Unlocking ambidexterity: How leadership and task autonomy encourage both effective exploration and exploitation

Abstract In dynamic work environments, individuals are expected to simultaneously refine existing knowledge and explore novel approaches – a resource-intensive challenge known as ambidexterity. Drawing on the conservation of resources theory, we examine how task autonomy and transformational leadership, as key resources at work, shape individual exploration, exploitation, and ambidexterity. Using a vignette experiment with 331 MBA students from Slovenia, Austria, and Kosovo, we find that exploration is higher under conditions of high task autonomy and transformational leadership. In contrast, exploitation is stronger when task autonomy is restricted, while leadership has no significant effect. Ambidexterity emerges only when considering both factors jointly in the sense of an interaction: Transformational leadership buffers the decline in ambidexterity typically associated with low autonomy. These findings suggest that autonomy and leadership influence exploration and exploitation in partly opposing ways, impeding the straightforward enhancement of ambidexterity. Our study reveals which resource configurations unlock individual ambidexterity.