The role of ambidextrous leadership for innovative outcome

Organizations face the increasing challenge to successfully manage innovation. In this respect, the literature shows that leadership behavior has a major influence on the outcome of innovation processes. This master thesis therefore is based on current studies about ambidextrous leadership, with a focus on the proposed model from Rosing et al. (2011), that points out the importance to change among opening and closing leadership behaviors, in order to successfully manage innovation. However, due to the unpredictability and intricacy of the innovation process, there is little research on the practical application of the two referring leadership behaviors. Resulting, the goal of this master thesis is to define the influence of leadership on the innovational behavior of individuals and teams and to further, extend the introduced model by Rosing et al. (2011) by using a qualitative research method. The findings show that both leadership behaviors have a positive effect on the innovational performance, although a trend towards opening leadership behaviors is highlighted. Besides, the results reveal that both behaviors were constantly present along the innovation process but that they occurred in different intensity. However, the findings differ regarding the process phases, as the idea implementation phase tends to require an increased behavioral flexibility of leaders compared to the generation phase. Overall, the findings highlight that followers require stable and consistently demonstrated leadership behaviors. This master thesis thereby extends the model from Rosing et al. (2011) by suggesting that instead of continuously changing between the referred leadership behaviors, both should be shown simultaneously but in a different intensity, according to the requirements of the specific situation. This study further outlines suggestions about the practical use of the findings, followed by the limitations and identified gaps that could be analyzed by future studies.Author Ruby Strobl, BSc.Universität Linz, Masterarbeit, 2019(VLID)366897