Leveraging employee engagement and creativity through ethical leadership: the role of employee ambidexterity in the hospitality industry

PurposeThe success and long-term survival of service organizations depend on employee behavior such as work engagement and creativity. In this study, The authors intend to investigate employee engagement and creativity in the hospitality industry based on the theory of social exchange. In addition, The authors explore the mediating role of employee ambidexterity between ethical leadership and employee work engagement and between ethical leadership and employee creativity.Design/methodology/approachThrough an online survey questionnaire, data were collected from 246 workers in the hospitality industry in Pakistan. Smart-PLS version 3 was used to analyze the data.FindingsThe results of the structural equation modeling reveal that ethical leadership has a positive association with work engagement and employee creativity in the hospitality industry. Results further reveal that employee ambidexterity significantly mediates the relationships between ethical leadership and work engagement and between ethical leadership and employee creativity.Originality/valueThis study not only makes an important contribution to the literature on the role of employee ambidexterity in the hospitality industry but will also help service businesses in managing their employees more effectively.