Unpacking the Paradox: How Paradoxical Leadership Drives Team Innovation through Efficacy and Job Crafting

Background In increasingly complex and paradoxical organizational environments, paradoxical leadership—a leadership style that integrates competing demands—has gradually become an important approach for fostering team innovation. Grounded in social cognitive and team dynamics theories, this study constructs and empirically tests a moderated mediation model to examine how paradoxical leadership promotes team innovation performance through team efficacy and the moderating role of job crafting. Method This study employs structural equation modeling (SEM) and hierarchical regression analysis methods to conduct an empirical analysis of a sample of 344 employees from China, in order to verify the relationship between paradoxical leadership and team innovative performance, exploring the mediating role of team effectiveness and the moderating role of job crafting. Results The results indicate that paradoxical leadership significantly enhances team efficacy and innovation performance. Team efficacy mediates the relationship between paradoxical leadership and innovation performance. In addition, job crafting strengthens the positive effect of paradoxical leadership on team efficacy and amplifies the impact of team efficacy on team innovation performance. Conclusions This study reveals the pathways through which paradoxical leadership fosters team innovation, examines both psychological mechanisms and contextual boundary conditions, and offers new theoretical insights and practical implications for enhancing leadership effectiveness and promoting team innovation performance in Chinese organizations. Clinical Trial registration Not applicable.