A Research On The Influence Of Humble Leadership On Employees' Ambidextrous Innovation

With the development of economy,recently China has entered a new period,transforming from “Made in China” to “Created in China”.This requires accelerating innovation.Scholars divide organizational innovation into exploratory innovation and exploitative innovation.The former is related to the development of new knowledge,technology and market,while the latter is related to the optimization of existing knowledge,technology and market.Scholars pay more attention to the influencing factors of organizational ambidextrous innovation,but few scholars focus on the main body and source of innovation activities-employees' ambidextrous innovation.As the example of employees,leaders have a great influence on employees.Also,as a “down to top” style,humble leadership adapts to more and more flat structure.So this paper investigates the relationship between humble leadership and employees' exploratory innovation and exploitative innovation.Based on the Regulatory Focus Theory,this paper investigates the influence mechanism of humble leadership and employees' ambidextrous innovation.This study suggests that humble leadership can stimulate employees' promotion/prevention regulatory focus by positive/negative behavior,words or feedback.Employees with high promotion regulatory focus pay attention to dream and achievement,which only has a positive impact on exploratory innovation,but has a negative impact on exploitative innovation.Employees with high prevention regulatory focus pay attention to safety and responsibility,which only has a positive impact on exploitative innovation,but has a negative impact on exploratory innovation.In this study,the employees from several cities such as Nanjing,Shanghai and Yangzhou were selected as the research object.The study found that humble leadership has a positive impact on exploratory innovation and exploitative innovation with the mediating effect of promotion regulatory focus.And it has a positive impact on exploitative innovation with the mediating effect of prevention regulatory focus.What's more,power distance has a moderating effect on the relationship between humble leadership and promotion regulatory focus.In theory,this study has enriched the theory of humble leadership.It also explores the mechanism of humble leadership affects ambidextrous innovation and the boundary of humble leadership.In practice,this study provides guidance for how leaders can stimulate employees' work regulatory focus to improve employees' exploratory and exploitative innovation.This helps leaders guide and manage employees more efficiently to finally achieve organizational success.