Explaining the Interaction Between Leader Ambidextrous Behavior, Employee Ambidexterity, and Organizational Ambidexterity

Abstract

The aim of the study is to examine the relationships between ambidextrous leadership behaviors (i.e., task-oriented, relation-oriented, change-oriented, and external) in the context of leader behavior level and employee ambidextrous performance (i.e., exploitation and exploration) in the context of individual employee level by suggesting that the interaction of these two may result in organizational ambidexterity. This study aims to contribute to the immature ambidexterity literature by developing some propositions based on the previous ambidexterity researches related to ambidexterity of leaders, employees, and entire organizations. Taking into account ambidextrous leadership theory, it is proposed that while the leaders' task-oriented and relation-oriented behaviors are positively related to the employees' exploitation behaviors, the leaders' change-oriented and external behaviors are positively related to the employees' exploration behaviors. It is recommended for further studies to investigate the possible propositions with quantitative research designs.