Identifying the effect of employees’ individual characteristics on their ambidextrous behaviors with the moderating role of ethical orientation

Despite the increase of empirical studies on the organizational ambiguity phenomenon, which is the discovery of new opportunities while exploiting existing competencies, in entrepreneurship and management literatures, there is little knowledge about the factors affecting the formation of ambidextrous behaviors of employees in organisaions. The present study examines the relationship between individual entrepreneurial orientation and ethical behavior and contextual ambidexterity. This research is applied in terms of purpose and descriptive in terms of data collection method. Based on the questionnaire, the data were collected from 203 employees of food industry businesses in Tehran and analyzed with SmartPLS software. The research results show that entrepreneurial and ethical orientations increase individual ambidexterity, yet the moderating effect of ethics on the relationship between entrepreneurial orientation and individual ambidexterity has not been confirmed. These results suggest that exploratory behaviors, while performing daily tasks, can be expected from the employees who are more entrepreneurial and ethical.