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Leader ambidexterity in goal orientation and team adaptive performance
Lisa Dragoni1, Christina Hymer2, Soohyun Yoon3
1School of Business, Wake Forest University.
The Journal of Applied Psychology
|July 30, 2026
Summary
Leaders who can flexibly switch team goal orientations enhance team adaptive performance. This leader ambidexterity in goal orientation is crucial for teams facing complex and changing environments.
Area of Science:
- Organizational Psychology
- Team Dynamics
- Leadership Studies
Background:
- Team goal orientation, a team's focus on learning or performance, is often viewed as static.
- This traditional perspective suggests effectiveness depends on matching a stable orientation to the situation.
- However, dynamic environments necessitate a more flexible approach to team goal orientation for adaptive performance.
Purpose of the Study:
- To introduce and examine the concept of leader ambidexterity in goal orientation.
- To investigate if leaders' ability to switch goal orientations predicts team adaptive performance.
- To understand how fluid goal orientation strategies benefit teams in complex, changing circumstances.
Main Methods:
- Developed and validated a scale to measure leader ambidexterity in goal orientation.
- Collected field data from 79 teams at a U.S. military academy.
- Analyzed the relationship between leader goal orientation ambidexterity and team adaptive performance.
Main Results:
- Team adaptive performance was significantly higher when leaders demonstrated greater ambidexterity in goal orientation.
- This finding remained robust after controlling for stable leader and team-level goal orientations.
- Leader ambidexterity in goal orientation is a key predictor of adaptive team functioning.
Conclusions:
- Leader ambidexterity in goal orientation is vital for fostering team adaptive performance in dynamic settings.
- This research offers a more fluid perspective on team goal orientation, moving beyond static characteristics.
- Findings have implications for leadership development and optimizing team effectiveness in complex environments.
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