Current Psychology

https://doi.org/10.1007/s12144-020-00647-x

Inclusive leadership, leader identification and employee voice

behavior: The moderating role of power distance
Yungui Guo 1 & Yanting Zhu 2 & Lihua Zhang 2

# Springer Science+Business Media, LLC, part of Springer Nature 2020

Abstract
Inclusive leadership, a particular mode of relational leadership, has received extensive attention from scholars in recent years.
Inclusive leadership may indicate a positive relationship to employee voice behavior, but there is little research on the relationship
between them. Therefore, based on social identity theory, this study aims to examine the effect of inclusive leadership on
employee voice behavior, the mediating role of leader identification, and the moderating role of power distance. Through the
analysis of 232 valid sample data obtained from employees working in food manufacturing enterprises in China, the results
demonstrate that inclusive leadership is positively related to employees’ promotive and prohibitive voice behavior; leader
identification partially mediates the effect of inclusive leadership on employees’ promotive and prohibitive voice. In addition,
the results also indicate that power distance not only weakens the effect of inclusive leadership on leader identification and
prohibitive voice, but also weakens the effect of leader identification on prohibitive voice. The findings have enriched the
research on the consequences of inclusive leadership to a certain extent, provided a new perspective for in-depth analysis on
the mechanism of inclusive leadership, and theoretically deepened an understanding of the boundary conditions of inclusive
leadership.

Keywords Inclusive leadership . Leader identification . Power distance . Employee voice behavior

Introduction occur. In order to cope with such diversity in the organization,

inclusive management has gradually become an important
With the growing trend of economic globalization, the com- management method (Miller 1998; Tang et al. 2015).
petition between organizations is becoming increasingly in- Inclusive leadership, as the core content of inclusive manage-
tense, and there are more and more cases of cross-border ment, also receives broad attention from scholars (Nishii and
mergers and acquisitions (M&A) as well (Baird et al. 2019). Mayer 2009; Shore et al. 2011).
Meanwhile, economic globalization also makes talent compe- At present, scholars have carried out their studies and ob-
tition increasingly globalized, which promotes the mobility of tained certain research achievements by focusing on the con-
population between regions and nations (IOM 2017). There is ception (Carmeli et al. 2010; Hollander 2009; Nembhard and
no doubt that the level of diversity and complexity within Edmondson 2006; Randel et al. 2018; Ryan 2006; Temple and
organizations increases as the multinational mergers and ac- Ylitalo 2009), measurement (Carmeli et al. 2010; Nembhard
quisitions of enterprises and cross-broader talent mobility and Edmondson 2006), antecedents (Pless and Maak 2004;
Rayner 2009), and consequences (Bowers et al. 2012;
Carmeli et al. 2010; Choi et al. 2017; Hirak et al. 2012;
* Yungui Guo Javed et al. 2017; Qi and Liu 2017; Yin 2013) of inclusive
gyg1225@ruc.edu.cn
leadership, as well as its similarities and differences with other
* Yanting Zhu leadership styles (Randel et al. 2018; Zhang et al. 2016).
zhuyt2016@ruc.edu.cn
However, research on inclusive leadership is still lacking
and needs additional research (Zhang et al. 2016). For exam-
1
School of Business, Hunan University of Science and Technology, ple, as far as its consequences are concerned, employees
yuhu district, Xiangtan 411201, Hunan, China
would like to show more voice behaviors under inclusive
2
School of Labor and Human Resources, Renmin University of leadership since inclusive leaders support employees to gen-
China, 59 Zhongguancun Street, Haidian District, Beijing 100872,
erate new and novel ideas and are more willing to listen to
China
 Curr Psychol

employees by showing openness, availability and accessibility found that the value on power distance varies greatly among
(Carmeli et al. 2010). In addition, compared with other lead- individuals in the same society due to their different social
ership styles such as transformational leadership, empowering experiences. Some scholars regard power distance as a char-
leadership, authentic leadership, and servant leadership, inclu- acteristic variable that reflects individual differences in values,
sive leadership places much more emphasis on employees’ rather than a cultural value variable that describes social dif-
perceptions of belongingness and value for uniqueness ferences (e.g., Liang 2014; Wei et al. 2015). This study fol-
(Randel et al. 2018), and is more inclined to acknowledge lows the above thinking and assumes that power distance
employees’ talents and allow employees’ voices to be heard would play its moderating role by influencing employees’
and appreciated (Shore et al. 2011). Therefore, inclusive lead- sensitivity towards their leaders’ inclusive leadership behav-
ership may be more conducive to the generation of employee iors, and determining the communication mode between em-
voice behavior than other leadership styles. Empirical studies ployees and their leaders. Based on the above analysis and the
also indicated that inclusive leadership has a positive relation- theoretical foundation of social identity theory, this study con-
ship with employee voice behavior through psychological siders leader identification as a mediating variable and power
safety and leader-member exchange at the individual level distance as a moderating variable to examine the mediating
(Yin 2013) or caring ethical climate at the team level (Qi mechanism and boundary conditions of inclusive leadership
and Liu 2017). But overall, there are few studies on the rela- on employee voice behavior.
tionship between inclusive leadership and employee voice This study contributes to the existing literature on inclusive
behavior so far. As a result, the underlying mechanisms and leadership and employee voice behavior as below. First, there
boundary conditions of this linkage remain unclear. are currently few studies on the relationship between inclusive
Previous studies have shown that the effects of inclusive leadership and employee voice behavior so far. This study fills
leadership on employee voice behavior tend to be indirect (Qi the gap and investigates the potential process through which
and Liu 2017; Yin 2013), so it is necessary to examine the inclusive leadership impacts employee voice behavior by em-
mediation mechanisms of this relationship. The social identity pirically examining the mediating role of leader identification
theory is an important theoretical perspective that explains the based on social identity theory. Second, there are few extant
effect of leader behaviors on employee voice (e.g., Li and Sun studies on the boundary conditions of inclusive leadership
2015; Zhu et al. 2015). At the dyadic level, employees’ iden- (Zhang et al. 2016), so this study contributes to the research
tification with their leaders is recognized as an important un- on the contextual effectiveness of inclusive leadership by ex-
derlying mechanism that influences the effects of leadership ploring the moderating role of power distance.
(Conger and Kanungo 1998). This study postulates that al-
though employee voice is a type of organization-oriented be-
havior, its actual object more tends to be the employee’s lead- Literature Review and Hypotheses
er. It is hard to imagine that an employee who does not identify Development
with his/her leader would express his/her true ideas. Thus, the
leader identification should be an important mediating vari- Inclusive Leadership and Employee Voice Behavior
able between inclusive leadership and employee voice behav-
ior. Meanwhile, some scholars pointed out that it is important In the organizational management field, Nembhard and
to define some boundary conditions under which some types Edmondson (2006), who first introduced the conception of
of leadership styles might become more or less effective inclusive leadership, defined it as “words and deeds by a lead-
(Dickson et al. 2003; Jung et al. 2009). Some Chinese scholars er or leaders that indicate an invitation and appreciation for
argued that Chinese situational factors should be added in subordinates’ contributions.” Carmeli et al. (2010) believes
study so as to contribute to Chinese management research that inclusive leadership focuses on the interactive relation-
(Yang et al. 2014; Zhang et al. 2016). China is a country that ship and mechanism of leaders and subordinates to investigate
endures high power distance (Shao et al. 2013). And em- the mechanism of leadership. Inclusive leadership posits that
ployees’ power distance orientation positively moderates the leaders should listen and pay attention to the needs of their
indirect relationship between ethical leadership and employee subordinates, build a harmonious relationship with subordi-
voice (Liang 2014). Therefore, in an effort to examine the nates, and promote the organizational involvement of subor-
contingency effect of power distance on the contextual effec- dinates by showing openness, effectiveness and accessibility.
tiveness of inclusive leadership (Zhang et al. 2016), this study Voice behavior is defined as promotive behavior that em-
includes power distance as a moderating variable. Power dis- phasizes expression of constructive challenge in order to im-
tance refers to the extent to which a society accepts that power prove and recommend modifications to standard procedures
in institutions and organizations is distributed unequally even when others disagree, which is an extra-role behavior of
(Hofstede 2001). Although this conception was initially de- interpersonal communication (Van Dyne and LePine 1998). It
fined at the national or social level, Kirkman et al. (2006) is generally considered to be a challenging and improvement-
Curr Psychol

oriented organizational citizenship behavior (LePine and Van leadership charisma and emotion, but also is affected by the
Dyne 2001). Liang et al. (2012) categorized voice behavior employee’s assessment on his/her relationship with the leader
into two dimensions in terms of promotive voice and prohib- (van Knippenberg et al. 2004).
itive voice according to the differences in the behavioral con- Social identity theory posits that group members would
tent, function and implications for others. In specific, the for- identify with the group leader when doing so meets their fun-
mer mainly involves new ideas and methods for improving damental needs such as belongingness and affiliation (Zhu
organizational efficiency, and the latter mainly involves the et al. 2015). This study argues that inclusive leadership can
prohibitive views and measures against the work practice, help employees to meet the above-mentioned fundamental
events or employee behavior which may harm the organiza- needs, incorporate their perceptions of leaders into their self-
tion. This categorization makes the conception and connota- concept, and then produce leader identification. On one hand,
tion of employee voice behavior clearer (Liang 2014). inclusive leaders equally treat subordinates (Ryan 2006), en-
The interaction between inclusive leaders and employees courage subordinates’ organizational participation (Pless and
can effectively motivate employees’ voice behavior. On the Maak 2004), recognize subordinates’ value and contributions
one hand, due to the characteristic of openness, inclusive (Nembhard and Edmondson 2006), as well as voluntarily pro-
leaders encourage employees’ organizational participation vide supports and helps to subordinates (Carmeli et al. 2010)
(Pless and Maak 2004) and embrace employees’ new ideas at work, which are beneficial to bring belongingness to em-
(Carmeli et al. 2010), which can encourage employees to ployees (Randel et al. 2018). On the other hand, as a particular
speak out their new views. Meanwhile, inclusive leader be- mode of relational leadership, inclusive leadership can create a
haviors can enhance employees’ perceptions of their belong- bidirectional relationship between leaders and their subordi-
ingness and uniqueness in the organization (Randel et al. nates based on respect and recognition (Hollander 2009).
2018). This, in turn, can promote employees’ organization- Furthermore, inclusive leaders pay attention to and satisfy
based self-esteem and then motivate their promotive voice subordinates’ differentiated needs (Nembhard and
behavior (Liang et al. 2012). On the other hand, inclusive Edmondson 2006). They are willing to discuss expected goals
leaders can contribute to a culture where employees’ views and its ways with subordinates, and exhibit accessibility and
are highly valued and respected (Javed et al. 2017), so even if availability during their interactions with subordinates
their subordinates’ views are not consistent with their own, (Carmeli et al. 2010). Therefore, under inclusive leadership
they would not have prejudice against these employees. This employees are more likely to interact with their leader, which
makes employees perceive low risk and dare to voice out their provides opportunity for them to meet affiliation need.
prohibitive views (Wei et al. 2015). Previous studies also sug- Once the leader identification of employee is formed, it
gested that inclusive leader behaviors can improve em- will generate a significant impact on employee’s motiva-
ployees’ psychological safety in the organization (Bowers tions and behaviors (Sluss and Ashforth 2007). Leader
et al. 2012; Carmeli et al. 2010; Hirak et al. 2012; Javed identification will prompt employees to integrate their
et al. 2017), which was strongly related to their prohibitive cognitions of leader with their self-definition, and then
voice behavior (Liang et al. 2012). Furthermore, the empirical internalize their leader’s values and behavioral norms as
studies (Qi and Liu 2017; Yin 2013) concluded that inclusive part of their own goals (Sluss and Ashforth 2007); and
leadership was positively correlated with employee voice be- make them hope to meet the leader’s expectations and
havior. Therefore, based on previous studies, this study further behave in ways that benefit the leader (Chang and
explores the process mechanism and boundary conditions of Johnson 2010). Therefore, the employees who have high
inclusive leadership on employee voice behavior. identification with their leader are very likely to feel ob-
ligated to share new ideas and methods with their leader
The Mediating Role of Leader Identification (Liu et al. 2010). That is, leader identification may moti-
vate employees’ promotive voice behavior. Meanwhile,
The integration of leadership theory and identity theory forms Zhu et al. (2015) argue that the employees who identify
a leadership theory based on self-concept (van Knippenberg with their leader would believe that it is safe to speak up
et al. 2004), and leader identification is one of the important to their leader, which in turn can boost their prohibitive
conceptions. Leader identification refers to a state that em- voice behavior (Liang et al. 2012). Moreover, previous
ployees define themselves according to their own relationship studies have shown that leader identification can mediate
with leaders. When employees incorporate their perceptions the relationship between positive leadership and employee
of leader into their self-concept, they produce the sense of voice behavior (e.g., Liu et al. 2010; Zhu et al. 2015).
leader identification (Sluss et al. 2012). It is a type of individ- Hence, the following hypothesis was put forward:
ual identity at the level of dyadic relationship, with a forma-
tion of complicated psychological process. It does not only H1: Leader identification mediates the relationship be-
involve the employee’s perception and evaluation of tween inclusive leadership and employee voice behavior.
 Curr Psychol

The Moderating Role of Power Distance the voice context. Moreover, they would have more concern
when making decisions about voice, and less willing to speak
This study assumes that power distance will not only weaken up to leaders (Botero and Van Dyne 2009). Comparatively
the influence of inclusive leadership on leadership identifica- speaking, employees with low power distance are inclined to
tion and employee voice behavior, but will also weaken the believe that they are an indispensable member of the organi-
influence of leadership identification on employee voice be- zation like their leaders. They are responsible for the develop-
havior. Concretely speaking, the employees with high power ment of the organization as their leaders (Liang 2014). As a
distance recognize the status differences between leaders and result, they are more willing to express their views and
subordinates, and usually keep a certain distance from leaders suggestions to their leaders and exert their influence on the
and follow leaders’ instructions (Zheng 1995). They will organizational decisions and development. Furthermore, the
avoid disagreement with leaders, while believing that their empirical study of Liang (2014) revealed that the relationship
leaders deserve their respect and trust (Liang 2014), as well between felt obligations and employee voice was much stron-
as intending to advocate the authority of their leaders rather ger for employees with low power distance than for the ones
than challenge and doubt them (Burgoon et al. 1982). When with high power distance. That is, power distance weakens the
there are different opinions, they also tend to follow authority positive relationship between felt obligations and employee
and accept the final decision of their leaders in order to avoid voice. Therefore, this study assumes that power distance will
conflict (Kirkbride et al. 1991). It can be shown that the per- also weaken the positive influence of leader identification on
sonal belief of employees with high power distance creates employee voice behavior, and puts forward the following
great social distance from leaders (Liang 2014), which hinders hypothesis:
the establishment of two-way relations between them and their
leaders and weakens the effectiveness of inclusive Leadership H4: Power distance moderates the relationship between
(Zhang et al. 2016). On the contrary, the employees with low leader identification and employee voice behavior.
power distance will ignore the hierarchy and power difference Specifically, this relationship is weaker for employees
within the organization, so that they can communicate more with higher power distance than for those with lower
equally with their leaders (Hofstede 2001), and leaders can power distance.
understand their needs more clearly, which help to form a
friendly leader-member relationship and promote the effec- Based on the above, the theoretical framework of this study
tiveness of inclusive Leadership (Zhang et al. 2016). is constructed as below (Fig. 1):
Moreover, Wang et al. (2012) demonstrated that abusive su-
pervision has a stronger negative relationship with the percep-
tion of interactional justice for employees with low power Method
distance than those with high power distance. Li and Sun
(2015) found that power distance moderated the effect of su- Participants
pervisor authoritarian leadership on employee voice behavior.
Therefore, the following hypotheses were put forward: In this study, research data were collected through survey from
employees who work in two large food manufacturing enter-
H2: Power distance moderates the relationship between prises in Henan Province of China. We distributed paper ques-
inclusive leadership and leader identification. tionnaires to employees through HR staff of the two enter-
Specifically, this relationship is weaker for employees prises which had established a cooperative relationship with
with higher power distance than for those with lower us. In order to encourage employees to complete the question-
power distance. naires, small gifts such as cell phone chains, USB flash disks,
H3: Power distance moderates the relationship between and Bluetooth headsets were sent out together with the distri-
inclusive leadership and employee voice behavior. bution of the questionnaires. A total of 300 anonymous ques-
Specifically, this relationship is weaker for employees tionnaires were distributed and 247 questionnaires were
with higher power distance than for those with lower returned. After excluding those questionnaires with many
power distance. missing answers and selecting the same answers to consecu-
tive items, 232 questionnaires were retained. The effective
Meanwhile, employees with high power distance – even if response rate was 77.33%. Among the valid samples, 104
they are highly identified with their leaders – tend to feel employees are male (44.8%), 128 are female (55.2%); in terms
unable to change the way and behaviors of their leaders im- of age, 170 employees are under 30 years old (73.3%), 54 are
pacted by great differences in views due to roles and status between 31 and 40 years old (23.3%), and 8 are 41 years and
discrepancies between themselves and their leaders (Liang above (3.4%); in terms of education, there are 28 employees
2014). Thus, they have a propensity to hide their views in with degree of senior high school and below, 188 employees
Curr Psychol

Fig. 1 Hypothesized model

Power distance

H2 H3 H4
Inclusive leadership Employee voice behavior
H1

Leader identification

with college diploma or bachelor’s degree, and 16 employees to help achieve organizational goals.” A sample item of the
with master degree. In terms of job position ranking, there are subscale named prohibitive voice is “Advise other colleagues
138 regular employees (59.5%), 65 first-line managers (28%), against undesirable behaviors that would hamper job perfor-
26 middle managers (11.2%), and 3 senior managers (1.3%). mance.” In this study, alpha reliability was 0.93 for the total
In terms of organizational tenure, there are 125 employees scale, 0.93 for two sub-scales of promotive voice and 0.85 for
(53.9%) working within 3 years, 85 employees (36.6%) work prohibitive voice.
for 4–8 years, and 22 employees (9.5%) work for more than The items of above scales were assessed using a 5-point
9 years. scale (1 = “strongly disagree” to 5 = “strongly agree”).
Meanwhile, we controlled for employees’ gender, age, educa-
Measures tion, position, and organizational tenure when testing the hy-
potheses, given their potential impact on voice (Li and Sun
Inclusive Leadership We measured inclusive leadership with a 2015; Liang et al. 2012).
9-item and 3-dimension scale developed by Carmeli et al.
(2010) and translated into Chinese by Cheng (2014). An ex-
ample of items is “My boss is willing to listen to new ideas.” Results
Cheng (2014) empirically found that the scale had good va-
lidity and reliability in the Chinese context. In this study, alpha Preliminary Analyses
reliability for the scale was 0.95.
Before testing the hypotheses, we used Harman’s single factor
Leader Identification We measured leader identification with a test according to the method described by Podsakoff et al.
7-item and single dimension scale developed by Shamir et al. (2003) to assess common method bias. The results manifested
(1998) and translated into Chinese by Tian (2015). An exam- that four factors were extracted that accounted for 66.16% of
ple of items is “My boss is the role model of my actions.” Tian the total variance. The largest factor explained 36.08% of the
(2015) examined that the scale had good validity and reliabil- variance and didn’t account for the majority of the covariance
ity in the Chinese context. In this study, alpha reliability for the among the measures. We can see that common method bias is
scale was 0.88. not serious in this study. Meanwhile, the results of the confir-
matory factor analysis (see Table 1) manifested that the
Power Distance We measured power distance with a 6-item goodness-of-fit of the single factor model is quite low (x2/
and single dimension scale developed by Dorfman and df=6.85,TLI = 0.49,CFI =0.52,RMSEA = 0.159), which fur-
Howell (1988) and translated into Chinese by Liang (2014). ther proves the above conclusions. Moreover, from Table 1,
An example of items is “The main organizational decision are we can see that the five-factor model fits the data better than
made by management, and there is no need to discuss with other models, and the main fit indexes (x2/df<3, CFI > .90,
subordinates.” Liang (2014) found that the scale had good TLI > .90, RMSEA<.08) satisfy metrological requirements
validity and reliability in the Chinese context. In this study, (Joreskog and Sorbom 1993; Kline 1998), which indicates
alpha reliability for the scale was 0.89. good discrimination validity among the measures.

Employee Voice Behavior We measured employee voice be- Descriptive Statistics and Correlation Analysis
havior with 8-item high factor loading scale selected from a
10-item and 2-dimension scale developed by Liang et al. The results of the descriptive statistics and correlation analysis
(2012) in the Chinese context. This scale is also applicable (see Table 2) demonstrate that the four variables of inclusive
in other cultural contexts. For example, Kakkar et al. (2016) leadership, leader identification, promotive voice, and prohib-
used this scale in Malaysia and reported good validity and itive voice are significantly positively correlated (p < 0.001);
reliability. A sample item of the subscale named promotive inclusive leadership, leader identification and power distance
voice is “Proactively express constructive suggestions so as are significantly negatively correlated (p < 0.001); and power
 Curr Psychol

Table 1 Confirmatory factor

analysis results Model χ2 df x2/ TLI CFI RMSEA
df

Five-factor: IL; LI; PD; V1; V2 849.73 395 2.15 0.90 0.91 0.070
Four-factor: IL; LI; PD; V1 + V2 934.31 399 2.34 0.88 0.89 0.076
Three-factor: IL + LI; PD; V1 + V2 1546.64 402 3.85 0.75 0.77 0.111
Two-factor: IL + LI + PD; V1 + V2 2028.89 404 5.02 0.65 0.67 0.132
Single-factor: IL + LI + PD+ V1 + V2 2775.82 405 6.85 0.49 0.52 0.159

IL inclusive leadership, LI leader identification, PD power distance, V1 promotive voice, V2 prohibitive voice

distance is significantly negatively related to both promotive Moreover, the interaction between power distance and leader
voice and prohibitive voice (p < 0.001). Such findings initially identification on prohibitive voice is significant (b = −0.17,
support the hypotheses of this study. p < 0.05) but on promotive voice is not significant (b =
−0.14, p > 0.05). Thus, H4 is partially supported.
Figures 2, 3 and 4 were drew as below in order to more
Hypotheses Testing visually reflect the moderating effect of power distance. It
makes clear on Fig. 2 that there is a weaker positive relation-
Path analysis was conducted via Mplus version 7.0 to test all ship between inclusive leadership and leader identification for
hypotheses simultaneously following the recommendations of employees with high power distance, compared to whose
Preacher et al. (2010), and the results were shown in Table 3. power distance are low. It is suggested by Fig. 3 that there is
From Table 3 we can see that inclusive leadership is positively a weaker positive relationship between inclusive leadership
related to employees’ promotive voice (b = 0.32, p < 0.001) and prohibitive voice for employees with high power distance,
and prohibitive voice (b = 0.26, p < 0.001). Meanwhile, we compared to those with low power distance. It indicates thru
found that inclusive leadership is positively related to leader Fig. 4 that there is a weaker positive relationship between
identification (b = 0.30, p < 0.001).Leader identification is leader identification and prohibitive voice for employees with
found to be positively related to employees’ promotive voice high power distance, compared to those with low power
(b = 0.29, p < 0.001) and prohibitive voice (b = 0.27, distance.
p < 0.01), which support the mediating role of leader
identification.
Moreover, the results of bootstrapping test (see Table 4) Discussion
suggest that the indirect effect of inclusive leadership on em-
ployee promotive and prohibitive voice through leader identi- Based on social identity theory, this study aims to examine the
fication is significant, and the 95% confidence interval (CI) effect of inclusive leadership on employee voice behavior, as
does not include zero. Therefore, H1 is supported. well as the role of employees’ leader identification and power
From Table 3, we can also see that the interaction between distance. Through the analysis of 232 valid samples, the
power distance and inclusive leadership on leader identifica-
tion is significant (b = −0.19, p < 0.001). Thus, H2 is support- Table 3 Results of path analysis
ed. Meanwhile, the interaction between power distance and Variable V1 V2 LI
inclusive leadership on prohibitive voice is significant (b =
−0.13, p < 0.05) but on promotive voice is not significant b SE b SE b SE
(b = −0.10, p > 0.05). Thus, H3 is partially supported.
Gender −0.21* 0.10 −0.18 0.10 −0.09 0.09
Table 2 Mean, standard deviations, and correlations among study Age −0.01 0.12 −0.12 0.11 0.04 0.10
variables Education −0.00 0.14 −0.16 0.12 0.06 0.11
Position ranking 0.27** 0.08 0.25** 0.08 −0.04 0.06
Variable M SD 1 2 3 4 5
Tenure 0.03 0.09 0.06 0.09 0.07 0.08
1. IL 3.94 0.84 1 IL 0.32*** 0.07 0.26*** 0.07 0.28*** 0.06
2. LI 3.69 0.69 0.36*** 1 LI 0.29*** 0.08 0.27** 0.08
3. PD 2.70 0.84 −0.47*** −0.43*** 1 PD −0.23*** 0.06 −0.22*** 0.06 −0.16** 0.06
4. V1 3.14 0.93 0.46*** 0.41*** −0.49*** 1 IL × PD −0.10 0.06 −0.13* 0.07 −0.19*** 0.05
5. V2 2.98 0.88 0.42*** 0.39*** −0.44*** 0.75*** 1 LI × PD −0.14 0.09 −0.17* 0.09
*** *
p < 0.001 p < 0.05, ** p < 0.01, *** p < 0.001
Curr Psychol

Table 4 Bootstrap resampling results 3

Effect Estimate S.E. 95% CI Low Power

Prohibitive Voice
2.5 Distance
Indirect effect IL → LI → V1 0.13** 0.03 [0.06, 0.19]
IL → LI → V2 0.12** 0.04 [0.05, 0.20]
Direct effect IL → V1 0.36*** 0.07 [0.24, 0.49] 2
IL → V2 0.32*** 0.08 [0.16, 0.47]
**
p<0.01, *** p < 0.001; Resampling times = 2000 1.5

results show that: (1) inclusive leadership positively relates to 1

employees’ promotive and prohibitive voice. This shows that Low Inclusive Leadership High Inclusive Leadership
inclusive leadership, a special form and core of relational lead- Fig. 3 The moderation effect of power distance on the relationship
ership (Carmeli et al. 2010), is closely associated with em- between inclusive leadership and prohibitive voice
ployee voice behavior. (2) Leader identification can partially
mediate the effect of inclusive leadership on employee pro-
the other hand, is mainly involved with new ideas and new
motive and prohibitive voice. It illustrates that the inclusive
methodologies for the improvement of organizational efficien-
leader shows openness, effectiveness and accessibility when
cy (Liang et al. 2012). As it is shown, prohibitive voice has
interacting with employees, which can improve employees’
greater interpersonal risk than promotive voice. So relatively
leader identification and then motivate the employee
speaking, employees are more cautious when trying to decide
promotive behavior. This finding is consistent with the
whether they should make prohibitive voice or not (Xiang and
results of previous studies. For example, Liu et al. (2010)
Long 2013). Therefore, compared to promotive voice, power
found that personal identification with supervisors fully medi-
distance can effectively weaken the positive influence of in-
ated the relationship between transformational leadership and
clusive leadership and leader identification on prohibitive
employee voice behavior. Zhu et al. (2015) indicated that the
voice.
follower’s relational identification with the leader mediated
the positive relationship between ethical leadership and fol-
lower voice behavior. (3) Power distance can moderate the Implications for Research and Practices
effect of inclusive leadership on leader identification. This
demonstrates that power distance is an important boundary This study has some theoretical contributions. First, this study
condition influencing the effectiveness of inclusive fills the gap of the potential process through which inclusive
Leadership. Meanwhile, power distance can moderate the ef- leadership impacts employee voice behavior by examining the
fect of inclusive leadership and leader identification on pro- mediating role of leader identification. Inclusive leadership has
hibitive voice, but not on promotive voice. The reason may be recently become a research “hotspot” in the field of leadership
that prohibitive voice is mainly related to the recommenda- research. That said, most of these studies on the individual con-
tions of the work practice, events, or employee behavior that sequences of inclusive leadership have focused mainly on the
are not beneficial to the organization, which may directly or innovative behavior and employee creativity, while the studies
indirectly lead to interpersonal conflicts. Promotive voice, on on the relationship between inclusive leadership and employee

4 3

Low Power Low Power

Leader Identification

3.5 Distance 2.5 Distance

Prohibitive Voice

3 2

2.5 1.5

2 1
Low Inclusive Leadership High Inclusive Leadership Low Leader Identification High Leader Identification
Fig. 2 The moderation effect of power distance on the relationship Fig. 4 The moderation effect of power distance on the relationship
between inclusive leadership and leader identification between leader identification and prohibitive voice
 Curr Psychol

voice behavior continue to be very few. Previous studies have Limitations and Implications for Future Research
found that psychological safety and LMX (Yin 2013), as well as
caring ethical climate (Qi and Liu 2017) are important mediating There are also some limitations in this study. First, constrained by
variables in the relationship between inclusive leadership and the research conditions, the data in this study are cross-sectional,
employee voice behavior. However, the potential process by and self-reported by employees, which would affect the reliabil-
which inclusive leadership impacts employee voice behavior is ity of the conclusions to a certain extent. Thus, future research
not fully revealed. Therefore, this study explores the impact of can adopt the longitudinal research design; and collect the data of
inclusive leadership on employee voice behavior by drawing various research variables from the employees themselves, their
upon social identity theory. It finds that leadership identification peers or superiors, in an effort to improve the reliability. Second,
partially mediates the relationship between inclusive leadership inclusive leadership is a team-level variable, however this study
and employee voice behavior, which enriches our understanding uses it as an individual-level variable, which may affect the ac-
of the functional mechanism of inclusive leadership to a certain curacy of the research conclusions. Future research can study
extent. Second, this study extends the knowledge about the con- inclusive leadership as a team level variable and collect research
textual effectiveness of inclusive leadership by investigating the data per teams to examine the cross-level impact of inclusive
moderating role of power distance. At present, the empirical leadership on employee voice behavior. Third, a meta-analysis
studies on inclusive leadership mainly focus on the main and indicated that voice is associated with a wide range of anteced-
mediating effects other than boundary conditions (Zhang et al. ents (Chamberlin et al. 2017), but this study only controlled for
2016). This study introduces power distance as a moderating the potential impact of some demography variables, which might
variable to its theoretical framework, and states that power dis- lead to the limited interpretability of the results. Future research
tance can not only moderate the relationship between inclusive might control for other potential confounders based on the extant
leadership and leadership identification, but also moderate the voice literature. Finally, inclusive leaders are willing to provide
relationship between inclusive leadership and employees’ pro- their subordinates with support by acting with openness, avail-
hibitive voice, which serve to enrich the knowledge on the con- ability and accessibility (Carmeli et al. 2010), and the subordi-
textual effectiveness of inclusive leadership. nates may present some positive attitudes and behaviors at work
Moreover, this study brings organizations several practical based on the principle of reciprocity when they perceive support
enlightenments. First, organizations may rely on these find- and help from their leader (Nembhard and Edmondson 2006;
ings to train managers to develop their inclusive leadership Carmeli et al. 2010; Hirak et al. 2012). But this study takes only
skills. Through such trainings, organizations should make voice behavior as the outcome variable considering its practical
managers realize the importance of inclusive leadership and significance and value to an organization. Future research may
master the ways and methods of implementing inclusive lead- bring in other citizenship-related behaviors (e.g. helping behav-
ership skills. Meanwhile, through the shaping of inclusive ior) as potential outcome variables for novel theoretical
organizational culture, the concept of inclusion can be spread implications.
throughout all levels of the organization. Second, organiza-
tions may improve the leader identification of employees. Compliance with Ethical Standards
Since leader identification plays an important role in the link-
age between inclusive leadership and employee voice behav- Conflict of Interest Yungui Guo declares that he has no conflict of
interest; Yanting Zhu declares that she has no conflict of interest; Lihua
ior, managers need to consciously seek their employees’ at-
Zhang declares that she has no conflict of interest.
tention and recognize their own inclusive leadership behavior.
Meanwhile, managers need to improve themselves, as well as Ethical Approval All procedures performed in studies involving human
their personal charisma, in order to enhance their leader iden- participants were in accordance with the ethical standards of the institu-
tification. Third, managers may reduce the perception of pow- tional and/or national research committee and with the 1964 Helsinki
declaration and its later amendments or comparable ethical standards.
er distance with their employees. Since the power distance
would not only diminish the positive influence of inclusive
Informed Consent Informed consent was obtained from all individual
leadership on leader identification and employee voice behav- participants included in the study.
ior, but also reduce the positive influence of leader identifica-
tion on employee voice behavior, the organization should take
the equality into consideration when building up its organiza-
tional culture. That is, the organization should make their em- References
ployees realize that everyone has the right to equality of op-
portunity in participating in the organizational decision- Baird, L., Harding, D., Horsley, P., & Dhar, S. (2019). M&A in disrup-
tion: 2018 in review. Bain & Company, Inc. https://www.bain.com/
making and expressing their own opinions, while making their insights/M-and-A-in-disruption-2018-in-review/
employees believe that power and influence come from com- Botero, I. C., & Van Dyne, L. (2009). Employee voice behavior:
petencies other than personal status in the organization. Interactive effects of LMX and power distance in the United States
Curr Psychol

and Colombia. Management Communication Quarterly, 23(1), 84– Journal of Applied Psychology, 101(9), 1342–1351. https://doi.
104. https://doi.org/10.1177/0893318909335415. org/10.1037/apl0000130.
Bowers, K. W., Robertson, M., & Parchman, M. L. (2012). How inclusive Kirkbride, P. S., Tang, S. F., & Westwood, R. I. (1991). Chinese conflict
leadership can help your practice adapt to change: The most effec- preferences and negotiating behaviour: Cultural and psychological
tive leaders realize that everyone’s input is valuable. Family Practice influences. Organization Studies, 12(3), 365–386. https://doi.org/
Management, 19(1), 8–11 https://www.aafp.org/fpm/2012/0100/p8. 10.1177/017084069101200302.
Burgoon, M., Dillard, J. P., Doran, N. E., & Miller, M. D. (1982). Cultural Kirkman, B. L., Lowe, K. B., & Gibson, C. B. (2006). A quarter century
and situational influences on the process of persuasive strategy se- of culture’s consequences: A review of empirical research incorpo-
lection. International Journal of Intercultural Relations, 6(1), 85– rating Hofstede’s cultural value framework. Journal of International
100. https://doi.org/10.1016/0147-1767(82)90008-6. Business Studies, 37(3), 285–320. https://doi.org/10.1057/palgrave.
Carmeli, A., Reiter-Palmon, R., & Ziv, E. (2010). Inclusive leadership jibs.8400202.
and employee involvement in creative tasks in the workplace: The Kline, R. B. (1998). Principles and practice of structural equation
mediating role of psychological safety. Creativity Research Journal, modeling. New York: The Guilford Press.
22(3), 250–260. https://doi.org/10.1080/10400419.2010.504654. LePine, J. A., & Van Dyne, L. (2001). Voice and cooperative behavior as
Chamberlin, M., Newton, D. W., & LePine, J. A. (2017). A meta-analysis contrasting forms of contextual performance: Evidence of differen-
of voice and its promotive and prohibitive forms: Identification of tial relationships with Big Five personality characteristics and cog-
key associations, distinctions, and future research directions. nitive ability. Journal of Applied Psychology, 86(2), 326–336.
Personnel Psychology, 70(1), 11–71. https://doi.org/10.1111/peps. https://doi.org/10.1037/0021-9010.86.2.326.
12185. Li, Y., & Sun, J. M. (2015). Traditional chinese leadership and employee
Chang, C. H., & Johnson, R. E. (2010). Not all leader–member exchanges voice behavior: A cross-level examination. The Leadership
are created equal: Importance of leader relational identity. The Quarterly, 26(2), 172–189. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.leaqua.2014.
Leadership Quarterly, 21(5), 796–808. https://doi.org/10.1016/j. 08.001.
leaqua.2010.07.008. Liang, J. (2014). Ethical leadership and employee voice: Examining a
Cheng, W.-B. (2014). An empirical study of the impact of inclusive lead- moderated-mediation model. Acta Psychologica Sinica, 46(2),
ership on employee attitudes and behavior. Changsha: Central 252–264. https://doi.org/10.3724/SP.J.1041.2014.00252.
South University. Liang, J., Farh, C. I. C., & Farh, J.-L. (2012). Psychological antecedents
Choi, S. B., Tran, T. B. H., & Kang, S. W. (2017). Inclusive leadership of promotive and prohibitive voice: A two-wave examination.
and employee well-being: The mediating role of person-job fit. Academy of Management Journal, 55(1), 71–92. https://doi.org/
Journal of Happiness Studies, 18(6), 1–25. https://doi.org/10.1007/ 10.5465/amj.2010.0176.
s10902-016-9801-6. Liu, W., Zhu, R., & Yang, Y. (2010). I warn you because I like you: Voice
Conger, J. A., & Kanungo, R. N. (1998). Charismatic leadership in behavior, employee identifications, and transformational leadership.
organizations. Thousand Oaks: Sage Publications. The Leadership Quarterly, 21(1), 189–202. https://doi.org/10.1016/
Dickson, M. W., Den Hartog, D. N., & Michelson, J. K. (2003). Research j.leaqua.2009.10.014.
on leadership in a cross-cultural context: Making progress, and rais- Miller, F. A. (1998). Strategic culture change: The door to achieving high
ing new questions. The Leadership Quarterly, 14(6), 729–768. performance and inclusion. Public Personnel Management, 27(2),
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.leaqua.2003.09.002. 151–160. https://doi.org/10.1177/009102609802700203.
Dorfman, P. W., & Howell, J. P. (1988). Dimensions of National Culture Nembhard, I. M., & Edmondson, A. C. (2006). Making it safe: The
and effective leadership patterns: Hofstede revisited. In R. N. Farmer effects of leader inclusiveness and professional status on psycholog-
& E. G. McGoun (Eds.), Advances in international comparative ical safety and improvement efforts in health care teams. Journal of
management (pp. 127–150). Greenwich: JAI Press. Organizational Behavior, 27(7), 941–966. https://doi.org/10.1002/
Hirak, R., Peng, A. C., Carmeli, A., & Schaubroeck, J. M. (2012). job.413.
Linking leader inclusiveness to work unit performance: The impor- Nishii, L. H., & Mayer, D. M. (2009). Do inclusive leaders help to reduce
tance of psychological safety and learning from failures. The turnover in diverse groups? The moderating role of leader–member
Leadership Quarterly, 23(1), 107–117. https://doi.org/10.1016/j. exchange in the diversity to turnover relationship. Journal of
leaqua.2011.11.009. Applied Psychology, 94(6), 1412–1426. https://doi.org/10.1037/
Hofstede, G. H. (2001). Culture’s consequences: Comparing values, be- a0017190.
haviors, institutions and organizations across nations. California: Pless, N., & Maak, T. (2004). Building an inclusive diversity culture:
Sage Publications, Thousand Oaks. Principles, processes and practice. Journal of Business Ethics,
Hollander, E. P. (2009). Inclusive leadership: The essential leader- 54(2), 129–147. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10551-004-9465-8.
follower relationship. New York: Routledge. Podsakoff, P. M., Mackenzie, S. B., Lee, J. Y., & Podsakoff, N. P. (2003).
IOM. (2017). World Migration Report 2018. Switzerland: IOM. https:// Common method biases in behavioral research: A critical review of
doi.org/10.18356/5d4fc9f0-en. the literature and recommended remedies. Journal of Applied
Javed, B., Naqvi, S. M. M. R., Khan, A. K., Arjoon, S., & Tayyeb, H. H. Psychology, 88(5), 879–903. https://doi.org/10.1037/0021-9010.
(2017). Impact of inclusive leadership on innovative work behavior: 88.5.879.
The role of psychological safety. Journal of Management & Preacher, K. J., Zyphur, M. J., & Zhang, Z. (2010). A general multilevel
Organization, 1–20. https://doi.org/10.1017/jmo.2017.3. SEM framework for assessing multilevel mediation. Psychological
Joreskog, K. G., & Sorbom, D. (1993). LISREL 8: Structural equation Methods, 15(3), 209–233. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0020141.
modeling with the SIMPLIS command language. Chicago: Scientific Qi, L., & Liu, B. (2017). Effects of inclusive leadership on employee
International Software. voice behavior and team performance: The mediating role of caring
Jung, D., Yammarino, F. J., & Lee, J. K. (2009). Moderating role of ethical climate. Frontiers in Communication, 2, 8. https://doi.org/10.
subordinates’ attitudes on transformational leadership and effective- 3389/fcomm.2017.00008.
ness: A multi-cultural and multi-level perspective. The Leadership Randel, A. E., Galvin, B. M., Shore, L. M., Ehrhart, K. H., Chung, B. G.,
Quarterly, 20(4), 586–603. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.leaqua.2009. Dean, M. A., & Kedharnath, U. (2018). Inclusive leadership:
04.011. Realizing positive outcomes through belongingness and being val-
Kakkar, H., Tangirala, S., Srivastava, N. K., & Kamdar, D. (2016). The ued for uniqueness. Human Resource Management Review, 28(2),
dispositional antecedents of promotive and prohibitive voice. 190–203. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.hrmr.2017.07.002.
 Curr Psychol

Rayner, S. (2009). Educational diversity and learning leadership: A prop- of Management Journal, 41(1), 108–119. https://doi.org/10.2307/
osition, some principles and a model of inclusive leadership? 256902.
Educational Review, 61(4), 433–447. https://doi.org/10.1080/ van Knippenberg, D., van Knippenberg, B., Cremer, D. D., & Hogg, M.
00131910903404004. A. (2004). Leadership, self, and identity: A review and research
Ryan, J. (2006). Inclusive leadership and social justice for schools. agenda. The Leadership Quarterly, 15(6), 825–856. https://doi.org/
Leadership and Policy in Schools, 5(1), 3–17. https://doi.org/10. 10.1016/j.leaqua.2004.09.002.
1080/15700760500483995. Wang, W., Mao, J., Wu, W., & Liu, J. (2012). Abusive supervision and
Shamir, B., Zakay, E., Breinin, E., & Popper, M. (1998). Correlates of workplace deviance: The mediating role of interactional justice and
charismatic leader behavior in military units: Subordinates’ atti- the moderating role of power distance. Asia Pacific Journal of
tudes, unit characteristics, and superiors’ appraisals of leader perfor- Human Resources, 50(1), 43–60. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1744-
mance. Academy of Management Journal, 41(4), 387–409. https:// 7941.2011.00004.x.
doi.org/10.2307/257080. Wei, X., Zhang, Z.-X., & Chen, X.-P. (2015). I will speak up if my voice
Shao, R., Rupp, D. E., Skarlicki, D. P., & Jones, K. S. (2013). Employee is socially desirable: A moderated mediating process of promotive
justice across cultures: A meta-analytic review. Journal of versus prohibitive voice. Journal of Applied Psychology, 100(5),
Management, 39(1), 263–301. https://doi.org/10.1177/ 1641–1652. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0039046.
0149206311422447. Xiang, C. R., & Long, L. R. (2013). Participative leadership and voice:
Shore, L. M., Randel, A. E., Chung, B. G., Dean, M. A., Holcombe The mediating role of assertive impression management motive.
Ehrhart, K., & Singh, G. (2011). Inclusion and diversity in work Management Review, 25(7), 156–166. https://doi.org/10.14120/j.
groups: A review and model for future research. Journal of cnki.cn11-5057/f.2013.07.009.
Management, 37(4), 1262–1289. https://doi.org/10.1177/
Yang, F., Liu, J., & Zhang, L.-H. (2014). The spiritual leadership, the
0149206310385943.
strategy consensus and employee’s career development: The mod-
Sluss, D. M., & Ashforth, B. E. (2007). Relational identity and identifi-
eration role of the strategic flexibility. Management World, (10),
cation: Defining ourselves through work relationships. The
100–113. https://doi.org/10.19744/j.cnki.11-1235/f.2014.10.009.
Academy of Management Review, 32(1), 9–32. https://doi.org/10.
2307/20159278. Yin, L.-W. (2013). Inclusive Leadership and Employee Voice: Mediating
Sluss, D. M., Ployhart, R. E., Cobb, M. G., & Ashforth, B. E. (2012). Roles of Psychological Safety and Leader-member Exchange. Hong
Generalizing newcomers’ relational and organizational identifica- Kong: Hong Kong Baptist University.
tions: Process and prototypicality. Academy of Management Zhang, L.-L., Yang, F., & Gu, Y.-H. (2016). Inclusive leadership:
Journal, 55(4), 949–975. https://doi.org/10.5465/amj.2010.0420. Conception, measurement and relationships to related variables.
Tang, N.-Y., Jiang, Y., Chen, C.-Y., Zhou, Z.-C., Chen, C. C., & Yu, Z.-X. Advances in Psychological Science, 24(9), 1467–1477. https://doi.
(2015). Inclusion and inclusion management in the Chinese context: org/10.3724/SP.J.1042.2016.01467.
An exploratory study. International Journal of Human Resource Zheng, B.-X. (1995). The differential mode of association and ethnic
Management, 26(6), 856–874. https://doi.org/10.1080/09585192. Chinese organizational behaviors. Native Psychology Research, 3,
2014.985326. 142–219.
Temple, J. B., & Ylitalo, J. (2009). Promoting inclusive (and dialogic) Zhu, W., He, H., Treviño, L. K., Chao, M. M., & Wang, W. (2015).
leadership in higher education institutions. Tertiary Education and Ethical leadership and follower voice and performance: The role
Management, 15(3), 277–289. https://doi.org/10.1080/ of follower identifications and entity morality beliefs. The
13583880903073024. Leadership Quarterly, 26(5), 702–718. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.
Tian, J. (2015). The effect of ethical leadership on employees’ OCB: Role leaqua.2015.01.004.
of identification with leader and intra-team competitive climate.
Haebin: Harbin Institute of Technology. Publisher’s Note Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdic-
Van Dyne, L., & LePine, J. A. (1998). Helping and voice extra-role tional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.
behaviors: Evidence of construct and predictive validity. Academy