The Development of an Instrument for the Measurement of Ambidextrous Followership

The Development of an Instrument for the Measurement of Ambidextrous Followership

Keith Rogers | 2025

Abstract

Ambidextrous followership involves an individual follower’s adoption of structural, situational, and strategic adaptive flexibility to balance exploitative and explorative behaviors under pressure to innovate. This study represents an effort to test the validity and reliability of the Ambidextrous Followership Scale, an instrument developed to measure follower ambidexterity. After demonstrating the profound need for greater understanding and appreciation of ambidexterity as a function of followership in innovative industries, this study reviewed significant contributions to the fields of ambidexterity and followership research. Then, honoring DeVellis’s (2017) recommendations for instrument development, the Ambidextrous Followership Scale was developed, its validity tested, and its efficacy and efficiency strengthened through revision. Implications of the study’s findings are noted, and recommendations for further research are offered.

Keywords: adaptive, ambidexterity, innovation, situational, strategic, structural