The Paradoxical Effect on Performance

Abstract

Although leadership is often described in an appealing light, a leadership role comes with some costs that can be particularly problematic to some leaders. We advance our understanding of the understudied ambivalence to lead concept defined as a leader’s experience of simultaneously having both positive and negative orientations toward his/her leadership role. We develop a process model showing that ambivalence to lead serves as a flexibility-enhanced stimuli that causes leaders to engage with paradoxical behavior, which in turn increases their effectiveness in people management. We further argue that these positive effects can be enhanced by cultivating a culture of inclusion in organizations. The findings provide substantial support for our thesis by demonstrating a process model in which ambivalence to lead enhances paradoxical leader behavior, which in turn increases effectiveness in people management. We further find that, when culture for inclusion is higher in the organization, the indirect effect of ambivalence to lead on performance outcomes (through paradoxical leader behavior) is stronger.