Ambidextrous leadership: Motivation as the mechanism between ambidextrous leadership and innovative workplace behaviors.

Abstract

Purpose: ​the purpose of the current study is to examine the relationship between ambidextrous leadership, opening behaviors, closing behaviors on innovative workplace behaviors, with intrinsic and extrinsic motivation taken into account as mediators. For testing ambidextrous leadership, opening behaviors and closing behaviors, a newly designed scale that has recently been developed will be used. The aim of this study is to identify the mechanisms leading to innovative workplace behaviors. Design/methodology/approach:​ 194 employees of different companies and sectors answered a questionnaire which included multiple scales to measure every variable per person. Findings: ​the findings in the study support the hypotheses for the direct relationships between opening behaviors and intrinsic motivation, intrinsic motivation and innovative workplace behaviors, closing behaviors and extrinsic motivation, and extrinsic motivation and innovative workplace behaviors. The study also supports a full mediation for opening behaviors and innovative workplace behaviors with intrinsic motivation as a mediator, and partial mediation with extrinsic motivation as a mediator between closing behaviors and innovative workplace behaviors. At last, a parallel mediation between ambidextrous leadership and innovative workplace behavior was established, with intrinsic and extrinsic motivation as parallel mediators. Limitations and implications:​ The study indicated that the relationship between the named variables is to a higher level dependent on motivational mechanisms than prior research has suggested. The current study has established the importance of ambidextrous leadership, when looking at innovative workplace behaviors and how this relatively new leadership style can contribute to these innovative behaviors. For organizations, these results show that successful ambidextrous leadership can help to improve innovative behaviors among employees in different ways. The current research studied intrinsic and extrinsic motivation, and the results have shown that especially intrinsic motivation is an important factor in the relationship between leaders’ opening behaviors and innovative workplace behaviors. Some implications of the current study are the cross-sectional nature of the study, the possibility that the COVID19 pandemic might have influenced the questionnaire and the longevity of the questionnaire.