SENSEMAKING AS THE STRATEGIC BRIDGE: A MULTILEVEL MODEL OF COGNITIVE FLEXIBILITY AND ORGANIZATIONAL AMBIDEXTERITY IN NAVIGATING IMMIGRATION SERVICE-SECURITY TENSIONS
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.18623/rvd.v23.6602Palabras clave:
Organizational Ambidexterity, Cognitive Flexibility, Organizational Sensemaking, Dynamic Capability, Environmental Dynamism, ImmigrationResumen
Directorate General of Immigration of the Republic of Indonesia (DGII), as a public organization, is structurally required to balance service quality with security enforcement — a tension that constitutes a canonical exploration–exploitation dilemma. Yet how organizational ambidexterity emerges in bureaucratic, non-market settings remains theoretically and empirically underdeveloped. This study investigates the multi-level mechanisms through which organizational ambidexterity has been emerged within the DGII, an institution confronting a constitutive dual mandate: facilitating public services for cross-border mobility while maintaining national security to uphold sovereignty through enforcing immigration law. Drawing on multilevel structural equation modelling (ML-SEM) of survey data from 1,000 officers across 90 immigration checkpoint (TPI) — classified immigration offices (Class I Special TPI, Class I TPI, Class II TPI, and Class III TPI offices), we test a theoretically grounded model integrating cognitive flexibility, organizational sensemaking, dynamic capability, and environmental dynamism. Results reveal three principal findings. First, cognitive flexibility (individual level) shapes ambidexterity exclusively through organizational sensemaking — not through dynamic capability — establishing sensemaking as the sole effective conduit between individual cognition and organizational ambidexterity. Second, organizational sensemaking drives ambidexterity both directly and through dynamic capability, constituting a two-stage mediation pathway. Third, environmental dynamism amplifies the dynamic capability–ambidexterity relationship, confirming a contingency mechanism novel to the public sector literature. These findings challenge prevalent microfoundational assumptions, contribute a process-theoretic model of public ambidexterity, and yield actionable implications for public managers navigating service–security tensions.
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