Impact of leadership styles on innovative performance among Malaysian university academicians

This study delves into the relationship between leadership styles and innovative performance, focusing on the higher education sector in Malaysia. While there is extensive literature on how leadership styles affect innovative performance, there is a lack of evidence linking inclusive and ambidextrous leadership styles to innovative performance in Malaysian public universities. Addressing this gap, the study investigates the effects of inclusive and ambidextrous leadership styles on innovative performance among academicians at Universiti Malaysia Terengganu (UMT) and Universiti Sultan Zainal Abidin (UniSZA) located in east￾coast Malaysia. Additionally, it examines the mediating effect of innovative work behavior and the moderating effect of work experience on these relationships. Using Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS) and Structural Equation Modelling (SEM) via Analysis of Moment Structures (AMOS), the study analyzes data from 300 sample sizes of academicians. Interestingly, the findings reveal that while the direct effects of inclusive and ambidextrous leadership on innovative performance are not significant, introducing innovative work behavior as a mediator makes these relationships significant. Notably, the impact of both leadership styles is more pronounced when employees exhibit high levels of innovative work behavior. Furthermore, the study showed that innovative work behavior on innovative performance is more pronounced among academic staff with more than 10 years of work experience. Besides, the study also shows that the adopted leadership style by academic leaders significantly predicts innovative work behavior and subsequently encourages academic staff's innovative performance. The implications of this study highlight the importance of understanding innovative work behavior at the individual level and its effect on innovative performance. Leaders are encouraged to integrate both inclusive and ambidextrous leadership practices to enhance innovative performance. This study makes several significant contributions to understanding employee innovative performance. It addresses a gap in the literature by examining how inclusive and ambidextrous leadership styles affect innovative performance in Malaysian public universities, specifically UMT and UniSZA. Future research should focus on identifying specific practices that most effectively foster innovative performance and explore contingency factors influencing the connection between inclusive leadership, ambidextrous leadership, and innovative performance.

Text 125216 - Full Text.pdf Download (3MB) Text SPE 2023 17 - Declaration Form.pdf Restricted to Repository staff only Download (604kB) Text SPE 2023 17 - Full Text.pdf Restricted to Repository staff only Download (3MB) Official URL or Download Paper: http://ethesis.upm.edu.my/id/eprint/18828

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