IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/jbrese/v118y2020icp406-414.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Ambidextrous leaders helping newcomers get on board: Achieving adjustment and proaction through distinct pathways

Author

Listed:
  • Hu, Wenan
  • Luo, Jinlian
  • Chen, Zhijun
  • Zhong, Jing

Abstract

As they socialize into a new workplace, newcomers must pursue role adjustment and role innovation simultaneously. To facilitate their socialization, the newcomer literature must explain how organizational insiders, such as an immediate supervisor, can support newcomers in accomplishing both purposes. Drawing on the social information processing perspective, this study focuses on ambidextrous leadership, which consists of two seemingly opposite yet potentially complementary behaviors—opening and closing leadership—and investigates their interaction effect on newcomer task performance and innovative behavior. A field study based on 377 newcomers and their immediate supervisors showed that opening leadership and closing leadership exhibited a mutually strengthening interaction effect on newcomer innovation through individual creative self-efficacy. Meanwhile, the interaction effect between opening leadership and closing leadership on individual task performance was transmitted through newcomers’ role clarity. Finally, we discussed the implications of our study, accordingly.

Suggested Citation

  • Hu, Wenan & Luo, Jinlian & Chen, Zhijun & Zhong, Jing, 2020. "Ambidextrous leaders helping newcomers get on board: Achieving adjustment and proaction through distinct pathways," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 118(C), pages 406-414.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:jbrese:v:118:y:2020:i:c:p:406-414
    DOI: 10.1016/j.jbusres.2020.06.064
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0148296320304409
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.jbusres.2020.06.064?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Diether Gebert & Sabine Boerner & Eric Kearney, 2010. "Fostering Team Innovation: Why Is It Important to Combine Opposing Action Strategies?," Organization Science, INFORMS, vol. 21(3), pages 593-608, June.
    2. James G. March, 1991. "Exploration and Exploitation in Organizational Learning," Organization Science, INFORMS, vol. 2(1), pages 71-87, February.
    3. Zi-Lin He & Poh-Kam Wong, 2004. "Exploration vs. Exploitation: An Empirical Test of the Ambidexterity Hypothesis," Organization Science, INFORMS, vol. 15(4), pages 481-494, August.
    4. Zhijun Chen & Riki Takeuchi & Cass Shum, 2013. "A Social Information Processing Perspective of Coworker Influence on a Focal Employee," Organization Science, INFORMS, vol. 24(6), pages 1618-1639, December.
    5. Tom J. M. Mom & Frans A. J. van den Bosch & Henk W. Volberda, 2009. "Understanding Variation in Managers' Ambidexterity: Investigating Direct and Interaction Effects of Formal Structural and Personal Coordination Mechanisms," Organization Science, INFORMS, vol. 20(4), pages 812-828, August.
    6. Jianfeng Jia & Jiaqi Yan & Yahua Cai & Yipeng Liu, 2018. "Paradoxical leadership incongruence and Chinese individuals’ followership behaviors: moderation effects of hierarchical culture and perceived strength of human resource management system," Asian Business & Management, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 17(5), pages 313-338, December.
    7. Faris Alghamdi, 2018. "Ambidextrous leadership, ambidextrous employee, and the interaction between ambidextrous leadership and employee innovative performance," Journal of Innovation and Entrepreneurship, Springer, vol. 7(1), pages 1-14, December.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Pashchenko Yana & Ye Chengang & Zhu Yue, 2022. "Organizational Ambidexterity and Crowdsourcing Through the Lens of Open Innovation: A Systematic Literature Review," International Journal of Science and Business, IJSAB International, vol. 8(1), pages 95-111.
    2. Xue Ding & Wei Li & Dujuan Huang & Xinghong Qin, 2022. "Does Innovation Climate Help to Effectiveness of Green Finance Product R&D Team? The Mediating Role of Knowledge Sharing and Moderating Effect of Knowledge Heterogeneity," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(7), pages 1-20, March.
    3. Ángeles López-Cabarcos, M. & Vázquez-Rodríguez, Paula & Quiñoá-Piñeiro, Lara M., 2022. "An approach to employees’ job performance through work environmental variables and leadership behaviours," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 140(C), pages 361-369.
    4. Gang Zhang & Ziang Jia & Shimei Yan, 2022. "Does Gender Matter? The Relationship Comparison of Strategic Leadership on Organizational Ambidextrous Behavior between Male and Female CEOs," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(14), pages 1-19, July.
    5. Gökhan Akıncı & Lutfihak Alpkan & Bora Yıldız & Gaye Karacay, 2022. "The Link between Ambidextrous Leadership and Innovative Work Behavior in a Military Organization: The Moderating Role of Climate for Innovation," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(22), pages 1-19, November.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Jürgen Weibler & Tobias Keller, 2011. "Ambidextrie in Abhängigkeit von Führungsverantwortung und Marktwahrnehmung: Eine empirische Analyse des individuellen Arbeitsverhaltens in Unternehmen," Schmalenbach Journal of Business Research, Springer, vol. 63(2), pages 155-188, March.
    2. Busola Oluwafemi, Tolulope & Mitchelmore, Siwan & Nikolopoulos, Konstantinos, 2020. "Leading innovation: Empirical evidence for ambidextrous leadership from UK high-tech SMEs," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 119(C), pages 195-208.
    3. Olga Kassotaki, 2022. "Review of Organizational Ambidexterity Research," SAGE Open, , vol. 12(1), pages 21582440221, March.
    4. Son K. Lam & Thomas E. DeCarlo & Ashish Sharma, 2019. "Salesperson ambidexterity in customer engagement: do customer base characteristics matter?," Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, Springer, vol. 47(4), pages 659-680, July.
    5. Schnellbaecher, Benedikt & Diefenbach, Ulf & Millemann, Jan, 2015. "Putting the Individual in Ambidexterity – Identifying Activities to Achieve Organisational Ambidexterity and Long-Term Survival," Proceedings of the ENTRENOVA - ENTerprise REsearch InNOVAtion Conference (2015), Kotor, Montengero, in: Proceedings of the ENTRENOVA - ENTerprise REsearch InNOVAtion Conference, Kotor, Montengero, 10-11 September 2015, pages 57-63, IRENET - Society for Advancing Innovation and Research in Economy, Zagreb.
    6. Jiewei Zu & Jianan Wang & Jun Ma, 2022. "Ambidexterity in a Rapidly Changing Environment of China: Top Management Team Decision Making and Sustained Performance," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(7), pages 1-20, March.
    7. Balasubramaniam Ramesh & Kannan Mohan & Lan Cao, 2012. "Ambidexterity in Agile Distributed Development: An Empirical Investigation," Information Systems Research, INFORMS, vol. 23(2), pages 323-339, June.
    8. Vinit Parida & Tom Lahti & Joakim Wincent, 2016. "Exploration and exploitation and firm performance variability: a study of ambidexterity in entrepreneurial firms," International Entrepreneurship and Management Journal, Springer, vol. 12(4), pages 1147-1164, December.
    9. David B. Audretsch & Maribel Guerrero, 2023. "Is ambidexterity the missing link between entrepreneurship, management, and innovation?," The Journal of Technology Transfer, Springer, vol. 48(6), pages 1891-1918, December.
    10. Andreea N. Kiss & Dirk Libaers & Pamela S. Barr & Tang Wang & Miles A. Zachary, 2020. "CEO cognitive flexibility, information search, and organizational ambidexterity," Strategic Management Journal, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 41(12), pages 2200-2233, December.
    11. Gang Zhang & Ziang Jia & Shimei Yan, 2022. "Does Gender Matter? The Relationship Comparison of Strategic Leadership on Organizational Ambidextrous Behavior between Male and Female CEOs," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(14), pages 1-19, July.
    12. Eric Christian Brun, 2016. "Ambidexterity and Ambiguity: The Link Between Ambiguity Management and Contextual Ambidexterity in Innovation," International Journal of Innovation and Technology Management (IJITM), World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd., vol. 13(04), pages 1-29, August.
    13. Benedikt Schnellbächer & Sven Heidenreich, 2020. "The role of individual ambidexterity for organizational performance: examining effects of ambidextrous knowledge seeking and offering," The Journal of Technology Transfer, Springer, vol. 45(5), pages 1535-1561, October.
    14. Christine Chou & Steven O. Kimbrough, 2016. "An agent-based model of organizational ambidexterity decisions and strategies in new product development," Computational and Mathematical Organization Theory, Springer, vol. 22(1), pages 4-46, March.
    15. Wenke, Kathrin & Zapkau, Florian B. & Schwens, Christian, 2021. "Too small to do it all? A meta-analysis on the relative relationships of exploration, exploitation, and ambidexterity with SME performance," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 132(C), pages 653-665.
    16. Karl Aschenbrücker & Tobias Kretschmer, 2022. "Performance-based incentives and innovative activity in small firms: evidence from German manufacturing," Journal of Organization Design, Springer;Organizational Design Community, vol. 11(2), pages 47-64, June.
    17. Sara Bonesso & Fabrizio Gerli & Annachiara Scapolan, 2012. "Exploration and exploitation: Do actual behaviors match individuals' perceptions?," Working Papers 7, Venice School of Management - Department of Management, Università Ca' Foscari Venezia.
    18. Ali, Murad & Shujahat, Muhammad & Ali, Zulfiqar & Kianto, Aino & Wang, Minhong & Bontis, Nick, 2022. "The neglected role of knowledge assets interplay in the pursuit of organisational ambidexterity," Technovation, Elsevier, vol. 114(C).
    19. Lori Rosenkopf & Patia McGrath, 2011. "Advancing the Conceptualization and Operationalization of Novelty in Organizational Research," Organization Science, INFORMS, vol. 22(5), pages 1297-1311, October.
    20. Katou, Anastasia A. & Budhwar, Pawan S. & Patel, Charmi, 2021. "A trilogy of organizational ambidexterity: Leader’s social intelligence, employee work engagement and environmental changes," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 128(C), pages 688-700.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:jbrese:v:118:y:2020:i:c:p:406-414. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/locate/jbusres .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.