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PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to explore how public cultural organizations use ambidextrous design to balance exploitation and exploration given their organizational structure that mainly stimulates exploitation.Design/methodology/approachThe authors use an abductive methodology and, perform an in-depth comparative case study. The data sample consists of two Belgian public cultural centers located in the Flemish area. In all, 21 semi-structured interviews where analyzed using Nvivo.FindingsResults show, first, that although both cases have the same formal organization chart, their informal structure differs. Second, both cases have a different point of view toward exploitation and exploration. Third, no "pure" ambidextrous designs were found. Finally, the paper formulates theoretical propositions for ambidexterity and public sector research.Research limitations/implicationsLimitations of this paper are threefold. First, the authors only compared two cases, so generalization of the findings is limited. Second, although the authors managed to make contributions to ambidexterity and public sector research, theory building is not finished. Finally, researchers have to improve empirical evidence focusing on which design elements lead toward ambidextrous public organizations.Originality/valueThis paper makes a threefold contribution to ambidexterity literature and public sector research. First, the focus on public sector organizations is a rarely taken approach in ambidexterity research. Second, the specific use of ambidextrous design attributes to the limited public sector research that has focused on ambidexterity. Third, the focus on small organizations with limited resources is a rarely taken focus in ambidexterity and public sector research.

The importance of employee social media policies is recognized in today's increasingly connected organizations. Yet these policies are adopted at varying rates in different sectors and geographical regions. In the present study, an institutional approach was employed to investigate the predictors of the adoption of employee social media policies by organizations. Six predictors were examined, namely, organizational size, industry, and the national culture dimensions of power distance, individualism, masculinity, and uncertainty avoidance. Results of a logistic regression analysis of 558 online survey responses from human resource professionals worldwide showed that all six predictors were associated with the adoption of employee social media policies. These findings have implications for multinational companies, as well as for policy makers in the legal, human resources, information technologies, and public relations departments who are the primary parties involved in establishing employee social media policies. Study limitations are presented and future research avenues are suggested.

'Social media' has become a widely used term, and the subject of a growing body of academic research, but with little definitional consensus. The purpose of this article is to answer the question: what are social media? We examined existing scholarly definitions of the term 'social media' through a Lasswellian lens, by applying directed content analysis to a sample of 23 academic definitions retrieved from the top 179 cited papers on social media in the Web of Knowledge database. The present study makes two main contributions to the theorization of social media. First, we build on previous academic efforts to suggest an inclusive definition of social media based on Lasswell's act of communication. Second, using the suggested definition, we categorize social media channels based on three dimensions, that is, user, content format and function. This taxonomy is illustrated by presenting a social media cube that aims to help practitioners, managers, researchers and developers to both classify existing social media platforms, and identify prospective ones.