Individual Ambidexterity as a Driver of Career Sustainability in Late Careers

Individual ambidexterity is the capacity of an individual to engage in both exploration of new knowledge, roles, and opportunities and exploitation of existing skills, experience, and routines in ways that support adaptation and sustained work contribution over time. Amidst the challenges of ageing demographics, digital transformation, and longer working lives, maintaining careers over the long term is becoming increasingly important to people and businesses alike. Individual ambidexterity, as the capacity to combine exploration of new knowledge and opportunities and the use of existing skills and experiences, provides a meaningful framework for thinking about adaptive behavior across career stages. In this article, we integrate insights from the literature on individual ambidexterity with career sustainability, particularly for senior professionals and late-career trajectories. Drawing on research from organizational behavior, leadership, career development, and sustainable careers, the article synthesizes key theoretical foundations, identifies relevant contextual enablers, and highlights emerging research trends. It further examines how leadership, job design, and knowledge management practices shape ambidextrous behavior across extended careers. The framework advanced here is integrative and heuristic rather than predictive. This contribution clarifies how individual ambidexterity may provide the micro-level capability for sustainable careers in ageing and dynamic labor markets by synthesizing fragmented literatures.