Impact of Ambidextrous Leadership Style on Project Success: understanding the role of Innovative Work Behaviour and Workforce Agility in the Software Industry

Abstract

The purpose of our research is to examine the impact of ambidextrous leadership on project success through the mediating role of innovative work behaviour and workforce agility. During the last three decade, the significance of technology oriented projects has increased, particularly in the COVID-19 pandemic. Therefore, research on the antecedents of software projects has emerged as an interesting area for scholars. Data were collected from 324 software industry professionals in Pakistan using a purposive sampling technique to accomplish this purpose. The obtained data were analysed through SPSS. The findings show that ambidextrous leadership is positively associated with project success, while innovative work behaviour and workforce agility fully mediate this association. This research examined a new model to examine the effect of ambidextrous leadership on project success. Our research adds to the prevailing project management literature by empirically examining the intervening constructs (innovative work behaviour and workforce agility) between ambidextrous leadership and project success in the software industry. This research also provided an important recommendation at the end of the study.