Ambidextrous leadership and employee innovation in public museums

Abstract

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to explore the impact of ambidextrous leadership on employees’ innovative behaviors in public museums based on the ambidexterity theory of leadership for innovation. It also examines the mediating mechanism of organizational climate for innovation in public museums. Design/methodology/approach Multisource survey data were obtained from 30 human resource managers, 74 department managers and 237 employees of Taiwanese public museums. Multilevel path analysis was conducted to test the proposed model. Findings Ambidextrous leadership has the most significant effect on employees’ innovative behaviors. Moreover, organizational climate for innovation has a mediating effect on the relationship between ambidextrous leadership and employees’ innovative behaviors. Practical implications This study provides a new perspective on dynamic and complementary ambidextrous leadership, thereby providing important practical implications for innovation management in public museums. Specifically, leaders should apply ambidextrous leadership behaviors in their daily operations to develop an organizational climate for innovation and facilitate employees’ innovative behaviors. Originality/value This study is the first to explore the influence of ambidextrous leadership in a museum. In addition, it examines the mediating effect of organizational climate for innovation to explain the effect of ambidextrous leadership on employees’ innovative behaviors. The findings provide valuable insights for both researchers and managers of public and private entities.

Ambidextrous leadership and innovative work behaviors: Workplace thriving as a mediator

“…For instance, ambidextrous leaders may discuss the importance of allowing errors, giving room for employee's novel ideas, and encouraging experimentation. Similarly, leaders should apply ambidextrous leadership behaviors in their daily operations to cultivate an organizational environment for innovation and assist employee's IWB (Kung, Uen, & Lin, 2020). In addition, our results underscored the mediating role of workplace thriving.…”

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

“…While progress has been made in identifying group and organizational level outcomes, the majority of empirical studies on ambidextrous leadership included in this paper have focused on how ambidextrous leadership influences people's outcomes and the mechanisms that explain these relationships. This includes followers' innovative behaviors (Wang et al , 2021; Kung et al , 2020) and team innovation behaviors (Zuraik et al , 2020; Zacher and Rosing, 2015). Additionally, ambidextrous leadership has been found to be positively associated with employees' daily self-reported innovative performance (Zacher and Wilden, 2014).…”

“…The first measure of ambidextrous leadership is observed in twelve studies (Oluwafemi et al , 2020; Wang et al , 2021; Gerlach et al. , 2020; Zuraik et al , 2020; Kung et al , 2020; Duc et al. , 2020; Ma et al.…”

“…Use multiple variables (e.g. followers, teams and organizations) as outcomes of ambidextrous leadership and examine different mediating mechanisms proposed by the ambidexterity theory (Kung et al , 2020; Ma et al. , 2019; Berraies and Abidine, 2019; Zacher and Wilden, 2014; Rosing et al.…”

“…, 2018). Using objective assessment of innovative behavior such as peer-rate, supervisor-rate or expert-rate data to ensure construct validity (Kung et al , 2020). Developing measurement scales that have been modified and enriched in order to address the changing opening and closing behaviors based on different organizational situations (Mueller et al.…”