Ambidextrous leadership and project innovativeness: the mediating role of employee's innovative work behavior and the moderating role of organizational ambidextrous culture

Abstract

Through organizational ambidextrous culture (OAC) and employee innovative work behavior (EIWB), this study investigates how ambidextrous leadership affects project innovativeness. Building on Ambidextrous Leadership Theory, the research examines the dual role of opening leadership, which supports exploration and creativity, and closing leadership, which fosters order and disciplined implementation. Three hundred fifteen employees working in project-based medical billing companies in Rawalpindi and Islamabad, Pakistan, provided survey data gathered using a quantitative research strategy. Using SmartPLS 4, partial least squares structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM) was employed to analyze the data. According to the findings, opening and closing leadership as a project need both favorably affect inventiveness. Furthermore, employee creative work behavior partially mediates the association between closing leadership and project innovativeness; however, the mediating effect of opening leadership on project innovativeness was not confirmed. Further results show that organizational ambidextrous culture positively moderates the relationship between opening leadership and employee innovative work behavior; the moderating effect on the closing leadership-EIWB relationship was not significant. This research adds to ambidextrous leadership research by applying it to the under-investigated environment of the medical billing outsourcing sector in Pakistan.