Managing Uncertainty in Digital Transformation Projects: Ambidextrous Leadership for Achieving Team Ambidexterity

Digital transformation (DT) is increasingly recognized as a vital strategy for organizations to remain competitive. Leadership ensures the success of DT projects; however, traditional conceptualizations have largely relied on singular leadership approaches that inadequately address the fluid nature of these projects. This study examines the role of leadership in enhancing team ambidexterity and strategic benefit realization in DT projects. Conceptualized as a blend of opening and closing behaviors, encompassing IT strategic thinking, a transformational mindset, and change governance, ambidextrous leadership (AL) enables teams to engage in both explorative and exploitative learning. To validate the AL construct and test the research hypotheses, a multi-wave survey was administered to collect primary data from DT project leaders who served as senior managers directly involved in project teams over a five-month period. This longitudinal design enabled the collection of a representative sample and provided rich data for examining the development of leadership and team ambidexterity. This study received 107 completed responses from the project leaders. The empirical results reveal that AL significantly drives team ambidexterity, which in turn mediates improved strategic outcomes. Moreover, contextual factors such as environmental dynamism and performance ambiguity moderate these relationships, highlighting the need for AL in the DT context. This study advances the ambidextrous paradigm as a theoretical lens for conceptualizing digital leadership and explores how such leadership effectively promotes team ambidexterity amid environmental dynamism and performance ambiguity. Overall, the findings extend our understanding of AL within DT projects while offering valuable practical implications for leadership development.