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<p>In the digitally transforming hospitality industry, fostering employee ambidextrous innovation—the concurrent pursuit of exploitative and exploratory behaviours—is a strategic imperative. Grounded in Cognitive-Affective Personality System (CAPS) theory, this study investigates the psychological mechanisms through which digital technology empowerment translates into ambidexterity. Based on time-lagged data from 412 hotel employees, our analysis reveals that digital empowerment fosters both innovation types via two distinct pathways: enhanced cognitive flexibility (a cognitive path) and heightened psychological empowerment (a motivational path). Critically, we uncover an “empowerment paradox”: perceived technology anxiety negatively moderates these positive effects, weakening both pathways and subverting innovation. This study offers a nuanced, person-in-situation model of human-technology integration. For managers, the findings underscore that successfully leveraging digital investments requires proactively mitigating employee technology anxiety to unlock the cognitive and motivational benefits of empowerment, thereby cultivating a genuinely innovative workforce.</p>

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The empowerment paradox: a cognitive-affective system model of fostering and subverting employee ambidexterity in the digital era

  • 期刊论文

  • 发表日期：

    2026年1月19日

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  • Yingwei Pan

摘要

In the digitally transforming hospitality industry, fostering employee ambidextrous innovation—the concurrent pursuit of exploitative and exploratory behaviours—is a strategic imperative. Grounded in Cognitive-Affective Personality System (CAPS) theory, this study investigates the psychological mechanisms through which digital technology empowerment translates into ambidexterity. Based on time-lagged data from 412 hotel employees, our analysis reveals that digital empowerment fosters both innovation types via two distinct pathways: enhanced cognitive flexibility (a cognitive path) and heightened psychological empowerment (a motivational path). Critically, we uncover an “empowerment paradox”: perceived technology anxiety negatively moderates these positive effects, weakening both pathways and subverting innovation. This study offers a nuanced, person-in-situation model of human-technology integration. For managers, the findings underscore that successfully leveraging digital investments requires proactively mitigating employee technology anxiety to unlock the cognitive and motivational benefits of empowerment, thereby cultivating a genuinely innovative workforce.