Ambidextrous leadership for innovation: the influence of culture

Ambidextrous leadership: a narrative literature review for theory development and directions for future research

Purpose

This study seeks to provide a narrative literature review of existing empirical research, in order to better understand the processes and theory of ambidextrous leadership, as well as its influence on followers, employees and organizations.

Design/methodology/approach

Data from 26 studies were extracted and synthesied providing a critical discussion about the methodological and theoretical aspects of the studies identified in the review.

Findings

It was revealed the attributes for an effective ambidextrous leader, it was presented the recently proposed concept of ambidextrous leadership theory and it was noticed the main criticisms against the findings of the extant ambidextrous leadership literature. It was also identified many research gaps in the literature which in turn can guide academics in the development of ambidextrous leadership.

Research limitations/implications

The ambidextrous leadership theory represents a novel and unique approach to the domain of leadership for creativity and innovation. It is shared across hierarchical levels throughout the organization. Leaders have a significant effect on employees' behaviors and should determine its applicability to different situations. Organizations require ambidextrous managers who combine flexible, situational and versatile leadership styles developing ever increasingly new and divergent ideas. Many research gaps in the literature were also identified that can guide academics in the development of ambidextrous leadership.

Practical implications

Understanding that ambidextrous leadership is required to significantly influence ambidexterity and innovation allows organizations to direct their leadership selection and development.

Originality/value

This review contributes to the ambidextrous leadership literature by creating a holistic picture of where it has been and where it should go.

FOSTERING TEAM INNOVATION IN TECH START-UPS: THE ROLE OF TEAM AMBIDEXTERITY AS MEDIATOR BETWEEN SERVANT LEADERSHIP BEHAVIOUR AND TEAM INNOVATION

Early technology start-up faces a lot of problems such as leader mentality, ecosystem, lack of general knowledge, and innovation. One of the root causes is the absence of leadership role. This study is constructed to fill a research gap on the influence of servant leadership behaviour to team innovation in technology start-up. The authors propose team ambidexterity as mediator to enhance the role of servant leadership behaviour in fostering team innovation. We also investigate the team climate as a moderator to support the team ambidexterity. The samples are 207 start-up members in Indonesia which aggregated into 59 clustered samples. The result shows that the team ambidexterity has a significant mediation effect between servant leadership behaviour and team innovation. Second result is team climate, which is a good moderator on team ambidexterity. These outcomes lead to research opportunities and practical implications to enhance the team innovation among start-ups.

Leadership styles and organisational innovation in Vietnam: does employee creativity matter?

Purpose

This paper aims to look into the role of transformational leadership and transactional leadership as predictors of employee creativity and organisational innovation. Employee creativity is examined as a potential mediator in the leadership styles–organisational innovation relationships.

Design/methodology/approach

A cross-sectional, quantitative design was adopted and structural equation modelling (SEM) techniques were used to analyse data collected from 369 employees working in 39 public coffee enterprises in Vietnam.

Findings

Transformational leadership and transactional leadership were significant predictors of employee creativity and organisational innovation. Specifically, transformational leadership was instrumental to employee creativity and organisational innovation while transactional leadership was detrimental to these two variables. Additionally, employee creativity partially mediated the relationships between the two leadership styles and organisational innovation.

Practical implications

Results of this study benefit the management of organisations and policy makers by providing an insight of which leadership style will effectively suit public enterprises to promote employee creativity and foster organisational innovation.

Originality/value

While there is a lack of studies investigating organisational innovation in organisational methods and that the interrelationships between leadership styles, employee creativity and organisational innovation are not fully understood, this study pioneers in examining relationships between leadership styles and organisational innovation that is being mediated by employee creativity. Figuring out that organisational innovation is more likely to be fostered by the positive influence of leadership behaviours and the improvement of employee creativity, in particular, the significant role of employee creativity represents important contributions of the current study.

How work–family enrichment influence innovative work behavior: Role of psychological capital and supervisory support

This paper examines the relationship between bi-directional work–family enrichment, psychological capital, and supervisor support in promoting innovative work behavior. We hypothesized that work-to-family enrichment and family-to-work enrichment would have a positive relation with psychological capital. Further, we examined that psychological capital would mediate the relationship between (i) work-to-family enrichment and innovative work behavior, and (ii) family-to-work enrichment and innovative work behavior. We also studied the role of supervisor support as a predictor or moderator for catalyzing innovative work behavior. Data were collected through questionnaire survey from 398 service-sector employees. We analyzed the data using structural equation modeling. Building on the theoretical foundation of broaden-and-build theory, we establish that both work-to-family enrichment and family-to-work enrichment were positively related to psychological capital. Psychological capital fully mediated between bi-directional enrichment and innovative work behavior. Supervisor support was directly related to innovative work behavior. We also suggest interventions for facilitating innovative work behavior.

The Innovation Journey and the Skipper of the Raft: About the Role of Narratives in Innovation Project Leadership

Innovation project leaders have the challenging role of guiding their team by managing four intertwined processes: developing content, meeting project constraints, stimulating creativity, and guiding group dynamics. This article investigates the role narratives play in leading an innovation project and how an innovation project leader uses stories in practice. We found a variety of stories that relate to all four processes. We argue that the roles of stories can be divided into three different aspects: the story, the storytelling, and the storymaking. Together, these aspects of stories can support managing the four intertwined processes to deliver innovation.

Constructing the GFC: Australian banking leaders during the financial ‘crisis’

Mainstream accounts of the global financial crisis (GFC) have treated the ‘crisis’ as fixed and given with the role of leadership as paramount. Through the intertextual reading of media texts and interviews with banking leaders, this article in contrast demonstrates the dynamic, discursively constructed nature of leadership during the GFC. Despite the relative buoyancy of the local economy and strong performance of the major banks in Australia, the findings show how some banking chief executive officers were able to exploit the GFC by co-constructing with the media vivid, compelling narratives of their leadership in delivering their banks from ‘crisis’. Although banking leaders conveyed via interviews an intractable, unpredictable view of the crisis and their adoption of more reactive approaches to the GFC, this study suggests that the media played a powerful role in enforcing a separation between ‘front stage’ and ‘back stage’ leadership performances. The article concludes that the vivid metaphors of crisis leadership lauded in the media served to reinforce the romance of leadership and potentially elide considerations of banking reform in the aftermath of the GFC.

OPENING UP AND CLOSING DOWN: THE INTERPRETATIVE REPERTOIRES OF LEADING INNOVATION

The article argues for greater attention to be given to discursive approaches to the leadership of innovation through proposing a variant of Potter and Wetherell's concept of interpretative repertoires. Drawing upon empirical material from a case study of managers engaged in R&D activities at a multimedia company, the study illustrates how the talk and thought of leadership reveals the contrasting discursive resources and interpretative repertoires underpinning the leadership of innovation. The article proposes, illustrates and develops six interpretative repertoires for leading the practices and processes of innovation. These are informed by six images or root metaphors: creating, challenging, focusing, selling, linking and travelling. In turn, these prompt leadership practices that either encourage variety, secure agreement or a combination of the two.