The Plastic Materials in the "VUCA" World: Ambidexterity as a Necessity

The Plastic material, just like the Roman god Janus, has two faces. One face which emphasizes versatility and blessings of plastics, and the other, which unfortunately can be reduced to the term "reasonable concern". We live in a world marked by the crisis of growth and development, uncertain implications of technological discoveries, ecological degradation, and increased difficulty in achieving competitiveness. It is more obvious that modernity abounds with Volatility, Uncertainty, Complexity, and Ambiguity, forming a so-called VUCA world. This work considers a new conceptual and operational framework, based on understanding the VUCA world, which produces paradoxes personified in different contextual conditions in which organizations operate by balancing current and future sustainability. Considering the fact that competitive advantage is fleeting, it is necessary to critically observe the new reality and understand ambidexterity as a sophisticated concept of development and management ability. Changes should be wiser, more innovative, faster, and more effectively applied. The additional goal is to indicate the importance of a multidisciplinary and systematic approach in a time full of numerous dilemmas and unsolved issues of sustainable development, whereupon ambidexterity is a very important strategic priority.