A hermeneutic phenomenological study the influence of ambidextrous leadership & national culture dimensions on innovation culture in Malaysian ICT firms

Background: Sustainable innovation has emerged as a critical driver of competitive advantage and economic growth for firms in today’s fast-paced and dynamic business environment. However, several global innovation and competitiveness indicators showed Malaysia’s continued state of decline. Evidently, the need for better innovation-leadership is more critical than ever. Yet, despite of this urgency, Malaysia continued to fall short of innovative leadership acumen.

Research Aim: This study sought to identify and analyse what is expressed as observable and delayer the subtle and unmanifested, which result in the description of what shaped the Malaysian ICT leaders’ lived experiences, which were instrumental to their successes and how they cultivated a conducive innovation culture that was culturally determined for sustainable innovation to thrive. Design: Hermeneutic phenomenology was adopted as the methodological framework for this study. Purposeful sampling of Malaysian ICT leaders was selected to undergo a series of structured questionnaires. Through which ten (10) participants, who exhibited high levels of Ambidextrous Leadership behaviours were eligible to partake in Organisational Culture Assessment (OCAI), in-depth semi-structured and focus groups interviews to gather the essence of their lived experiential lifeworlds as ambidextrous leaders.

Findings: Twelve (12) themes emerged and addressed the research questions and objectives of this study. The themes centred on the leaders’ foundational influences, mindsets, attributes and a repertoire of innovation leadership behaviours, strategies and tactics towards the emergence of the Ambidextrous Leadership phenomenon. Facets of Hofstede’s cultural orientations were taken into account to show how these leaders managed innovation in context of Malaysia. This study further illuminated that the leaders demonstrated a combination of transformational, transactional, flexibility, versatile, situational leadership styles in perpetuating the practice of Ambidextrous Leadership to adapt to the changing demands of exploratory and exploitative innovation. Together with fostering a mixed balance of Clan, Adhocracy and Market (except Hierarchy) iv organisational cultures, they were able to cultivate the optimal innovation culture to raise competitiveness and sustain innovation performance of their firms.