Organisational ambidexterity in low-fee private schools in South Africa

Abstract

In a country where the public education system is failing, the need for affordable, quality education has given rise to increased demand for low fee private schooling and has created opportunities for edupreneurs to establish new educational institutions (Brewer, 2011). Organisational ambidexterity has been found to ensure success and long-term performance (OÕReilly, 2013; Raisch et al., 2009). Low Fee Private Schools need, therefore, to adopt an ambidextrous strategic orientation to ensure long-term. Organisational ambidexterity will require the schools to manage the tension between the required exploitation of its current service offering and exploration to improve its service offering to drive growth and meet future job requirements. The purpose of this research was to explore the concept of organisational ambidexterity as manifested in Low Fee Private Schools in order to establish which of the three mechanisms identified in the literature; sequential, structural, and/or contextual ambidexterity, are adopted by Low Fee Private Schools. 11 Low Fee private school principals, founders and/or managers provided various insights into how organisational ambidexterity manifests itself in low fee private schools. Organisations gravitate toward either exploration or exploitation based on environmental, organisational and managerial triggers that exist within their operating environment (Lavie et al., 2010). The findings from the research conducted reveal that the context in which low fee private schools operate causes them to gravitate towards exploitation often to the exclusion of exploration. The inability of the schools to explore may undermine the ability of the organisation to achieve long-term success