the behavioral integration-IIB path, with high levels of TMT involvement dampening the effect and low levels strengthening the effect.
Originality/value – The current research contributes to the literature to covers its gaps. We explored the individual team interface by considering the effect of TMS on an individual level of TMT’s behavior and the influence of behavioral integration. Moreover, responding to the call of future research recommendations of exploring the second-order TMS variables. Lastly, we choose a different cultural context of an occupied developing country (Palestine). We also focused on the bank’s top managers and executives.
Keywords
Transactive memory system, Shared leadership, Top management teams, TMT involvement, Innovation ambidexterity, behavioral integration, upper echelon theory, Individual Innovation behavior