Leadership Self-efficacy And Ambidextrous Innovation Of Public Administrators:the Moderating Role Of Perspective Taking

With the continuous implementation of reform and opening,accelerating innovation-driven development has strategic significance for public sector to enhance new competitive advantages and long-term development momentum.As an important factor that gives organization vitality,the innovation of public administrators is the key driving force for public sector innovation.This kind of innovation is reflected in the fact that,on the one hand,public administrators require future-oriented management skills and forward-thinking capabilities,actively exploring new possibilities to deal with new social issues;on the other hand,they require a sense of ownership and down-to-earth spirits,fully utilizing existing certainties to solve traditional problems.The organic combination of exploratory innovation and exploitative innovation is called ambidextrous innovation.Ambidextrous innovation provides a new idea for public administrators to explore the long-term sustainable development path of public sector.Previous studies suggest that ambidextrous innovation is mainly focused on the analysis at the enterprise level.The academic discussion on the ambidextrous innovation of public administrators has not attracted enough attention.This article tries to make up for this research gap and introduce the research on ambidextrous innovation from enterprise management field to public management field.The main research contents include:first,investigate the impact of leadership self-efficacy on the ambidextrous innovation of public administrators,and analyze the effects of the three dimensions of direction-setting,gaining commitment,overcoming obstacles on these ambidextrous innovation;second,explore the impact of perspective taking on the relationship between leadership self-efficacy and the ambidextrous innovation of public administrators,and especially examine the different moderating effects of cognitive perspective taking and affective perspective taking.Based on social cognitive theory,this article considers cognitive perspective taking and affective perspective taking as moderators and establishes a relationship model between leadership self-efficacy and the ambidextrous innovation of public administrators.Then,a questionnaire is conducted so as to obtain statistical data.The proposed theoretical hypothesis are validated through correlation analysis and regression analysis.Findings show that leadership self-efficacy has a significant positive effect on the ambidextrous innovation of public administrators;cognitive perspective taking and affective perspective taking play important roles in the relationship between leadership self-efficacy and ambidextrous innovation;the interaction of affective perspective taking and leadership self-efficacy is not conducive to the realization of the ambidextrous innovation of public administrators.This article is a pioneering endeavor in the field of innovation research at the public administrator level in the Chinese context,thereby providing important implications for public administrators to stimulate their ambidextrous innovation.