Ambidextrous leadership: a distinct pathway to build talent agility and engagement

ABSTRACT

Employees face traumatic experiences as they have to deal with ambiguity, complexity, and an ever-changing business environment due to the COVID-19 outbreak. A suitable leadership approach is required to make strategic decisions and develop employees’ agile mind set in the new work setting. Therefore, this study emphasises the strategic role of ambidextrous leadership in building an agile talent, thus enhancing employee engagement. It is also recommended that HRD professionals develop an innovative culture wherein leaders can foster both exploitation and exploration behaviour among subordinates at a high level. Thus, employees become flexible, openly express their ideas, and take risks without fear of undesirable results while applying novel practices leading to high employee engagement.

KEYWORDS:

• Ambidextrous leadership
• COVID-19
• talent agility
• employee engagement

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).