This study contributes to emerging research on management of organisational tensions in the media industry. We approach the topic by utilising the concept of ambidexterity, which has hardly been applied to media organisations. The goal of this study is to provide a capability-based approach to organisational ambidexterity. Thus, we offer a new approach for analysing media management by operationalising ambidexterity with operational and dynamic capabilities.

The study analyses what kinds of tensions ambidexterity creates between managerial operational and dynamic capabilities. The empirical analysis is based on interviews with top-level managers at the Finnish Broadcasting Company, Yle, during 2013/14. The approach is qualitative. The results are presented by using our theoretical approach of combining exploration and exploitation (ambidexterity) with sensing and seizing (dynamic and operational capabilities).

This article addresses the critical role of creativity as a core resource in media work. Drawing on an empirical analysis, the study produces a new understanding about the significance of creativity in media organisations and their management. It identifies three critical aspects of creativity, i.e. co-operation willingness, experimental atmosphere and supportive practices, and discusses three corresponding managerial focus areas. Thus, this article offers both theoretical contributions in relation to critical creativity in media work and practical implications for managing creativity as a strategic resource in media organisations. 

This paper is concerned with the management of creativity in a media organisation under change. It reports and analyses a case study conducted in one of Europe’s largest media corporations: the focus of the study was a development team set up charged with creating and producing a new multi-platform media service. The paper discusses the ways that the creativity of media professionals is supported and managed under constantly changing working conditions. The study contributes to research on creativity in the media industry, particularly the management of creativity. The results identify a number of motivations and constraints to creative work in a media organisation. The paper also maintains that change management and communicationare crucial to the effective management of a creative media organisation.

This article is concerned with the management of creative journalistic work in a media organisation. It reports and analyses a case study conducted in one of Europe's largest media corporations: the focus of the study was a development team of journalists set up and charged with creating and producing a new multi-platform media service and its content. The article discusses the ways in which the creativity of media professionals is supported and managed under the constantly changing conditions of media work and journalistic practices. The study contributes to research on creativity in the media industry, particularly the management of creativity in journalism and media work. The findings identify the key motivations and constraints in relation to creative journalistic work in the media industries under digital transformation. Specifically, media professionals are motivated by the opportunity for developing new skills and competencies as well as chances to create new journalistic products and practices. The article suggests that the skills of change management, communication management and project management are crucial for creative media work.

In this paper we investigate creative processes in media organization from the viewpoint of serendipity and management of serendipity. In particular, we want to find out how creative media work can benefit from opportunities presented by serendipity, i.e. the accidental discovery of something valuable. Based on an analysis of empirical data collected with the diary method in a media organization, we argue that the serendipitous potential of media organizations is improved if creativity is rigorously managed towards specified strategic, structural and cultural objectives. The study contributes to theory building around serendipity, especially in the field of media management research. It also discusses the rationale of managing for serendipity in creative media organizations. As far as management practices are concerned, our aim is to provide preliminary insights into managing for serendipitous creativity in media organizations.

In this article we explore the conditions for creative work in media organizations from the viewpoint of serendipity and the management of serendipity. Our study contributes to the field of media management research by theorizing change and creativity within the framework of organizational serendipity. Based on an analysis of empirical data collected with the diary method in a media organization, the article also discusses the rationale of managing for serendipity in creative media organizations from strategic, structural, and cultural viewpoints. We argue that the management of organizational serendipity should be aimed at managing for serendipity, not managing serendipity as such. In practice, this means that serendipity management should be understood as creating suitable conditions for serendipitous creative processes and facilitating creative work, motivation, and collaboration in the organization.

The focus of this article is to develop theory and understanding about organisational creativity as a communicative phenomenon, especially from the viewpoint of creative interaction within teams. Interaction is central to creative processes, yet research concerning the subject has been scarce. Based on empirical analysis of a media organisation using the diary method and grounded theory, the article concentrates on understanding creative interaction as communication practices in an organisational context. The article contributes to the theory of creativity in organisations by introducing the spontaneous and routinised spheres of team-level creative interaction and by presenting a typology of six related communication practices.

This article discusses the phenomenon of serendipity in media work and in media organizations. Based on an empirical analysis of diary material, we identify and elaborate three types of serendipitous processes in creative work, that is, serendipitous, semi-serendipitous and antiserendipitous processes. In addition, we discuss the role of lucky incidents and human capabilities in serendipity, and consider their value to creative processes in media organizations. We argue that conceptual frameworks and theories of serendipity are useful in identifying, evaluating and harnessing unpredicted and accidental creative incidents and processes. The article shows that serendipity offers valuable conceptualizations and insights for scholars and practitioners alike in the context of the rapidly changing media industry and media work.

This paper discusses the phenomenon of serendipity in creative media work and in media organizations. Based on an empirical analysis of diary material, we identify and elaborate three types of serendipitous processes in media work, i.e. serendipitous, semiserendipitous and antiserendipitous processes. In addition we discuss the role of lucky incidents and human capabilities in serendipity, and consider their value to creative processes in media work and media organizations. We argue that conceptual frameworks and theories of serendipity are useful in identifying, evaluating and harnessing unpredicted and accidental creative incidents and processes. The paper shows that conceptualizations of serendipity can offer valuable frameworks and insights for research, professionals and companies in the changing media industry.

This article examines how change as a media management phenomenon is approached and understood in the research fields of media management, media business and media economics. By means of a systematic literature review and problematising methodology, the article unpacks the ways in which change as a phenomenon is comprehended in the extant research and elaborates on the implications of various schools of thought on the development of the research area. The findings of the study illustrate how different paradigmatic, contextual and pragmatic ways of understanding change are reflecting the current thinking and discussion about transformation in the media industry. As a contribution, the article adds to media management research by reviewing, identifying and critically reflecting on the dominant views of change in the area.

This chapter discusses the development of a media cluster called Mediapolis in Tampere, Finland, during its initial years. Mediapolis is a brownstone, real estate creative cluster project that combines public and private organisations in cross-sector collaboration. Mediapolis is situated in the premises formerly owned by the Finnish Broadcasting Company, Yle. Mediapolis aims to create value through collaborative media innovation and new content creation. The development of Mediapolis is strongly supported by Tampere City and regional authorities. The qualitative case study reflects on opportunities and challenges of clusters as tools for collaboration. The case study illustrates complications in developing media clusters based on collaborative value between the participating organisations rather than on spatial arrangements (as the traditional understanding of clusters). The case study revealed organisational tensions that emerge through dualities between (1) private and public organisational orientations, (2) ideal planning and practical actions and (3) individual organisations’ self-interest and collective interest for collaboration. The case study results show the importance for urban planners, local policymakers and creative cluster managers of anticipating, identifying and managing various organisational tensions in media cluster development.

This article aims to inform theory and practice on the features of ambidextrous HRM that are required to transform creativity into content innovation within the rapidly changing context of creative media organizations. An empirical, qualitative case study is utilized to examine ambidextrous HRM as a response to dual tensions that are characteristic of media content development work, especially in relation to exploration and exploitation. The analysis focuses on issues that hamper the establishment of an ambidextrous HRM system in a traditional and established media organization, thus shedding light on the development of an ambidextrous HRM system more generally in knowledge-intensive industries facing disruptive change. The findings suggest that creative content development work, which is deeply dependent on individual creative talent, requires an ambidextrous approach to HRM for the successful management of innovation initiatives (i.e. exploration) alongside on-going production processes (i.e. exploitation), including that the lack of ambidextrous HRM may severely harm development initiatives. The results of the analysis indicate that bridging conventional and ambidextrous HRM principles is essential for sustainable co-existence of production and innovation in organizational contexts characterized by tensions. The qualitative case study offers new understanding regarding managing development work and organizational creativity for innovation in a traditional company in turbulent change, and elaborates especially on the constraints, conflicts, tensions and complications of the necessary boundary-crossing for integrating exploration and exploitation.

In the current turbulent environment, media organisations are expected to be on the leading edge of innovation to survive – and especially to thrive. However, the established practices and preferred work patterns of traditional organizations impose systemic constraints on the realization of media innovations (Ess 2014). Research into creativity leading to innovation in media organizations has been scarce, and similarly case studies about creative work practices (Mierzejewska 2011, Hesmondhalgh & Baker 2011, Küng 2008). Addressing these topics in media management research is an urgent need.

This paper explores theoretical assumptions regarding the realization of innovation in creative media work. The literature and previous research on creativity (as the prerequisite for innovation), especially organizational creativity in the workplace and operationalizing innovation (as the outcome of creativity), as well as studies on management of both interdependent aspects, are utilized. Special emphasis is placed on the constraints (see e.g. Rosso 2014), conflicts and complications of crossing boundaries and borders in a creative media organisation striving for innovation.

Achieving innovation in media content requires management expertise in development work. This work differs from routine production because it requires experimentation and involves higher risk of failures. Further, content development work presupposes creative organization capabilities, rather than the traditional emphasis on efficiency and uniformity via standardisation (see Mintzberg 1989 for innovative organization). Theories on creativity and innovation suggest that new things come from differences ‘colliding’ (e.g. Amabile et al. 2005), i.e. result from variation in e.g. makers, genres or media. Sustaining innovation creates a complex and paradoxical situation because managers must on the one hand ‘back off’ and allow for failures and individual proclivities that are characteristic in development work, which depends on creativity, while at the same time they must create and enforce procedures to ensure the work meets stipulated objectives and achieves a useful outcome. This often leads to conflict because organisations have political systems with varying interests and understandings. This fuels power struggles and creates complications as a routine fact of organizational dynamics (Morgan 2006, see also Mintzberg et al. 2005).

Media production requires diverse specialists and a creative organisation spans levels from the individual to teams and all of this contextualized in an organisational work culture that is often actually a range of work cultures. An organization features a dynamic that is simultaneously interdependent and controversial. Focusing on one aspect is not sufficient for understanding the totality. However, creativity and innovation have been sparsely studied using multi-level perspectives and this approach is vital for understanding creativity leading to innovations in media management theory and in the practice of media organizations. Because development work is a complex task, a systems perspective on creativity (see e.g. Csikzentmihalyi 2006, McIntyre 2013, Tan 1998) is a useful theoretical frame for analysing creativity and innovation management in media organizations (and beyond).

After sketching the theoretical basis, the paper analyses an empirical case: the programme development initiative that Yleisradio (Yle), the PSB of Finland, accomplished in the early to mid 2000s. The analysis emphasizes the conflict-sensitive nature of relationships that depend on interaction between innovation teams and their projects and the ongoing operations that can be understood as “the Performance Engine” (Govindarajan & Trimble 2010). The paper looks at the organizational and work setting (see e.g. Mumford 2012) in retrospect, and specifically analyzes the reasons for the initiative’s failure and dissolution despite being a good concept and a productive practice in the task of media content development.

The case usefully illustrates the paradoxes discussed in this abstract by assessing a creative organization tasked with innovation inside a traditional media company. The results demonstrate a constant need to work across boundaries and borders both within and outside the firm, keyed to complexities of many types in relationships, e.g. in ways of thinking, unit priorities and systems, media, cultures, specializations, etc. The paper explores the difficulties, conflicts and complications that are characteristic of development work, being both different from Yle’s routine operations and, at the same time, a constituent part of them. The author has access to all of the data (e.g. strategy and operational documents, personal notes, evaluations, development procedures, negotiations, etc.) for the entire period that chronicles the experiment from 2002 to 2005. The case opens valuable possibilities for learning about managing organizational creativity for innovation in a media company, and especially for understanding constraints, conflicts and complications that are typical.

This paper aims to inform theory and practice on the features of HRM that facilitate and hamper the transformation of creativity into innovation in the rapidly changing context of media organizations. The study takes an illustrative case approach to examine how conventional HRM and ambidextrous HRM create productive or counterproductive responses to the dual tensions that are characteristic of media content development work, i.e., exploration and exploitation. The analysis sheds light on what constitutes an ambidextrous HRM system generally, and, specifically, the features of an ambidextrous HRM in the context of creative media industries. The findings demonstrate that media content development work requires ambidextrous HRM for the successful management of innovation initiatives alongside on-going production processes, including that the lack of ambidextrous HRM may severely harm development initiatives. The results indicate that bridging conventional and ambidextrous HRM principles and practices is vital to ensure sustainable and harmonious co-existence of production and innovation in organizational contexts characterized by tensions. The longitudinal qualitative case study offers new understanding regarding managing development work and organizational creativity for innovation in a traditional media company, and the constraints, conflicts, tensions and complications they present for ambidextrous HRM development.

This dissertation explores organisational tensions and their management in creative content development work in the context of creative industries, particularly media. The study focuses on the dynamic relationship and complexities between current business (exploitation) and future business (exploration), where tensions become managerial issues. It builds on dualities as the overarching analytical concept. The combination of theorisations on ambidexterity, value networks and hybrid organisations is used to examine organisational tensions as dynamic interrelationships between the elements of dualities.

This compilation dissertation builds on three qualitative case studies, which are investigated in six individual, empirical papers. The case organisations include a company from both public and private media, as well as a collaborative arrangement in a creative industry cluster. The longitudinal empirical data comprises diary writings, interviews, documentation and participant observations.

The study extends the understanding about how and why organisational tensions pose a demanding managerial challenge to established companies. It suggests that these tensions cannot be solved as such; instead, they need to be managed “with” rather than “against”. The study contributes to previous literature by combining theoretical perspectives to create links between existing approaches on ambidexterity. Regarding clusters, the study offers new knowledge by shifting the focus from mere spatial co-location to shared value creation through collaborative relationships.

As implications for practice, the study suggests that managerial effort is required to anticipate, identify, evaluate, and navigate tensions in creative work. The results emphasise the key importance of embracing interrelated, coexisting, enduring, and complex tensions as a multifaceted package.

Cross-sector collaboration combining public (noncommercial) and private (commercial) organisational orientations is expected to provide support for the flexible and dynamic responses required in the disruptive operational environments, which challenge the performance and survival of creative industry organisations. However, such collaboration features complexity and tensions. This article explores inherent tensions of cross-sector collaboration by utilising theorisations on hybrid organisations. A qualitative case study of a hybrid organisation, which was created to manage a creative industry cluster, is used as means to explore and analyse the tensions. The focus is on tensions because their successful management increases the value-creation potential of cross-sector collaborations. The results contribute to emergent scholarly discussions on hybrid organisations and hybrid organising, focusing on the central role of tensions as a management challenge. In addition to the theoretical contributions, the results have implications for managers aiming to cope with collaborative tensions in practice.

The main task and focus of work of any Public Service Broadcasting Company, in this case the Finnish Broadcasting Company YLE, is to make programmes. Each company has a certain production culture according to which the programmes are produced and done in practice. The competition in the electronic media field is hard, and will remain fierce in the future. So the crucial question is how to develop programs in a traditional PSB Company? And that requires a correlated understanding (and undertaking) because developing programmes also requires developing the company in various aspects.

When developing programmes for public service broadcasting the question is how to adapt rather than adopt the commercial and also often foreign influences for Finnish programme development in YLE. The notion of a programme is complicated. As traditionally understood in broadcasting, a programme is a product with many dimensions: e.g., format and structure, content, genre, technology and production. Moreover, discrete and also related programmes are the ingredients for programming, understood as a sequence of individual programmes forming the overall content of a schedule. The software industry has a very different concept, however. There a programme implies something quite different and includes elements such as coding, structure and architecture, usability and interface. At the same time, a programme is some broader process: e.g. a programme of research and development.  This discussion informs the substance of the paper. The case that illustrates is YLEdge.

YLEdge – YLE Programme Development – was created to help YLE to develop its programmes and programming. YLEdge is a development program to benefit YLE as a whole. The author will discuss the creation of the unit, its blueprint idea and the work in practice. There was no tradition of a domestic, systematic process for programme development, nor organizational mandate and structure. It has already been discovered during the first half a year of the operation that some of the original aims were too much ahead of the issues that the YLE work culture was ready to accept and there were conflicts over the mandate and division of YLEdge capacity among the different players inside the company.

Public service media organisations face increasing demands for renewal in their output, production processes and management practices due to the rapidlytransforming environment. The traditional in-house, channel-based production approach and structures for innovation development and managementdo not suffice in the current realities. Instead, PSB organisations need to develop co-operative arrangements with various partners in the media industriesand beyond, to be able to cope with the rapidly growing demands for renewal, efficiency and relevance. In the situation described above, the concept andtheories of value networks become useful. Value is no longer created internal to a single organisation, but in complex co-opetitive (competitive and co-operativeat the same time) relationships between various actors. Accordingly, managerial arrangements and practices need renewal. However, managementof value networks is a complex endeavour due to the various tensions between different aims, arrangements or approaches of the value network members.Skilful management of boundary-crossing relationships and dependencies is crucial for building, maintaining and developing value networks that potentiallyenable innovative co-operation between PSM and private media organisations for renewal and innovation. This qualitative paper explores managerialchallenges of value networks, aiming at creating new understanding for media management research, especially. A new media cluster, Mediapolis (http://mediapolis.fi/en/), is being created in Tampere, Finland. Mediapolis aims at becoming a network for content production and digital industries with a vision”Mediapolis is a centre for storytelling and digital industries, where interdisciplinary innovations are born”. The Mediapolis campus was launched in the autumn2014. In January 2016, the key partners of Mediapolis, including Yle, founded an official co-operative organisation as the Mediapolis “organisational”structure. The next challenge is to develop the operational structures and practical management procedures for the Mediapolis value network. The paperlooks at value networks as a managerial challenge especially for the traditional public service company in Finland. The focus is on management practicesand processes in a value network between media organisations. The qualitative, empirical case study utilizes semi-structured interviews from differentstages of Mediapolis development as well as and documentation of the project. The author has followed the development of Mediapolis over several years,from the real-estate development stage of the project to the current development aims towards a network of media organisations for co-productions,innovation and shared value creation. The Mediapolis case opens useful possibilities for analysing of co-operative arrangements and practices betweena traditional PSB company and private media organisations. The managerial challenges in creating and developing the Mediapolis operational model havebeen significant, which is still the case to the date. The paper provides a timely opportunity to explore the forming stage of a collaborative value network inthe media industry, involving a PSB company as a major player and contributor.

This paper discusses the first findings ofƒ project to create ƒmedia clusterin Finland, called‘Mediapolis’. Yleisradio [Yle], the Finnish public service broadcasting corporation, hasƒsignificant role and is the focus of our particular interest. Yle’s current corporate strategy emphasises the importance of ‘openness’ with the wider industry, and indeed with Finnish society, and recognises that as an essential aspect in creative organisation development. Here we apply some key lessons from creative organisation theory to networked co-operation with ƒfocus on content innovation. The partners involved in the Mediapolis project intend for this to become ƒmedia cluster and have international ambitions. We investigate the ideas and intensions of the partners (which include especially Technopolis and the Tampere University of Applied Sciences, as well as the municipal and regional authorities). According to our respondents, Mediapolis is understood at least from three different dimensions: ƒvision, ƒco-operative network and an economic stimulus. Significant challenges for Mediapolis development can be summarised as ƒquestion of attractiveness in varied aspects: of the premises, of the area - and of Mediapolis as ƒcluster.

In the turbulent environment of media convergence, public service broadcasting [PSB] organisations are expected not only to produce quality content but also to take risks and lead in the pursuit of innovation.

This poses a significant challenge in the continuing transition to public service media [PSM]1, which is largely what convergence means in practice for the public sector. Convergence is about cross-boundaries, blurring them and perhaps even erasing. This is about administrative and production practices, but also importantly about learning new ways of thinking.

That is not simple or easy for organisations that are typically big, old and traditional. There is a heritage of doing things differently than the commercial sector, but reluctance to do things differently than the internally developed heritage.

This creates enormous challenges for bridging the various elements that must be bridged to secure innovation. This paper is about those challenges. The focus is on crossing boundaries to achieve innovation within and for PSM content development.

We argue that there is scholarly potential in linking theory on industry clusters with theory on value networks. To date, these two theoretical streams have developed largely in parallel, limiting understanding of how the two are integrated in practice. By considering these theories in combination and the unique context of creative industries, we generate insight on the management of clusters as value networks. Our ongoing longitudinal empirical case is a new media cluster called ‘Mediapolis’ in the city of Tampere, Finland. The case study commenced at the time the cluster was in the planning and early operational stage. Results demonstrate the usefulness of linking the two theories, and support a future research agenda examining the types of cluster configurations meeting the criteria of value networks, and the conditions under which value network cluster configurations are more sustainable than simply a spatial agglomeration of clusters.

The authors explain the crucial importance of crossing boundaries to achieve innovation in PSM content development. The reasons are explained with reference to creative organisation and innovation theories, and demonstrated in practice via analysis of an empirical case from Yle, the Finnish Broadcasting Corporation. The chapter focuses on characteristic challenges and practices in boundary crossing at three levels: organisational, group (or team) and individual. Key findings include lessons about the complexity of building and maintaining a creative media organisation in practice, especially in relation to designing structures, organisational arrangements and tools to make it happen, i.e. the move from ideation to realisation. Internal politics, organisational resistance, and managerial complications are confounding factors. The chapter demonstrates how and why nurturing collaboration across boundaries is a complex task that requires a particular and special skills set for media managers.

Media organisations face growing demands for co-operation. Achieving innovation that is vital requires collaborative arrangements based on creative interaction. Collaboration is often realized in networked operations between media organisations (e.g. Baumann, 2013), media clusters as one example. At the same time, competition in the media field intensifies. It is here that the concept and theory of value networks becomes useful (e.g. de Man, Berends, Lammers, van Raaij & van Weele 2008; Bathelt, Malmberg & Maskell, 2004). Also, the intensity, i.e. the frequency and range of interactions in clusters of media companies becomes a central factor for consideration (Picard, 2008). In this reality, managerial challenges, especially, in relation to interaction, collaboration and co-opetition are considerable, and respective competences need to be developed and utilized for success.

Collaborative production is typical for innovation-intensive industries (Nohria & Eccles, 1992), and media firms are no different in this respect. However, the configuration of collaborative relationships in and between media organisations in networks is a complex managerial task, especially in the rapidly changing environment of diminishing resources. Media managers must be competent in handling various dependencies in value networks for shared value creation (e.g. Bilton, 2007), and especially the related tensions. To be useful, co-operative relationships need to be created and built, and the network development happens in stages (Büchel & Raub, 2002).

The empirical case of the paper is Mediapolis (http://mediapolis.fi/en/) in Tampere, Finland. It is a new media centre and a cluster, an ecosystem and a network for content production and digital industries with a vision ”Mediapolis is a centre for storytelling and digital industries, where interdisciplinary innovations are born”. The Mediapolis campus was launched in the autumn 2014, although the planning started some years before. It is an interesting case for analysis, because its viability depends on the creation and management of a creative value network.

Mediapolis development illustrates challenges and tensions of simultaneous collaboration and competition, i.e. co-opetition in a value network aiming for innovation. Especially, the managerial challenges in creating and developing the Mediapolis operational model have been significant, and continue to be so. The paper explores the first years of Mediapolis, providing a unique access to the forming stage of a creative media cluster development and its management. Thus, the paper contributes directly to the conference theme by developing understanding about creative collaboration and coopetition aiming at achieving media innovation, especially focusing on the complexity of interactions and tensions between Mediapolis partners.

The empirical research material consists of semi-structured interviews, including the main Mediapolis partners’ management representatives as interviewees. The interviews have been conducted in different stages of Mediapolis development, e.g. in the early stages of planning and after the campus launch. Also, Mediapolis documentation has been collected from open sources (e.g. websites) and acquired from partner organisations. The study utilizes a qualitative case study approach (Stake, 1995), suitable for analysing unique cases in detail to create understanding about a phenomenon. Document analysis (Bowen, 2009) and qualitative thematic coding with ‘factual’ approach (e.g. Patton, 2002; Alastalo & Åkerman, 2010) are used as methodological approaches, and Atlas.ti software is utilized for analysis.

In conclusion, the purpose of the paper is to discuss and elaborate on the various managerial and organisational dependencies and tensions in creating Mediapolis. Further, a central focus will be on the managerial competences required to deal with the new realities of value networks successfully in the media industry. The methodological approach is qualitative, with the aim of creating new knowledge on the scholarly field of media management for both academic and practical purposes. In media management, value networks have been scarcely researched, but the topic is highly timely and worthy of scholarly attention.

Research question and theoretical approach

Currently, media managers face extensive challenges in combining the constant demands for operational and organisational change, innovation and creative development with the requirements for higher efficiency and refinements for greater streamlining of the on-going production. In attempts to understand this complex phenomenon, this paper offers a strategic management approach by applying the concepts of ambidexterity and organizational capabilities.

Ambidexterity refers to an ability to simultaneously exploit current assets and mature markets profitably as well as to explore developmental possibilities for competing in new technologies and markets, utilizing environmental changes and organizational resources to capture new opportunities (O’Reilly & Tushman, 2011; O’Reilly & Tushman 2013; see also March 1991). Achieving both at the same time, i.e. being truly ambidextrous in practice, should enable continuous successful development, but achieving that is difficult and inevitably leads to various tensions and paradoxes on different organisational levels (O’Reilly & Tushman, 2004; Andriopoulos & Lewis, 2009; Raisch, Birkinshaw, Probst & Tushman, 2009). This presents a challenge for media managers aiming at adapting their organisations to both optimize and to innovate (see Küng, 2007). However, there is a lack of theoretical understanding about how the conscious management of ambidexterity actually happens in organisations (O’Reilly & Tushman, 2008; O’Reilly & Tushman, 2011). Media organizations are exceptionally relevant and fruitful cases for discussing ambidexterity, because they do not traditionally separate on-going production, understood as exploitation, and innovative development, approached as exploration, but aim at achieving both simultaneously and effectively.

The concept of organizational capabilities offers an insightful way to analyse ambidextrous tensions during strategic change. As applied in strategy research, capabilities can be divided hierarchically into operational and dynamic capabilities (Zollo & Winter, 2002; Hine, Parker, Pregelj &Verreynne, 2013). Operational capabilities exploit the existing resources for incremental innovations whereas so called higher-order dynamic capabilities explore new technologies and other resources for radical innovations. In our study, dynamic capabilities are defined as organization’s capacity to sense and seize new opportunities and reconfigure its resource base to address the changing environment (Teece, Pisano & Shuen, 1997; Helfat, Finkelstein, Mitchell, Peteraf, Singh, Teece & Winter, 2007; Teece, 2007). The senior management abilities and competence are crucial in relation to resource allocation and in orchestrating “the complex trade-offs that the simultaneous pursuit of exploration and exploitation requires” (O’Reilly & Tushman, 2011, p. 6). The development of capabilities and managing the inherent tensions is a central, but at the same time a complex executive leadership responsibility in ambidextrous organizations (O’Reilly & Tushman, 2008; O’Reilly & Tushman, 2011).

Research design

Empirically, the paper analyses what is characteristic to ambidextrous tensions and their management (prerequisites and requirements) in relation to organizational capabilities on the basis of an empirical case from Yle, the public service broadcaster of Finland. The empirical research material consists of 20 semi-structured in-depth interviews conducted with Yle senior management during winter 2013/14. At the time Yle was taking strategic actions in relation to digitalization of its content production, structures and customer relationship.

In the interviews, managers were asked about the difficulties, challenges and tensions they have faced during the change process. They were also asked about how they understand the need for change, how they scan the changing media market and make decisions. The analysis approach is qualitative, and the transcribed interviews are analysed according to a thematic analysis and coding method (e.g. Patton, 2002; Miles, Huberman, & Saldaña, 2014) using Atlas.ti data analysis software. The preliminary analysis shows that managers are continuously balancing between exploitation and exploration. Also, ambidextrous tensions seem to underlie strategic thinking and managerial processes and practices on an everyday basis.

Contributions and managerial implications

The reasonably new research area around ambidexterity is evolving and growing (e.g. Raisch & Birkinshaw, 2008; Lavie, Stettner & Tushman, 2010). However, in relation to media organisations or media management it has hardly been applied (for a rare example, see Järventie-Thesleff, Moisander & Villi, 2014). The operationalization of ambidexterity with operational and dynamic capabilities offers a fresh and insightful approach for analysing media management in the face of digitalization. The theoretical approach will provide media managers with new insights and practical understanding of e.g. how managing change relates to capabilities and competencies that either exploit and support continuity or explore and create discontinuity, and especially of the ways to tackle the related ambidextrous tensions between exploitation and exploration.

Cross‐sector collaboration combining public (non‐commercial) and private (commercial) organisational orientations is considered an advantageous and dynamic strategic approach to shared value creation and co‐creative innovation in disruptive operational environments of media industries. However, cross‐sector collaboration features inherent complexities and organisational tensions due to the fundamental differences between the actors’ strategies and operational models. This article explores organisational tensions and dualities in media work in the cross‐sector collaboration of media clusters. The qualitative case study examines the development of the management approach and practical operations of the Finnish media cluster Mediapolis, which aims to produce value, especially through collaborative content and concept innovation. The case study builds on extensive empirical material collected since the Mediapolis project started in 2011 until 2018. The analysis focuses on the management of complexities and organisational tensions in implementing collaborative strategies at Mediapolis, as well as managing the shared operations and work of the cluster. The results reveal tensions between the core dualities in developing Mediapolis as a collaborative arrangement between the participating organisations in practice, despite shared strategic‐level aspirations. The findings elaborate on the dynamics of different organisational orientations and business logics, discrepancies between visionary planning and practical actions, and opposing organisational interests and strategies as sources for organisational tensions in collaborative contexts. The article contributes to both the theoretical and practical knowledge on organisational tensions and their management in cross‐sector collaboration in media cluster development and provides implications for managing respective complexities in media work.

This article analyses creative work in one of Europe’s largest media organizations, in which a newly formed development team was tasked with creating a new multi-platform media product. The objective of this article is to explore the dynamics of team creativity in the process of developing and managing media content innovation. To do this, this study utilizes the concept of ambidexterity for understanding multi-level tensions between the on-going media production work and innovation processes typically co-existing in media operations. The results of the analysis indicate that, due to pressures created by the routine media production, media innovations require specific focus and prioritization to succeed. This requires recognizing, balancing and managing the ambidextrous tensions between exploration and exploitation in creative media work. In addition to practical implications for management of media innovations, this study contributes to research on media innovations, particularly from the perspectives of creative work and organizational creativity.