The Dual Pathways of Ambidextrous Leadership: Implications
for Creativity and Workplace Conflict

Abstract

As organisations face increasing pressure to remain both adaptive and efficient, scholars have turned to ambidextrous leadership theory for understanding how leaders balance the demands of exploration and exploitation. This thesis examines how ambidextrous leadership, defined by leaders’ flexibility in the use of opening and closing behaviours, shapes employee creativity and workplace conflict. Drawing on the Conservation of Resources (COR) theory, the thesis investigates both the resource-gain and resource-loss processes triggered by different leader behavioural configurations. A systematic review provides an integrated assessment of existing empirical work and identifies several gaps in the conceptualisation and measurement of ambidextrous leadership. The findings indicate that prior research has overemphasised innovation-related outcomes and positive mechanisms, while paying limited attention to misalignment and negative effects. Moreover, empirical studies test dual-pathway models and find that opening-oriented leader behaviour configurations enhance creativity by strengthening employees’ creative self-efficacy, thereby providing consistent support for a resource-gain pathway. In contrast, evidence for resource depletion is more selective: role conflict plays a limited role, whereas workload pressure and emotional exhaustion emerge as key mechanisms through which closing-dominant, imbalanced leader behaviour configurations increase task and relational conflict. Overall, the thesis clarifies under what conditions ambidextrous leadership produces beneficial versus detrimental outcomes and demonstrates the value of examining behavioural configurations to understand their effects on employees.