Ambidextrous leadership: an emphasis on the mediating role of knowledge sharing and knowledge search

Innovation is widely being recognized as a crucial determinant of organizations’ competitive advantage. This study delves into ambidextrous leadership, encompassing two seemingly contrasting yet potentially complementary behaviors—opening and closing leadership. The aim is to elucidate how a leader can pave the way for achieving innovation among employees, and throughout the entire organization by leveraging the dual strategies of knowledge sharing and knowledge search. This research is descriptive in nature, grounded in a positivist research philosophy with an applied research orientation. The proposed research strategy involves a survey employing quantitative methods. Ambidextrous leadership characterized by both opening and closing approaches has the potential to enhance employees’ innovation through knowledge sharing. Furthermore, the proposed study reveals that ambidextrous leadership encompassing Transactional and Transformational leadership styles fosters organizational innovation through knowledge search. As social information processing technology is being updated continuously, leaders’ demonstration on both the opening and closing behaviors can drive innovation at both employee and organizational levels. Moreover, the mediating roles of knowledge sharing and knowledge seeking are vital to achieve these outcomes. However, the eighth hypothesis which explores the moderating influence of strategic flexibility does not yield significant results. A balanced strategy between these dual roles is more innovative and adaptive organizational culture.