Ambidextrous Leadership as an Antecedent of Ambidextrous Innovation Mediating Roles of Psychological Safety and Job Autonomy

Authors

Ghana Communication Technology University, PMB 100, Tesano, Accra, Ghana 1
“crossref”/
Views: 89  
Downloads: 79  

Main Article Content

Abstract

The study explores the nexus between ambidextrous leadership and ambidextrous innovation (exploratory and exploitative innovation). The mediating role of psychological safety and job autonomy was assessed based on the leader-member exchange (LMX) and contingency theories. The researcher selected 684 private sector employees in Accra, Ghana. The research design employed in the study was time-lagged. Data on psychological safety and the components of ambidextrous innovation were collected at T1, and data on ambidextrous leadership and job autonomy were collected at T2. The responses were analyzed using JASP software, applying Bootstrap resampling with 10,000 replications. The results indicate that psychological safety and job autonomy mediate the significant positive relationship between ambidextrous leadership and the two components of ambidextrous innovation. The present study exclusively focused on private-sector employees. Future research should also include public sector employees to help generalize the results. To encourage ambidextrous innovation, management should cultivate an environmental context where employees feel safe to take interpersonal risks and have autonomy in decision-making related to their job responsibilities. This study undertook a comprehensive examination of the two components of innovation, an aspect that previous studies have often overlooked. Moreover, the study expands the scope by considering psychological safety and job autonomy as mediating factors in the relationship under investigation.

Article Details

Addai, P. (2025). Ambidextrous Leadership as an Antecedent of Ambidextrous Innovation: Mediating Roles of Psychological Safety and Job Autonomy. SEISENSE Business Review, 5(1), 1-14. https://doi.org/10.33215/zfamfh91
Research Articles

Copyright (c) 2025 Prince Addai

Creative Commons License

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

The data that support the findings of this study are available from the corresponding author, [PA], upon reasonable request.

Ahmad, B., Liu, D., Asif, M. H., Ashfaq, M., & Irfan, M. (2022). Ambidextrous leadership and service recovery performance under B2B selling context: An examination through service innovation capability. SAGE Open, 12(2). DOI: https://doi.org/10.1177/21582440221096454

Albritton, J. A., Fried, B., Singh, K., Weiner, B. R., Reeve, B., & Edwards, J. R. (2019). The role of psychological safety and learning behavior in the development of effective quality improvement teams in Ghana: An observational study. BMC Health Services Research, 19, 385. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1186/s12913-019-4234-7

Anderson, J. C., & Gerbing, D. W. (1988). Structural equation modeling in practice: A review and recommended two-step approach. Psychological Bulletin, 103(3), 411–423. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1037//0033-2909.103.3.411

Berraies, S., & Zine El Abidine, S. (2019). Do leadership styles promote ambidextrous innovation? Case of knowledge-intensive firms. Journal of Knowledge Management, 23(5), 836–859. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1108/JKM-09-2018-0566

Berraies, S., Bchini, B., & Houaneb, A. (2020). Employees’ empowerment and ambidextrous innovation: The knowledge sharing as mediator and the organizational trust as moderator. European Journal of International Management. Advance online publication. https://doi.org/10.1504/EJIM.2021.10036504 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1504/EJIM.2021.10036504

Breaugh, J. (1999). Further investigation of the work autonomy scales: Two studies. Journal of Business and Psychology, 13(4), 357-373. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1022926416628

Dietl, J. E., Derksen, C., Keller, F. M., & Lippke, S. (2023). Interdisciplinary and interprofessional communication intervention: How psychological safety fosters communication and increases patient safety. Frontiers in Psychology, 14, 1164288. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2023.1164288 DOI: https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2023.1164288

Edmondson, A. C., & Lei, Z. (2014). Psychological safety: The history, renaissance, and future of an interpersonal construct. Annual Review of Organizational Psychology and Organizational Behavior, 1, 23–43. https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev-orgpsych-031413-091305 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev-orgpsych-031413-091305

Eid, R., & Agag, G. (2020). Determinants of innovative behavior in the hotel industry: A cross-cultural study. International Journal of Hospitality Management, 91(C), 102642. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijhm.2020.102642

El-Gazar, H. E., Baghdadi, N. A., Abdelaliem, S. M. F., & Zoromba, M. A. (2024). Sparking nurses’ creativity: The roles of ambidextrous leadership and psychological safety. BMC Nursing, 23, 643. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12912-024-02277-1 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1186/s12912-024-02277-1

Elsayed, A. M., Zhao, B., Goda, A. E., & Elsetouhi, A. M. (2023). The role of error risk-taking and perceived organizational innovation climate in the relationship between perceived psychological safety and innovative work behavior: A moderated mediation model. Frontiers in Psychology, 14, 1042911. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2023.1042911 DOI: https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2023.1042911

Feng, T., Si, Z., Jiang, W., & Tan, J. (2023). Supply chain transformational leadership and resilience: The mediating role of ambidextrous business model. Humanity and Social Sciences Communications, 11, 628. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/s41599-024-03099-x

Fiedler, F. E. (1993). The contingency model: New directions for leadership utilization. In Matteson and Ivancevich (Eds.), Management and Organizational Behavior Classics (pp. 333-345).

Frare, A. B., & Beuren, I. M. (2021). Job autonomy, unscripted agility and ambidextrous innovation: Analysis of Brazilian startups in times of the Covid-19 pandemic. Revista de Gestão, 28(3), 263-278. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1108/REGE-01-2021-0005

Garg, S., & Dhar, R. (2017). Employee service innovative behavior: The roles of leader-member exchange (LMX), work engagement, and job autonomy. International Journal of Manpower, 38(2), 242–258. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1108/IJM-04-2015-0060

Graen, G. B., & Uhl-Bien, M. (1995). Relationship-based approach to leadership: Development of leader-member exchange (LMX) theory of leadership over 25 years: Applying a multi-level multi-domain perspective. The Leadership Quarterly, 6(2), 219–247. https://doi.org/10.1016/1048-9843(95)90036-5 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/1048-9843(95)90036-5

Hoshina, Y., Shikino, K., Yamauchi, Y., Yanagita, Y., Yokokawa, D., Tsukamoto, T., Noda, K., Uehara, T., & Ikusaka, M. (2021). Does a learner-centered approach using teleconference improve medical students’ psychological safety and self-explanation in clinical reasoning conferences? A crossover study. PLoS ONE, 16(7), e0253884. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0253884

Hou, N., Peng, J., & Nie, Q. (2023). The benefits of ambidextrous leadership behavior for the workplace well-being of leaders. Current Psychology, 42, 28783–28798. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12144-022-03900-7

Jansen, J. J. P., Van Den Bosch, F. A. J., & Volberda, H. W. (2006). Exploratory innovation, exploitative innovation, and performance: Effects of organizational antecedents and environmental moderators. Management Science, 52(11), 1661-1674. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1287/mnsc.1060.0576

Jha, S. (2019). Team psychological safety and team performance: A moderated mediation analysis of psychological empowerment. International Journal of Organizational Analysis, 27(4), 903–924. https://doi.org/10.1108/IJOA-10-2018-1567 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1108/IJOA-10-2018-1567

Jiang, Y., Asante, D., Zhang, J., & Ampaw, E. M. (2023). The influence of ambidextrous leadership on the employee innovative behavior: An empirical study based on Chinese manufacturing enterprises. Current Psychology, 42, 9452–9465. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12144-021-02233-1 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12144-021-02233-1

Khan, N. U., Zada, M., & Estay, C. (2023). Servant leadership and employee prosocial rule-breaking: The underlying effects of psychological safety and compassion at work. PLoS ONE, 18(4), e0282832. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0282832 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0282832

Kim, S., Lee, H., & Connerton, T. P. (2020). How psychological safety affects team performance: Mediating role of efficacy and learning behavior. Frontiers in Psychology, 11, 1581. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2020.01581 DOI: https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2020.01581

Liu, Y., Wang, W., & Chen, D. (2019). Linking ambidextrous organizational culture to innovative behavior: A moderated mediation model of psychological empowerment and transformational leadership. Frontiers in Psychology, 10, 2192. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2019.02192 DOI: https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2019.02192

Mahembe, B., & Engelbrecht, A. S. (2013). The relationship between servant leadership, affective team commitment and team effectiveness. SA Journal of Human Resource Management, 11(1), Art. #495. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajhrm.v11i1.495 DOI: https://doi.org/10.4102/sajhrm.v11i1.495

Mogård, E. V., Rørstad, O. B., & Bang, H. (2023). The relationship between psychological safety and management team effectiveness: The mediating role of behavioral integration. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, 20(1), 406. https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph20010406 DOI: https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph20010406

Pallant, J. (2013). SPSS survival manual: A step by step guide to data analysis using IBM SPSS (4th ed.). Crows Nest, NSW: Allen & Unwin.

Pradhan, S., & Jena, L. K. (2019). Does meaningful work explain the relationship between transformational leadership and innovative work behavior? Vikalpa, 44, 30–40. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1177/0256090919832434

Rosing, K., & Zacher, H. (2017). Individual ambidexterity: The duality of exploration and exploitation and its relationship with innovative performance. European Journal of Work and Organizational Psychology, 26(5), 694–709. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/1359432X.2016.1238358

Slåtten, T., Mutonyi, B. R., Nordli, A. J., & Lien, G. (2023). The role of ambidextrous leadership and employee ambidexterity in enhancing service quality of care and creativity: A study of health professionals. BMC Health Services Research, 23, 1252. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12913-023-10275-3 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1186/s12913-023-10275-3

Suhandiah, S., Suhariadi, F., Yulianti, P., & Abbas, A. (2023). Autonomy and feedback on innovative work behavior: The role of resilience as a mediating factor in Indonesian Islamic banks. Cogent Business & Management, 10, 2178364. https://doi.org/10.1080/23311975.2023.2178364 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/23311975.2023.2178364

Wan, J., Qin, M., Zhou, W., & Wu, Y. (2024). Effect of proactive personality on employees' pro-social rule breaking: The role of promotion focus and psychological safety climate. Current Psychology, 43, 12768–12781. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12144-023-05362-x DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12144-023-05362-x

Wang, Y., Chin, T., Caputo, F., & Liu, H. (2022). How supportive leadership promotes employee innovation under uncertainty: Evidence from Chinese e-commerce industry. Sustainability, 14, 7491. DOI: https://doi.org/10.3390/su14127491

Wiedemann, A., Bouten, C., Hertrampf, P., Stein, V., & Mues, N. (2023). Ambidextrous leadership: Evidence from German regional banks. Journal of Risk Research. https://doi.org/10.1080/13669877.2023.2176911 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/13669877.2023.2176911

Yang, S., Chen, L., & Bi, X. (2023). Overtime work, job autonomy, and employees’ subjective wellbeing: Evidence from China. Frontiers in Public Health, 11, 1077177. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpubh.2023.1077177 DOI: https://doi.org/10.3389/fpubh.2023.1077177

Yasmeen, A., & Ajmal, S. K. (2023). How ambidextrous leadership enhances employee creativity: A quantitative approach. Evidence-based HRM, 12(2), 421-440. https://doi.org/10.1108/EBHRM-09-2022-0221 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1108/EBHRM-09-2022-0221

Zahoor, N., Tarba, S., Arslan, A., Mostafiz, I., & Battisti, E. (2023). The impact of entrepreneurial leadership and international explorative-exploitative learning on the performance of international new ventures. Asia Pacific Journal of Management. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10490-023-09926-0 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10490-023-09926-0