TY - JOUR

T1 - Explaining the Heterogeneity of the Leadership-Innovation Relationship

T2 - Ambidextrous Leadership

AU - Rosing, Kathrin

AU - Frese, Michael

AU - Bausch, Andreas

PY - 2011/10

Y1 - 2011/10

N2 - The authors review and meta-analytically integrate the existing literature on leadership and innovation to show a complex and inconsistent picture of this relationship. Current research has mostly neglected the complex nature of innovation processes that leads to changing requirements within these processes. The main requirements of innovation are exploration and exploitation as well as a flexibility to switch between those two activities. The authors propose an ambidexterity theory of leadership for innovation that specifies two complementary sets of leadership behavior that foster exploration and exploitation in individuals and teams – opening and closing leader behaviors, respectively. We call this ambidextrous leadership because it utilizes opening and closing leader behaviors and switches between them to deal with the ever-changing requirements of the innovation process. Routes to ambidextrous leadership and opportunities for future research on leadership and innovation are discussed.

AB - The authors review and meta-analytically integrate the existing literature on leadership and innovation to show a complex and inconsistent picture of this relationship. Current research has mostly neglected the complex nature of innovation processes that leads to changing requirements within these processes. The main requirements of innovation are exploration and exploitation as well as a flexibility to switch between those two activities. The authors propose an ambidexterity theory of leadership for innovation that specifies two complementary sets of leadership behavior that foster exploration and exploitation in individuals and teams – opening and closing leader behaviors, respectively. We call this ambidextrous leadership because it utilizes opening and closing leader behaviors and switches between them to deal with the ever-changing requirements of the innovation process. Routes to ambidextrous leadership and opportunities for future research on leadership and innovation are discussed.

KW - Business psychology

KW - ambidexterity

KW - flexibility

KW - Ambidexterity

KW - Flexibility

KW - Innovation

KW - Leadership

KW - Entrepreneurship

UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=80052967171&partnerID=8YFLogxK

UR - https://www.mendeley.com/catalogue/051cdc1a-011f-302b-9202-a2596035f30e/

U2 - 10.1016/j.leaqua.2011.07.014

DO - 10.1016/j.leaqua.2011.07.014

M3 - Journal articles

VL - 22

SP - 956

EP - 974

JO - The Leadership Quarterly

JF - The Leadership Quarterly

IS - 5

ER -