Understanding the Dual Nature of Ambivalence: Why and When Ambivalence Leads to Good and Bad Outcomes

A growing body of research unveils the ubiquity of ambivalence—the simultaneous experience of positive and negative emotional or cognitive orientations toward a person, situation, object, task, or goal—in organizations, and argues that its experience may be the norm rather than the exception. Although traditionally viewed as something to be avoided, organizational scholars in fields ranging from microorganizational behavior to strategy have made...