Although numerous studies documented that ambidextrous leadership is particularly suitable for innovation teams, whether it remains effective in more general team contexts is largely understudied. By integrating the conservation of resources theory (COR) and social information processing (SIP) theory, we argue that when ambidextrous leaders increasingly implement seemingly conflicting behaviors (i.e., opening and closing behaviors) and switch between them, they simultaneously trigger resource replenishment and depletion effects, thereby altering team functioning. In this process, we suggest that leader instrumentality is a crucial boundary condition determining whether ambidextrous leadership can generate more positive results. We conducted a multi-wave and multi-source survey on 169 policy analysis teams. We found that team voice climate (i.e., resource replenishment pathway) and role stress (i.e., resource depletion pathway) mediate the impact of ambidextrous leadership on team effectiveness. Under high leader instrumentality, ambidextrous leaders have a stronger positive impact on team voice climate but a weaker negative effect on team role stress, ultimately resulting in higher team effectiveness. The theoretical and practical implications of this research are discussed.
