Organizational Ambidexterity Management Model in Pesantren-Based Islamic Educational Institutions in the Disruptive Era: Integrating the Exploitation of Tradition and the Exploration of Institutional Innovation

Abstract

This study examines how a pesantren-based Islamic educational institution manages the tension between institutional continuity and innovation through organizational ambidexterity. A qualitative single-case study was conducted at Pesantren ATQIA, Kademangan, Bondowoso, from March to June 2026. Sixteen informants were selected purposively from the board of caretakers, pesantren administrators, teachers, dormitory administrators, and senior santri. Data were generated through in-depth interviews, participant observation, and document analysis, and were analyzed using the interactive process of data condensation, data display, and conclusion drawing and verification. The findings show that ambidexterity was organized through five connected mechanisms. First, tradition operated as an organizational anchor that maintained identity, values, culture, and institutional legitimacy. Second, kyai leadership functioned as a strategic filter and balancing mechanism that assessed the compatibility of proposed changes with pesantren values. Third, educational practice combined continuity in substantive values with adaptation in methods, media, and strategies. Fourth, structural and relational integration connected stable role arrangements with coordination, feedback, and organizational learning. These mechanisms supported a dynamic process of tradition exploitation, strategic filtering, innovation exploration, organizational learning, and institutionalization. The study contributes a context-sensitive model of organizational ambidexterity in which tradition is treated as an adaptive resource rather than as the opposite of innovation. Because the evidence derives from one pesantren, the model is offered as an analytically grounded explanation of this case rather than as a statistically generalizable pattern.