Ambidextrous leadership: a narrative literature review for theory development and directions for future research

A resilient Startup Leader's personal journey: The role of entrepreneurial mindfulness and ambidextrous leadership through scaling-up performance capacity

Startups always face challenges during every scaling-up phase, so they need leaders who are resilient. Entrepreneurial resilience is the capacity of startup leaders to continue functioning in the face of various challenges. This research aims to explore how the dynamic interaction between entrepreneurial mindfulness and ambidextrous leadership influences the resilience of startup leaders during the scaling-up phase. The ability of startup leaders to execute entrepreneurial decisions and demonstrate ambidextrous leadership is crucial for increasing performance capacity. This study adopts a quantitative approach, utilizing a survey of startup leaders who have successfully undergone the scaling-up process, and analyzes the survey results using the SMART PLS program. Research findings suggest that entrepreneurial mindfulness influences decision-making, risk management, and strategic adaptability. This research examines how ambidextrous leadership, characterized by simultaneously exploring new opportunities and exploiting existing resources, enhances leaders' adaptive capacity in uncertain environments. These findings highlight the synergistic relationship between entrepreneurial awareness and ambidextrous leadership, collectively impacting startup leaders' ability to foster resilience during the scale-up journey. This research contributes to the existing literature by offering insights into practical strategies used by resilient leaders to enhance organizational performance and adaptability. In conclusion, this research emphasizes the importance of cultivating a mindful entrepreneurial mindset and adopting ambidextrous leadership practices for startup leaders aiming to thrive in a volatile scaling landscape. These findings not only contribute to individual leadership development but also inform organizational strategies and interventions aimed at fostering resilience and sustainable growth in the startup ecosystem.

Leader airtime management and team effectiveness in emergency management command and control (EMCC) teams

We investigated the relation between leader airtime management and team effectiveness in Emergency Management Command and Control (EMCC) teams. Leader airtime management concerns leaders' interventions to structure who shares information when using opening and closing statements to respectively stimulate or reduce information sharing. We coded leaders' airtime management statements across different meeting phases (structuring, information sharing, decision making) using video-recordings of 12 EMCC exercises involving two consecutive meetings each. Experts rated two components of team effectiveness: Team Situation Awareness (TSA) and Team Decision Making (TDM). We found that closing statements were more frequently used in the decision-making phase than in any other meeting phase. Also, leaders of teams with lower TSA used more opening statements in the decision-making phase of the first team meeting than leaders of teams with higher TSA. These results confirm the importance of the timing of leader airtime management for EMCC team effectiveness. Practitioner summary: We investigated leader airtime management and team effectiveness in EMCC teams. We video-coded 12 exercises; experts rated team effectiveness. In the decision-making phase, leaders use more closing statements, and leaders of less effective teams use more opening statements. Leaders are advised to adjust their airtime management to meeting phases.

A study on managerial leadership in education: A systematic literature review

Background

Articles on managerial leadership (ML) have been published from year to year, since 1950s. The use of ML theory in previous research is common, but some inconsistencies are found regarding the terms commonly used. In other words, there is a mismatch between the use of the term ML in article paper and structures. This will certainly have an impact on bias and ambiguity for future research literatures.

Novelty

Theoretical review on this topic is rarely carried out, specifically in ML theory. The novelty of this research lies in the classification results of articles that used the term ML in accordance with the theory.

Objective

This theoretical review was conducted to examine the classification of accuracy of articles which were using the term ML in title with four consistency and accuracy indicators on the article structures starting from the problem, aim, literature, results and discussion, as well as conclusion sections.

Method

This review as a qualitative literature research used a language and historical approach, as well as a ML theory. This study Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) statement. The technique and instrument used was bibliographic instruments, comprehensive list of keywords and mixed search terms to search the articles online with the help of Google Chrome and Mozilla Firefox browsers. A total of 68 articles published from 1959 to 2022 as a final reviewed. They were obtained from several well-known digital journal content such as Jstor, Proquest, Oxford University Press, Google Scholar, and National Library, as well as various journals under major publishers such as Elsevier, Taylor & Francis, SAGE, Emerald, Brill, and Wiley. The data collected were analyzed using content analysis with 4 indicators of consistent (accurate & additional) and inconsistent (difference & additional), and 4 accuracy category of accuracy, appropriate, bias, and error for determaining the articles classification, and validated them by using triangulation and grounded theory.

Results

The results showed that in 1959 the first article appeared using the word ML, in 2012 the first and only article appeared that only used ML, and the last is in 2022. Then, the consistency of the title with other article sections is 17 articles (25% of 68) according to the accurate term indicator. Last, the accuracy of articles was divided into four categories: 10 articles (15% of 68) in the accuracy category.

Contribution

This systematic review contributes the article classification that can become a more established scientific roadmap of references and reasoning of studying ML.

Are nurses innovative or ambidextrous leaders? An evaluation from the perspective of prospective nurses: A structural equation modeling-multiple group analysis

AIMS

This study was conducted to determine the relationship between the innovative and ambidextrous leadership qualities of nurses from the students' perspective with the structural model.

BACKGROUND

Nurses with leadership qualities help students become nurses with a leading spirit and be open to innovations.

MATERIALS AND METHODS

It is a cross-sectional and correlational study. The sample consisted of 286 nursing students in eastern Turkey. To collect the data, a Descriptive Information Form, the Innovative Leadership Scale, and the Ambidextrous Leadership Scale were used. Structural equation model, multiple group analysis, maximum likelihood estimation, and fit indexes were utilized to evaluate the data.

RESULTS

Student nurses reported that the nurses' opening and closing behaviors affected being entrepreneur (β₂ = 0.42; β₂ = 0.24), motivating others (β₂ = 0.45; β₂ = 0.22), being open to new ideas (β₂ = 0.21; β₂ = 0.16), being a changemaker (β₂ = 0.20), and being energetic (β₂ = 0.13) in a positive and meaningful way. According to those who thought they had innovative qualities, the ambidextrous leadership behaviors of nurses significantly affected being entrepreneur, motivating others, and being open to new ideas, which are among innovative leadership behaviors (Z > 1.96; p < 0.05).

CONCLUSION

As nurses' opening and closing behaviors increased, innovative leader qualities such as being an entrepreneur, being open to new ideas, motivating others, being a changemaker, and being energetic also increased. Innovative students evaluated the leadership qualities of nurses positively.

IMPLICATIONS FOR NURSING EDUCATION

The study contributes to students' recognition and evaluation of leadership and innovation qualities that nurses should have.

Building-up resilience and being effective leaders in the workplace: a systematic review and synthesis model

Purpose

Psychological resilience, defined here as the capacity to bounce back from adversity and failure, has been studied in various leadership contexts. However, the literature demonstrates less consensus concerning how psychological resilience manifests in, and interacts within, the leadership role and, equally, the focus on resilience development is underdeveloped. This paper addresses these issues by focusing on the interactions between psychological resilience and leadership and presents practical development strategies.

Design/methodology/approach

A systematic review employing 46 empirical studies followed a thematic synthesis within an associated model encapsulated as building-up resilience and being effective.

Findings

First, resilience is identified as essential and can benefit individuals and organizations' work outcomes across leadership contexts, including work performance, job engagement, well-being, and enhanced leadership capability. Secondly, leaders may build up their resilience by obtaining coping skills and improved attitudes toward challenges. Resilient attitudes, which are presented as paradoxical perspectives towards challenges, may help leaders adapt to challenges and adversities leading to beneficial outcomes.

Research limitations/implications

Even though this study provides a deeper understanding of the essential function of psychological resilience in leadership, the findings are limited to the workplace contexts investigated, e.g. exploring small sample sizes (13,019) or country contexts (22). Future research could expand the rhetoric around interactions between psychological resilience and leadership. Furthermore, the underlining mechanism between the paradoxical perspective and resilient attitudes is still largely unclear. Thus, more research is needed to disclose the interaction of paradoxical perceptions and leadership resilience. Further research can investigate how resilient attitudes demonstrate in actions in dealing with challenges and adversities.

Practical implications

The authors further an argument that leaders may enhance their resilience through embracing a paradoxical perspective towards challenges (resilient attitude), e.g. being adaptive to adversities, and the attitude of learning from failures. These enhanced resilient attitudes could help leaders deeper understand and examine their reality and persist under high pressures and develop an innate ability to utilise resources more effectively to help them survive and thrive in challenging circumstances, instead of becoming overwhelmed by the burden of complexity or giving up. This will offer a practical contribution to resilience development.

Social implications

Importantly, this study found that resilience is an essential leadership trait and can benefit individuals and organizations' work outcomes across leadership contexts. These positive effects of resilience may encourage organizations or society to promote psychological resilience, including a resilient attitude, to deal with adversities and uncertainties.

Originality/value

Fundamentally, the synthesized model applied may encourage further studies to focus on how to build up resilience and practically apply it in workplaces across leadership contexts. In particular, this study found that adopting paradoxical perspectives and ambidextrous leadership approaches toward adversities is an original resilience development strategy, which serves to contribute to the gap in the literature.