Ambidextrous Leadership and Organizational Performance: The Mediating Role of Employee Commitment

The increasingly complex, competitive, and dynamic business environment places leaders under conflicting and often mutually exclusive demands. Ambidextrous leadership, which integrates participative (loose) and directive (tight) leadership styles, offers a potential approach for navigating these challenges. This study examined the direct and indirect effects of ambidextrous leadership on organizational performance, with employee commitment as a mediating variable, within four major manufacturing firms in Nairobi, Kenya: Bidco, Kenya Breweries Limited, Tononoka Steel, and Brookside Dairy Limited. Using an explanatory cross-sectional research design, data were collected from 320 employees sampled via stratified random sampling from a target population of 2,709. Structured questionnaires measured loose and tight leadership, affective, continuance, and normative commitment, and organizational performance. Confirmatory factor analysis verified construct validity, while Cronbach’s alpha confirmed reliability. Pearson correlation analyses indicated significant positive associations between loose leadership (r = 0.71, p < 0.001), tight leadership (r = 0.51, p < 0.001), employee commitment dimensions (affective: r = 0.65, p < 0.001; continuance: r = 0.65, p < 0.001; normative: r = 0.67, p < 0.001), and organizational performance. Multiple linear regression results showed that high loose–high tight leadership had the strongest positive effect on performance (β = 0.43, p < 0.001), while high loose–low tight (β = 0.31, p < 0.001) and low loose–high tight (β = 0.18, p = 0.026) also improved outcomes. Employee commitment dimensions positively predicted performance (affective: β = 0.35, p < 0.001; continuance: β = 0.22, p = 0.003; normative: β = 0.25, p = 0.002) and partially mediated the relationship between ambidextrous leadership and organizational outcomes (total indirect effect = 0.35, 95% CI [0.26, 0.45]). These findings underscore the practical importance of fostering both leadership flexibility and employee commitment to enhance performance. Organizations are advised to implement leadership development and employee engagement strategies to achieve sustained productivity and growth, particularly in the manufacturing sector.