Does Gender Matter? The Relationship Comparison of Strategic Leadership on Organizational Ambidextrous Behavior between Male and Female CEOs

Gang Zhang, Ziang Jia and Shimei Yan
Additional contact information
Gang Zhang: Department of Leadership and Organization Management, School of Management, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou 310027, China
Ziang Jia: Department of Leadership and Organization Management, School of Management, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou 310027, China
Shimei Yan: Department of Leadership and Organization Management, School of Management, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou 310027, China

Sustainability, 2022, vol. 14, issue 14, 1-19

Abstract: This paper aims to examine the relationship difference of strategic leadership to organizational ambidextrous behavior between male and female CEOs, taking into account the balancing effect and combined effect of explorative and exploitative behaviors. A quantitative analysis is conducted from demographic data and relevant organizational ambidextrous data of male and female CEOs of listed companies from 2016 to 2020. In total, 226 valid male-female CEOs pairs are used to test whether there is a significant difference on gender between strategic leadership and organizational ambidextrous behavior. The findings revealed that female strategic leaders with an ambidextrous advantage do not behave inferior to males. This study clarifies the intrinsic relationship between female strategic leadership and organizational ambidexterity, affirming the ambidextrous synergistic effect of female executives in corporate strategic decision-making. The presentation of women in top management may contribute to a better organizational performance through balancing and combining ambidextrous activities, and this study calls on upholding the cultural values of gender diversity and inclusiveness, and to focus on merits of female leaders.

Keywords: organization ambidexterity; ambidextrous behavior; strategic leadership; female leadership; balancing effect; combined effect (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/14/14/8559/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/14/14/8559/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:14:y:2022:i:14:p:8559-:d:861553

Access Statistics for this article

Sustainability is currently edited by Ms. Alexandra Wu

More articles in Sustainability from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().