Paradoxical Leader Behavior and Followers’ Ambidexterity: The Moderating Role of Followers’ Paradox Mindset

Abstract

In response to the ever-increasing demand for individual ambidexterity in organizations, we propose paradoxical leadership as a highly effective approach for managing this challenge. Integrating trait theory, paradox perspective, and social learning theory, we propose how leaders' core self-evaluation traits serve as antecedents of PLB and how and when it improve followers' ambidexterity. We also examined how the relationship between followers' ambidexterity and paradoxical leader behavior (PLB) is moderated by their paradox mindset. We employed a time-lagged, multi-source survey design, with data collected in three phases from telecom organizations in Rawalpindi and Islamabad, Pakistan. At Time 1, data on leaders’ CSE traits and demographics were collected from 200 supervisors. At Time 2 (after a 10-day interval), 680 subordinates provided ratings of their supervisors' PLB and reported their own paradox mindset and demographics. While at Time 3, supervisors also rated their subordinates' ambidexterity (N = 600). The final matched sample comprised 600 subordinates nested under 200 supervisors. Data was analyzed using structural equation modeling (SEM) in AMOS, and PROCESS macro (Model 14) in SPSS was used to conduct moderated mediation analyses. Overall, our findings largely supported our predictions. More specifically, our findings show that leaders’ core self-evaluation traits have a positive indirect effect on followers’ ambidexterity through paradoxical leader behavior. Our results further showed that followers’ paradoxical mindset strengthens the effect of paradoxical leader behavior on followers’ ambidexterity. We discuss the theoretical and practical implications of these findings.