Effects of Inclusive Leadership on Employee Voice Behavior and Team Performance: The Mediating Role of Caring Ethical Climate

Abstract

As an emerging research field of leadership, inclusive leadership reflects the new style of leadership demanded by researchers and practitioners. Is it a leadership style that can better integrate employees and organizations and adapt to new complex management situation? Based on theories of social exchange, organizational support, and self-determination, this study investigated the impact of inclusive leadership on employee voice behavior and team performance through caring ethical climate. We evaluated the model with a time-lagged data of 329 team members from 105 teams in six cities in China. Results indicated as following: inclusive leadership was positively correlated with employee voice behavior at the individual level and team performance at the team level; caring ethical climate mediated the relationship between inclusive leadership and employee voice behavior at the individual level, as well as mediated the relationship between inclusive leadership and team performance at the team level. This study revealed the mechanism of the positive cross-level effects of inclusive leadership on the caring ethical climate, employee voice behavior, and team performance. These findings also provided important contributions for human resource management and practice.

Full text

September 2017 | Volume 2 | Article 81
ORIGINAL RESEARCH
published: 27 September 2017
doi: 10.3389/fcomm.2017.00008
Frontiers in Communication | www.frontiersin.org
Edited by:
Annamaria Di Fabio,
University of Florence, Italy
Reviewed by:
Gabriela Topa,
Universidad Nacional de Educación
a Distancia (UNED), Spain
Gary Lee Mangiofico,
Pepperdine University,
United States
*Correspondence:
Bing Liu
liubing@sdu.edu.cn
Specialty section:
This article was submitted to
Organizational Psychology,
a section of the journal
Frontiers in Communication
Received: 24February2017
Accepted: 07August2017
Published: 27September2017
Citation:
QiL and LiuB (2017) Effects of
Inclusive Leadership on Employee
Voice Behavior and Team
Performance: The Mediating Role
of Caring Ethical Climate.
Front. Commun. 2:8.
doi: 10.3389/fcomm.2017.00008
Effects of Inclusive Leadership on
Employee Voice Behavior and Team
Performance: The Mediating Role
of Caring Ethical Climate
Lei Qi and Bing Liu*
Department of Human Resource Management, School of Management, Shandong University, Jinan, China
As an emerging research field of leadership, inclusive leadership reflects the new style of
leadership demanded by researchers and practitioners. Is it a leadership style that can
better integrate employees and organizations and adapt to new complex management
situation? Based on theories of social exchange, organizational support, and self-
determination, this study investigated the impact of inclusive leadership on employee
voice behavior and team performance through caring ethical climate. We evaluated
the model with a time-lagged data of 329 team members from 105 teams in six cities
in China. Results indicated as following: inclusive leadership was positively correlated
with employee voice behavior at the individual level and team performance at the team
level; caring ethical climate mediated the relationship between inclusive leadership and
employee voice behavior at the individual level, as well as mediated the relationship
between inclusive leadership and team performance at the team level. This study
revealed the mechanism of the positive cross-level effects of inclusive leadership on the
caring ethical climate, employee voice behavior, and team performance. These findings
also provided important contributions for human resource management and practice.
Keywords: inclusive leadership, team ethical climate, employee voice behavior, team performance, cross-level
analysis
INTRODUCTION
Given the rapid changes in market environment and erce competition between companies,
how to improve organizational competence becomes an extremely important issue. As teams in
companies are more exible and organized than individuals in confronting complicated problems,
focusing on team behavior and performance provides numerous benets for the companies.
Currently, studies on factors inuencing team performance and eectiveness have identied team
leadership as the most important factor, particularly that which has the potential to motivate the
team member and improve team performance.
Team members’ constructive behaviors, such as employee voice, can improve organizational
performance (Hsiung, 2012) because, as a prosocial role behavior, the voice of the team member
can shape a team-based work context and establish a relationship between the team members and
thus benet performance. However, few studies have focused on evaluating the relation between
leadership with employee voice at the team level and the mechanism through which leadership
aect the voice of the team member in the context of teamwork.

FIGURE 1 | Research model.
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Frontiers in Communication | www.frontiersin.org September 2017 | Volume 2 | Article 8
In this study, we used the data pertaining to 105 teams
and 329 team members in China and conducted a multilevel
empirical study to investigate the inuence of an inclusive lead-
ership style on team performance. We also investigated caring
ethical climate as a mediator between inclusive leadership and
team-member voice. e model of this research is presented
in Figure1.
THEORETICAL BACKGROUND AND
HYPOTHESES
Inclusive Leadership and Employee Voice
Inclusive leadership was rst dened by Nembhard and
Edmondson (2006) as a relationship style that always accepts
the dierences of various members. Carmeli et al. (2010)
emphasized that “inclusive leadership refers to leaders who
exhibit openness, accessibility, and availability in their interac-
tions with followers.” According to Ospina etal. (2011), leader
inclusiveness does not only acknowledge the value of diversity
but is also responsible for this variance. Current research shows
that leadership inclusiveness correlates with diversity of team
member behavior (Kearney and Gebert, 2009). ese studies
agree that inclusive leadership can shape the comprehensive
work circumstance, overcome barriers between members with
dierent backgrounds, and improve work coordination and
other team performances (Wasserman etal., 2008; Shore etal.,
2011; Mor Barak, 2013).
Hirschman (2011), who rst proposed the denition of
employee voice, assessed that employees who were not satised
with their jobs would have two responses: to voice or to quit.
Voice is the method of solving problems by expressing opinions.
Employees willing to share their constructive suggestions can
benet the development of their organization. A number of
management studies have been published to encourage employee
voice (Farh etal., 2007).
Employee voice is a socially based behavior (Van D yne
and Le Pine, 1998). Suk et al. (2015) indicated that inclusive
leadership can positively aect employee work engagement.
Svendsen and Joensson (2016) demonstrated that transfor-
mational leadership can positively inuence employee voice,
productivity, and performance. Hirak etal. (2012) concluded
that leadership inclusiveness implies acceptance of new infor-
mation, listening to a new voice, and receiving a new chal-
lenge. ese behaviors can change employee work attitudes,
increase trust in leadership and the organization, and enhance
attachment to their organization. e inclusive leader can
also improve the psychological security (Hirak et al., 2012)
and team identity of the subordinates (Mitchell etal., 2015).
erefore, the inclusive leader can build team member trust
across the organization and increase attachment to the leader;
thus, it can improve employee voice. Specically, the following
hypotheses are presented:
Hypothesis 1: Team-level inclusive leadership is posi-
tively related to individual-level employee voice.
Inclusive Leadership and Team
Performance
To improve team-level performance, leaders consider not only
how to improve performance at the individual level but also the
need for team members to collaborate among themselves in order
to improve team performance. To achieve these aims, leaders
must rst show an inuential leadership. West (2004) suggested
that if the leader shares with the team members his idea and
information in the decision-making process, the team members
are more likely to acknowledge their responsibility in the team,
consequently improving team performance. Dionne etal. (2004)
asserted that transformational leadership can improve team
performance by improving individual performance as well as
teamwork process. In addition to eective leadership, building
a positive social environment in the context of teamwork is
likewise necessary; this method might be the most important
mediating mechanism to team output (Gladstein, 1984, Ancona
and Caldwell, 1992, Anderson and West, 1998).
In some ways, leader inclusiveness is a mixture of transfor-
mational leadership and transactional leadership. Both types of
leadership can positively aect team task performance. Inclusive
leaders perceive team members as contributors, acknowledging
everyone’s value. is behavior can increase the commitment
of team members and motivate team members to handle their

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work in a exible manner (Carmeli etal., 2010). In addition,
leader inclusiveness can more eectively promote member per-
ception of team goals, job satisfaction, and direct improvement
of team task performance. Hence, we expect that:
Hypothesis 2: Inclusive leadership will be positively
related to team performance.
Inclusive Leadership and Caring Ethical
Climate
Organizational ethical climate is a component of organizational
climate. It mainly refers to shared employee perceptions of
ethical norms and behavior. Ethical climate can guide the ethi-
cal attitude, belief, and motivation of employees; likewise, it can
aect ways to solve ethical problems at the organizational level.
Several studies have been conducted to explore the antecedent
of ethical climate (Rathert and Fleming, 2008, Mossholder etal.,
2011). e majority of these studies have agreed that leadership
exert a greater positive inuence on ethical climate than other
variables. On the one hand, if leader behavior conforms with
ethical demand, the behavior of low-level employees would be
more ethical because they regard leader behavior as a reference
point (Calabrese and Roberts, 2002; Treviño et al., 2003). On
the other hand, leaders are always given behavior criteria for
ethical issues, and some of these rules would be published
as institutional. ese activities can improve ethical climate
(Grojean etal., 2004).
Victor and Cullen (1988) proposed the ve dimensions of
ethical climate: “caring,” “rules,” “law and code,” “independence,”
and “instrumental.” e inclusive leader pays close attention to
the dierent demands and characteristics of the subordinates
(Yukl, 2006). e inuence of this close interaction between
leader and members can be explained by social exchange theory.
First, those who feel encouraged tend to share their opinion and
knowledge, reinforcing knowledge sharing; second, frequent
communication can create a “strong situation,” and this situa-
tion can show kindness and concern, similar to caring climate.
Unlike other dimensions of ethical climate that need to match
a set of management activities, including organization routines
and HR systems, caring ethical climate can be attributed to social
processes. In the context of teamwork, leaders create an envi-
ronment to share their ethical cognitions and values, shaping a
caring ethical climate.
Hypothesis 3: Inclusive leadership is positively related
to team caring ethical climate.
Caring Ethical Climate and Team
Member Employee Voice
Caring ethical climate implies a shared manner of behavior in
an organization (Cullen etal., 2003). e team members tend
to share information and discuss the ethical issues directly,
similar to that in a motivating environment. ese activities can
increase the willingness of the members to open up on issues
concerning team development and put forward their own advice
for work issues.
When team members are in a caring ethical environment,
inuence becomes obvious. Concern for the needs of others
increases mutual trust within the team and emphasizes the
importance of helping others. Employee voice becomes louder in
this situation. e following hypothesis is thus proposed:
Hypothesis 4: Caring ethical climate can positively
inuence team member employee voice at the indi-
vidual level.
Caring Ethical Climate and Team
Performance
e ethical climate also exerts a positive eect on employee
performance and can inuence employee routines and norms
in ethical issues. Such overall guidance provides good logic for
employees in their job performance.
A caring ethical climate generally inuences the prevailing
thinking mode in a team. If everyone in the team cares about the
welfare of others, the team members would tend to cooperate in
complex tasks and eort and the eciency would increase. e
following hypothesis is thus proposed:
Hypothesis 5: Caring ethical climate positively aects
team performance.
e association of leadership with employee behavior has
been supported by a number of evidence. Inclusive leaders give
team members norms to develop, encourage full communica-
tion, take additional responsibilities, and speak out. Leaders
also have ability to create a new ethical climate. Employee voice
is a type of self-determined behavior (Meyer etal., 2002), and
ethical climate can subtly inuence the thought mode of the
employees. An inclusive leader can institute ethical guidelines
and encourage members to learn the boundaries for their behav-
ior and provide directions. Such an inclusive behavior is likely
to promote shared attention by team members. We therefore
propose:
Hypothesis 6: e positive relationship between inclu-
sive leadership at the team level and employee voice at
the individual level is mediated by caring ethical climate
at the team level.
Team leadership shows a close relationship with ethical cli-
mate in a team, and leaders always play the critical role in shaping
the thoughts and perceptions of team members (Schminke etal.,
2005), In addition, leaders also exert additional enforcement
through the institution and ethical codes. ese eects have been
cited in previous research.
Inclusive leaders can aect the perceptions of the team
member by showing acceptance and respect. In the context of
teamwork, the team member does not only care about the needs
of others but also take into serious consideration the advice of
the leader from dierent angles, all of which can substantially
improve team performance. Accordingly, we posit a mediated
hypothesis:

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Qi and Liu Effects of Inclusive Leadership
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Hypothesis 7: e positive relationship between inclu-
sive leadership and team performance is mediated by
caring ethical climate at the team level.
METHOD
Sample and Procedures
e study was conducted among teams of enterprises from six
major cities in China including bank, retail, law, oil, estate, and
information technology. A total of 364 employees were admin-
istered at random from 116 teams participated in this study.
To test our hypotheses, two separate survey questionnaires
were designed with a view of minimizing single source of data
bias. Questionnaire I was distributed to employees, it included
measures of demographical variables, inclusive leadership and
caring ethical climate. In addition, 3months later, the direct
supervisors of those employees received a second question-
naire in which they were asked to assess their subordinates on
employee voice behavior and team performance. All respondents
were given time to complete the survey during working hours
and were assured full condentiality. And they were instructed
to completed surveys directly with the envelopes sealed to the
researchers.
With the help of HR department, each of the questionnaire
was coded, so that 3 months later, each supervisor still knew
who he/she was rating. Aer the questionnaires were matched
based on code, the response rate was 90.8%. e questionnaires
of 35 employees were eliminated because they were incomplete
or failed to conform with the requirements. e nal sample
included 329 employees from 105 teams with an eective
recovery rate of 82%. e sample structure of the survey was as
follows: in terms of gender, males were dominant, with 55.2%
of the sample, and females comprised 44.8% of the sample; in
terms of age, the youngest was 26years old, whereas the oldest
was 55years old, with those in the 36–45years comprising 46.7%
of the sample.
Ethics Approval
An ethics approval was not required as per institutional guide-
lines and national laws regulations because there’s no unethical
behaviors existed in the research procedures. We just conducted
questionnaire survey and were exempt from further ethics board
approval since our research did not involve human clinical trials
or animal experiments. Also, the content of the questionnaire
does not involve any sensitive or personal privacy or ethical and
moral topics. In the rst page of the questionnaire, information
on consent procedures was included in information provided
to participants and participants were notied that consent was
to be obtained by virtue of survey completion. Meanwhile, we
informed that participants about the objectives of the study and
guaranteed their condentiality and anonymity. e way to ll
in the questionnaire is to take out the secret system, which can
further ensure the rights of the people who answer the question-
naire. All the participants were completely free to join or drop
out the survey. Only those who were willing to participate were
recruited.
Measures
All the assessments in the current study were conducted in
Chinese. We followed Brislin’s (Brislin, 1980) translation/back-
translation procedure to translate the English-based measures
into Chinese. Without exception, participants responded to all
measures using a ve-point Likert-type scale (1=strongly disa-
gree, 5=strongly agree).
Inclusive Leadership
Team members were asked to indicate, using a 9-item inclusive
leadership scale developed by Carmeli etal. (2010). e sample
items were as follows: “e team leader is open to hearing new
ideas,” “e leader is attentive to new opportunities to improve
work processes,” and “e manager is available for consultation
on problems.”
Caring Ethical Climate
We used the Ethical Climate Questionnaire developed by
Victor and Cullen (1988) to measure caring ethical climates,
which included seven items. e sample items were as follows:
“e most important concern is the good of all the people in the
team as a whole,” “Our major concern is always what is best for
the other person,” and “In this team, people look out for each
other’s good.”
Employee Voice Behavior
Employee voice behavior was measured using a 10-item scale
adapted from Liang et al. (2012). e sample items were as
follows: “Proactively develop and make suggestions for issues
that may inuence the team,” “Proactively suggest new projects,
which are benecial to the work team,” and “Raise suggestions to
improve the team’s working procedure.”
Team Performance
Team leaders provided a comprehensive rating of the team
performance by using a 6-item measure of eective performance
developed by Barker etal. (2010). e sample items were as fol-
lows: “Members in this team can work eectively” and “Members
in this team can achieve or over the work demands.”
Control Variables
We statistically controlled for demographic variables such as
gender, age, education, and tenure in the team as control vari-
ables at the individual level because of their potential eects on
the voice behavior of the team member (Wang et al., 2016).
To assess the caring ethical climate and team performance at
the team level, we also controlled for the gender, age, education,
and tenure of the leader.
ANALYTICAL APPROACH
Data Aggregation
According to previous studies, data such as leadership style,
ethical climate, and performance at the team level are oen

TABLE 2 | Confirmatory factor analyses results.
Model χ2Df RMSEA TLI CFI
Null modela1,658.49 231 0.24 0.00 0.00
Three-factor model 291.23 204 0.06 0.93 0.94
Two-factor modelb514.34 207 0.12 0.76 0.79
Two-factor modelc425.57 206 0.10 0.83 0.85
Single-factor modeld689.97 209 0.15 0.63 0.66
aIn the null model, there is no relationship between all variables measured.
bMerging inclusive leadership and caring ethical climate into a potential factor.
cMerging inclusive leadership and team performance into a potential factor.
dMerging all variables into a potential factor.
TABLE 1 | Means, SDs, and correlations at the team level.
Variables 1 2 3 4 5 6 7
1. Gender of leadera1
2. Age of leaderb−0.15 1
3. Education of leaderc−0.07 −0.03 1
4. Tenure of leaderd0.05 0.40** −0.17* 1
5. Inclusive leader 0.07 0.01 0.06 0.12 1
6. Caring ethical climate 0.21* 0.01 −0.01 0.13 0.31** 1
7. Team performance 0.24* 0.07 −0.01 0.22* 0.36** 0.75** 1
Means 1.45 2.66 2.05 3.26 4.38 3.93 4.17
SD 0.25 0.42 0.39 1.29 0.23 0.25 0.26
**p<0.01, *p<0.05, N=105.
a(1) Male; (2) Female.
b(1) 26 years old below; (2) 26–35 years old; (3) 36–45 years old; (4) 46–55 years old;
(5) 55 years old above.
c(1) Junior college or below; (2) College; (3) Master; (4) Doctor.
d(1) 1 year below; (2) 1–3 years; (3) 4–6 years; (4) 7–10 years; (5) 11 years above.
TABLE 3 | Results of regression analysis between inclusive leadership and team
performance.
Team performance
Model 1 Model 2
Control variables
Gender of leader 0.24* 0.22*
Age of leader 0.03 0.04
Education of leader 0.04 0.01
Tenure of leader 0.20 0.15
Independent variable
Inclusive leadership 0.32**
R20.10 0.21
F2.88* 5.12**
ΔR20.10 0.11
ΔF2.88* 12.72**
The regression coefficient is the standard regression coefficient.
**p<0.01, *p<0.05.
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collected through individuals in the team and then integrated
into the team level. Since inclusive leadership and caring ethical
climate at the team level are rated by team members, the data
need to be integrated. To support the aggregation, we calcu-
lated two intra class correlation indexes (ICCs) to determine
whether aggregation of measures to group level was justied
(Raudenbush, 2004). ICC(1) indicates how much of the propor-
tion of the variance is explained by team membership (Hox and
Mass, 2002), and ICC(2) indicates whether teams can be dif-
ferentiated on the basis of the variable under consideration. We
also used the interrater agreement (Rwg) to justify aggregation,
with all mean Rwg values over the acceptable 0.70 cuto (George
and Bettenhausen, 1990). e ICC(1) and ICC(2) for inclusive
leadership were 0.65 and 0.85, and the Rwg of 99% teams for
inclusive leadership were ≥0.70. e ICC(1) and ICC(2) for car-
ing ethical climate at the team level were 0.57 and 0.80, and the
Rwg of 98% teams for the caring ethical climate at the team level
were ≥0.70. ey all met ICC(1)>0.05, ICC(2)>0.5, and more
than 90% of the team Rwg≥0.7. Taken together, these evidences
support the aggregation of the leadership style, ethical climate,
and performance ratings.
Descriptive Statistics
Tab le  1 presents the descriptive statistics of the variables at the
team level, and Tab le  2 presents the descriptive statistics of the
variables at the individual level. Inclusive leadership correlated
signicantly (p< 0.05) with caring ethical climate (r= 0.31;
p<0.01) and team performance (r=0.36; p<0.01), and caring
ethical climate correlated signicantly with team performance
(r=0.75; p<0.01).
Confirmatory Factor Analysis
AMOS 20.0 was used to verify the conrmatory factor analyses
(CFAs) of variables at the team level to establish construct valid-
it y. Ta bl e 2 presents the CFA results. As shown, the data of the
3-factor model were in good t [χ2(204) = 291.23, values of
CFI≥0.94, TLI≥0.93, and RMSEA=0.06]. e goodness-of-t
of this model is signicantly better than the other factor models
(2-factor model and single-factor model), indicating that the
measurement has a good discriminant validity.
Hypothesis Tests
Regression Analysis
Tab le  3 presents the results of regression analysis in the demo-
graphic variables. Gender of leadership shows a signicantly
positive correlation with team performance (β=0.24, p<0.05).
e F-values of each model were tested at the signicance
level of p<0.01, indicating a good t of the equation, and the
inclusive leadership showed good explanatory power for team
performance. e univariate correlations between inclusive
leadership and team performance (β=0.32, p<0.01) provided a
preliminary evidence to support Hypothesis 2, which states that
inclusive leadership exhibits a positive relationship with team
performance.
e control, independent, and mediator variables were
entered in separate steps. As shown in Tab le 4, inclusive lea-
dership was positively associated with both caring ethical
climate (β=0.28, p<0.01, Model 2) and team performance
(β=0.32, p<0.01, Model 4), supporting Hypotheses 3 and 5.
As presented in Model 5, caring ethical climate was positively
related to team performance (β=0.72, p<0.01, Model 5).
In Model 6, aer putting in the mediator variance of caring
ethical climate, no signicant relation between inclusive and

TABLE 5 | Results of hierarchical linear analysis of inclusive leadership and
employee voice behavior.
Employee voice behavior
Model 1 Model 2
First-level control variables
Gender of employee 0.06 (0.07) 0.06 (0.07)
Age of employee −0.05 (0.06) −0.05 (0.06)
Education of employee 0.03 (0.05) 0.03 (0.60)
Tenure of employee 0.03 (0.04) 0.03 (0.04)
Second level control variables
Gender of leader 0.23 (0.10)* 0.21 (0.03)*
Age of leader 0.08 (0.08) 0.09 (0.07)
Education of leader 0.03 (0.09) 0.01 (0.08)
Tenure of leader −0.01 (0.04) −0.01 (0.04)
Independent variables
Inclusive leadership 0.34 (0.12)**
Sigma square 0.19 0.19
Tau 0.19 0.16
Chi-square 416.05 (100)** 365.13 (99)**
Pseudo R2 change (level 1) – 0
Pseudo R2 change (level 2) – 15.8%
The regression coefficient is the standard regression coefficient; **p<0.01, *p<0.05;
values in parentheses are estimated SE; first level=individual level (N=329), second
level=team level (N=105).
TABLE 4 | Mediating role of caring ethical climate testing at the team level.
Caring ethical
climate
Team performance
Model 1 Model 2 Model 3 Model 4 Model 5 Model 6
Control variables
Gender of leader 0.20* 0.18 0.24* 0.22* 0.10 0.10
Age of leader −0.01 −0.002 0.03 0.04 0.04 0.04
Education of leader 0.02 −0.002 0.04 0.01 0.02 0.01
Tenure of leader 0.12 0.08 0.20 0.15 0.11 0.10
Independent variable
Inclusive leadership 0.28** 0.32** 0.13
Mediating variable
Caring ethical climate 0.72** 0.68**
R20.06 0.14 0.10 0.21 0.59 0.61
F1.50 3.08* 2.88* 5.12** 28.40** 24.97**
ΔR20.06 0.08 0.10 0.11 0.49 0.40
ΔF1.50 8.95** 2.88* 12.72** 117.07** 98.91**
The regression coefficient is the standard regression coefficient.
**p<0.01, *p<0.05.
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team performance was found; however, the eect of inclusive
leadership on team performance remains signicant (β=0.68,
p<0.01, Model 6), providing a preliminary evidence to support
Hypothesis 7, which states that caring ethical climate totally
mediated the relationship between inclusive leadership and
team performance.
Hierarchical Linear Modeling
HLM6.02 was used to verify the hypotheses in this study.
Hypothesis 1 proposed the main eect that inclusive leadership
exerted a signicantly positive eect on employee voice behavior.
First, the control variables of the rst and second levels, as well
as the independent variable of inclusive leadership were entered
in separate steps. As shown in Tab le  5 , inclusive leadership was
positively associated with employee voice behavior (β= 0.34,
p<0.01, Model 2), supporting Hypothesis 1.
Hypothesis 6 predicted that caring ethical climate mediates
the relationship between inclusive leadership and employee voice
behavior. According to Baron and Kenny (1986), full mediation
is supported provided that the following four conditions are
met: (1) the independent variable is signicantly related to the
mediator; (2) the independent variable is signicantly related to
the dependent variable; (3) the mediator is signicantly related
to the dependent variable; and (4) when the mediator is present,
the relationship between the independent and dependent vari-
ables becomes non-signicant. In support of Hypothesis 6, the
results in Tab le  6 indicated the following: (1) inclusive leader-
ship was positively related to caring ethical climate (β= 0.28,
p<0.01, Model 2); (2) inclusive leadership was positively related
to employee voice behavior (β=0.34, p<0.01, Model 4); (3)
caring ethical climate was positively related to employee voice
behavior (β=0.65, p<0.01, Model 5); and (4) aer entering car-
ing ethical climate, the relationship between inclusive leadership
and employee voice behavior became non-signicant (β=0.16,
n.s., Model 6), whereas caring ethical climate was still positively
related to employee voice behavior (β=0.61, p<0.01, Model 6).
ese results suggest that caring ethical climate totally mediates
the relation between inclusive leadership and employee voice
behavior. us, H6 is supported.
DISCUSSION
e present study contributes to our understanding of inclusive
leadership. At the individual level, we investigate and verify the
mechanism of inclusive leadership on employee voice behavior
on the basis of self-determination theory. At the team level, we
investigate and verify the mechanism of inclusive leadership
on team performance on the basis of social exchange theory.
Prior research has examined many factors that aect employee
voice behavior, such as psychological antecedents (Liang etal.,
2012), HR practice (Conway etal., 2016), leaders’ positive aect
(Liu etal., 2017), etc. While few studies investigated the relation-
ship between inclusive leadership and employee voice behavior.
e style of team leadership has an important role in the voice
behavior of the team members (Bienefeld and Grote, 2014). We
found evidence for the eect of inclusive leadership on employee
voice behavior. Employees who seek for equality and mutual
benet relationship tend to exhibit behavior that is benecial to
team or organization, such as proposing suggestions (promotive
voice) that can promote the operational eciency of the organi-
zation and pointing out problems (prohibitive voice) that would
be harmful to the organization, or to enhance team performance
to continuously improve work eciency and quality in order to
repay the leader and the team.
Inclusive leadership can positively aect the caring ethical
climate if team leaders treat employees inclusively, match words
with deeds, express their ideas truthfully, listen to the opinions
of others, improve their working methods consistently, and
promote their ability to work. Team members tend to work for
the overall interests of the team and take care of one another.

TABLE 6 | Inspection of the intermediary cross-level effect of caring ethical climate.
Caring ethical climate Employee voice behavior
Model 1 Model 2 Model 3 Model 4 Model 5 Model 6
First-level control variables
Gender of employee – – 0.06 (0.07) 0.06 (0.07) 0.06 (0.07) 0.06 (0.07)
Age of employee – – −0.05 (0.06) −0.05 (0.06) −0.05 (0.06) −0.05 (0.06)
Education of employee – – 0.03 (0.05) 0.03 (0.60) 0.03 (0.05) 0.03 (0.05)
Tenure of employee – – 0.03 (0.04) 0.03 (0.04) 0.03 (0.04) 0.03 (0.04)
Second-level control variables
Gender of leader 0.20* 0.18 0.23 (0.10)* 0.21 (0.03)* 0.09 (0.07) 0.10 (0.07)
Age of leader −0.01 −0.002 0.08 (0.08) 0.09 (0.07) 0.08 (0.06) 0.09 (0.05)
Education of leader 0.02 −0.002 0.03 (0.09) 0.01 (0.08) 0.02 (0.08) 0.02 (0.07)
Tenure of leader 0.12 0.08 −0.01 (0.04) −0.01 (0.04) −0.02 (0.03) −0.04 (0.03)
Independent variables
Inclusive leadership 0.28** 0.34 (0.12)** 0.16 (0.12)
Mediator variable
Caring ethical climate 0.65 (0.08)** 0.61 (0.10)**
Sigma square – – 0.19 0.19 0.19 0.19
Tau – – 0.19 0.16 0.09 0.08
Chi-square – – 416.05 (100)** 365.13 (99)** 251.80 (99)** 238.30 (98)**
Pseudo R2 change (level 1) – – – 0 0 0
Pseudo R2 change (level 2) (%) – – – 15.8 52.6 50
The regression coefficient is the standard regression coefficient; **p<0.01, *p<0.05; values in parentheses are estimated standard errors; first level=individual level (N=329),
second level=team level (N=105).
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Frontiers in Communication | www.frontiersin.org September 2017 | Volume 2 | Article 8
e caring ethical climate signicantly aects employee voice
behavior. In the caring ethical climate at the team level, the
team members are willing to help one another, unite as one,
and oer positive advice to enhance eciency, help colleagues,
serve customers, and help the team improve. e caring ethical
climate signicantly aects and promotes team performance.
In the caring ethical climate at the team level, the team members
help one another, unite to reduce conicts in the workplace, and
promote team performance. From the point of view of the medi-
ating role of caring ethical climate, team leadership indirectly
aects employee behavior and team performance through the
team ethical climate.
Theoretical Contributions
Overall, three contributions emerge. First, our theory and results
help enrich inclusive leadership research. Inclusive leadership is
a new leadership style, and few studies on the empirical study
of inclusive leadership have been published locally. Our ndings
suggest that comparative studies on the role of other mediating
variables should be conducted in the future to obtain a more
comprehensive understanding of the tolerance mechanism of
leadership on employee behavior and team performance and
build a complete and systematic theoretical model.
Second, we found that inclusive leadership indirectly aects
employee voice behavior and team performance through the
mediating eect of the caring ethical climate. To encourage
employees to speak up, leaders may need to directly invite them
to do so by showing more specic, participative/open leadership
behaviors (Tangirala and Ramanujam, 2012). Accordingly, the
team members in our sample who are in the caring ethical climate
are more willing to express their suggestions, which contribute to
team improvement.
Finally, this study revealed the mechanism of positive cross-
level eects of inclusive leadership on caring ethical climate,
employee voice behavior, and team performance. Our results
indicated that leadership can positively aect employee behav-
ior through employee cognition. is outcome not only sup-
ported the conclusions in previous research but also elucidated
the relationship between leadership style and employee voice
behavior. erefore, this study extends the theoretical vision of
inclusive leadership, team ethical climate, and employee voice
be hav ior.
Practical Contributions
Our ndings provide three important contributions for human
resource management and practice. First, the results of our study
indicate that team leaders should be aware that high-quality
inclusive leadership style can lead to higher levels of caring ethical
climate so that they need to pay attention to leadership behavior.
Team leaders should demonstrate ethical and proper behavior
to their employees through their own individual behaviors and
interpersonal interaction with employees. ese behaviors should
be reected by consistent words and deeds, such as caring about
employees, showing respect to employees, and helping employ-
ees develop their ability. In formulating strategic planning and
management decisions, leaders should attach importance to the
shaping of inclusive leadership style, enhance the sense of belong-
ing of employees, and exhibit a high degree of loyalty. Employees
will then be willing to contribute to the team or organization with
suggestions and self-value.
Second, given the importance of the caring ethical climate
for highly satisfactory team performance, our results suggest the
value of actively focusing on organizational ethics. Organizational
ethics should be taken into consideration as enterprises develop

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Frontiers in Communication | www.frontiersin.org September 2017 | Volume 2 | Article 8
organizational development strategy and planning. Enterprises
should adopt positive ethical policies and increase individual
perception of the ethical environment of the organization.
At the organizational level, ethical systems, such as corporate
ethics policy, as well as ethics consultation, teaching, and training
should be constructed.
ird, the consistent results that we found involving caring ethi-
cal climate as the mediating variable provide important practical
contributions for positive employee behavior. Enterprises need
to create caring ethical climate to help employees obtain a greater
value and stimulate their higher-order needs. Employees receive
emotional benets such as creating positive emotions, gaining
mental and physical pleasure, being assured of obtaining care,
and feeling organizational warmth from caring ethical climate.
Leaders should pay attention to their interaction with employees,
encourage and help them carry out their tasks, enhance their
sense of belonging, as well as create a harmonious and friendly
ethical climate.
Limitations and Future Studies
As with any research, this study includes limitations that are
worth noting. First, the study has a small sample size. Whether
the sample size aected the results is dicult to determine. In the
future, a study with a larger sample size for data analysis should
be conducted. With time and resource constrains considered, the
samples in this study reect a narrow scope of enterprises. Future
studies should select better enterprise samples across the country
and attempt to reduce outcome deviations that are attributable to
regional dierences.
Another limitation concerns the generalizability of our
results. In the conduct of the study, we found a signicant dier-
ence in voice behavior between the nancial and manufacturing
industries. e team performance of high-technology enterprises
and non-high-technology enterprises also reect a signicant
dierence. In the future, studies on the eect of leadership style
on employee behavior and team performance can be evaluated
among dierent industries for the conclusion to provide more
practical contributions.
Finally, this study only validated the mediating role of
perceived caring ethical climate, implying that other mediators
that can reect psychological cognition have yet to be excavated;
similarly, this study only veried the positive eects of inclusive
leadership on positive employee behavior such as employee
voice behavior; the eects on other positive employee behaviors
(such as feedback seeking behavior and organizational citizen-
ship behavior) also need to be explored. erefore, while future
studies can further investigate the mediating eect of other vari-
ables, they should also explore the inuence of inclusive leader-
ship on driving positive action and outcome as well as conduct
a cross-cultural comparative study of inclusive leadership.
ETHICS STATEMENT
is research is carried out by means of a questionnaire survey,
the content of the questionnaire does not involve any sensitive
or personal privacy or ethical and moral topics. e way to ll
in the questionnaire is to take out the secret system, which can
further ensure the rights of the people who answer the question-
naire. erefore, there’s no need to apply for the permission of
the ethics committee.
AUTHOR CONTRIBUTIONS
Substantial contributions to the conception and design of the
work: LQ and BL. Statistical analyses: LQ. Draing the work:
LQ and BL. Critically revising the manuscript: LQ and BL. All
authors read and approved the nal version.
FUNDING
is work was funded by the National Social Science Foundation
“e research on leadership style, team ethical climate and
employee deviant behavior in Chinese situation” (14BGL073);
Major Program of Humanities and Social Sciences of Shandong
University; and Youth Team Project of Humanities and Social
Sciences of Shandong University.
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Conict of Interest Statement: e authors declare that the research was
conducted in the absence of any commercial or nancial relationships that could
be construed as a potential conict of interest.
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