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Explaining the Effects of Inclusive Leadership on Job Satisfaction
with the Mediating Role of Work Engagement
Pacific Business Review International
Volume 12 issue 10 April 2020
Abstract
This research aims to examine the effects of inclusive leadership on job
satisfaction with the mediating role of work engagement. This
mentioned trio relationship has been analyzed with 342 employees
chosen by the convenience sampling method from the four and five-
star hotels. The results showed that there are positive and significant
relationships among all research variables. Inclusive leadership has
positive and statistically significant effects on work engagement and
job satisfaction. Work engagement as a mediator variable also has a
positive and significant effect on job satisfaction. On the other hand, it
has been found that inclusive leadership mediately and significantly
affects job satisfaction. In this case, it is said that work engagement
partially mediate to the effects of inclusive leadership on job
satisfaction.
Keywords: Inclusive Leadership, Job Satisfaction, Work
Engagement.
Introduction
It is considered that leadership is the most searched but
underrecognized topic in organizational behavior literature (Bennis,
1959).The understanding of the categorization and different features
of leadership will support to develop and increase job satisfaction and
work engagement in today's competitive business environments.
Efficient communications and relationships between the leaders and
followers are prominent (Carmeli, Reiter-Palmon, and Ziv, 2010) to
create job satisfaction in the workplaces. Inclusive leadership is one of
the leadership levels and types which focuses on being open,
accessible (Nembhard and Edmondson, 2006) “in their interactions”
(Carmeli, et al., 2010), available, good listener (Edmondson, 2004) for
the followers or members. Consequently, the first aim of this study is to
examine the trio relationship among research variables and the second
is to analyze the mediator effects of work engagement on the
relationship between inclusive leadership and job satisfaction under
the light of theoretical backgrounds in relevant literature.
Conceptual framework and hypotheses
This part of the study involves the bilateral relations of the variables
Mustafa Fedai ÇAVUÞ, PhD
Osmaniye Korkut Ata University
Faculty of Economics and Administrative Sciences
80000 Osmaniye/TURKEY
22
Hüseyin ASLAN, PhD
(Corresponding author)
Osmaniye Korkut Ata University
Faculty of Economics and Administrative Sciences
80000 Osmaniye/TURKEY
Ayþe GÖKÇEN KAPUSUZ, PhD
Selçuk UniversityBeyþehir Ali Akkanat
Tourism Faculty
42700 Beyþehir/Konya-TURKEY
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Pacific Business Review International
(inclusive leadership, job satisfaction, and work engagement can be defined as the positive achievements
engagement) and the moderator effect of work engagement for the individuals such as strong motivation (Schaufeli,
on the relationship between the inclusive leadership and 2012), positive emotions, job performance, well-
job satisfaction. As planned, it is aimed to conceptually being…etc. (Schaufeli and Salanova, 2008; Halbesleben,
clarify the concepts of variables and empirically analyze 2010).Nembhard, et al. (2006) emphasized that there are
the relationships and reciprocal influences. direct and positive effects of inclusive leadership on
employees' engagement at work.According to Qi, et al.,
Inclusive leadership and job satisfaction (2019), inclusive leaders are the good listeners and
The concept of leadership is not easy to fully understand consider employees' opinions and suggestions. These
and examine. In relevant literature, it is still hard to find the leaders also have an encouraging attitude to rationally
detailed and comprehensive definition about the term and tolerate employees' mistakes and faults. Inclusive leaders
types of leadership. Inclusive leadership and inclusive also inspirit their followers for the best contribution to the
leaders necessitate to be open for the change, new ideas, work and organization (Hollander, 2009). In addition to all,
environment…etc., accessible, and available about leader inclusiveness is an effective factor to provide
different interests, beliefs, thoughts, and “feelings of their followers necessary sources related to work and freedom at
followers” (Carmeli, et al., 2010, p.250). In general, work (Carmeli, et al., 2010). This will help employees to
inclusive leadership represents the participative increase their wishfulness level about their job and
management styles instead of enforcing employees for according to Garg and Dhar (2017), the level of aspiration
doing what the leaders want to do (Hollander, 2012) and which creates work engagement is depending on mutual
lays emphasis on being well-known, revered, responsible, interaction between the leaders and employees and
and responsive (Hollander, 2009). Again, according to psychological feeling of confidence. Therefore, it can be
Hollander (2009; 2012), inclusive leaders create said that the quality of interaction between the leaders and
participative work environment and supportive followers will increase the level of work engagement (Qi,
organizational climate, and rightfully appreciate et al., 2019). Choi, Tran, and Park, (2015) and Wang, et al.,
employees' contributions in resolution process. (2019) noted that there is a positive and significant
relationship between inclusive leadership and employee
Job satisfaction which is generally linked with motivation work engagement and it is seen in these researches that
but these two are different (George and Jones, 2008) can be inclusive leadership positively and significantly affects
considered as a combination of individuals' feelings and work engagement as a basis of our predicted hypothesis
beliefs about their present jobs (Aziri, 2011). It is thought (H2):
that leaders should be inclusive and integrative. This will
help to develop job satisfaction for the workers. According H2: Inclusive leadership willbe positively and significantly
to Xiaotao, Yang, Diaz, and Yu (2018, p.884) inclusive effective on employees' work engagement.
leadership can be defined as one of the types of leadership Work engagement and job satisfaction
that leaders have some abilities associated with
inclusiveness in business/work life to be eble to create an As mentioned before, work engagement defined by
inclusive and integrative work environment “where can Schaufeli, Salanova, González-Romá, and Bakker (2002,
satisfy employees' needs for belongingness and p.74) refers to the positive outcomes of employees and
uniqueness”.Inclusive leaders have driving force to defined as “a positive, fulfilling, work-related state of mind
increase employees' motivation and energy and to create that is characterized by vigor, dedication, and absorption”.
business-minded workers (Qi, Liu, Wei, and Hu, 2019). Vigor can be concerned as the “high levels of energy and
Thus, the following hypothesis (H1) is predicted: mental resilience while working” and continuousness
when employees face with the challenges in work
H1: Inclusive leadership will be directly, positively, and environment. On the other hand, dedication goes by the
significantly effective on job satisfaction. name of commitment and altruism while absorption which
Inclusive leadership and work engagement can be considered synonymous with learning and devotion
expresses “the state of being wholly concentrated on, and
As it is understood, inclusive leadership that requires deeply engrossed in, one's work” (Choi, et al., 2015, p.933;
openness, availability, accessibility and so on generally Schaufeli, et al., 2002).The level of employees' work
sends inspiring and apparent signals to reach the followers engagement is depending on “what happens during the
who are satisfied willing, and happy with their jobs on day” (Schaufeli, 2012, p.5). Organizational HRM
course for reaching the goals and new opportunities strategies will help to increase employee engagement at
(Edmondson, 2004; Carmeli, et al., 2010). Work work (Schaufeli, et al., 2008). Job satisfaction can be
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Volume 12 issue 10 April 2020
considered as one of the consequences of work In this study, it is aimed to analyze the effects of inclusive
engagement. Based on the relevant literature, it is also said leadership on job satisfaction and see the change of these
that “engaged employees outperform satisfied employees” effects when included work engagement in this
(Schaufeli, 2012 as cited in Rich, Lepine, and Crawford, relationship. As noted by Avery, McKay, and Wilson
2010).So, the following hypothesis (H3) is also predicted: (2007) and Hollander (2009), there is a positive influence
of inclusive leadership on employees' work engagement
H3: Work engagement will be positively and significantly which may increase job satisfaction. From this point of
effective on employees' job satisfaction. view, the following hypothesis (H4) is predicted:
Inclusive leadership, job satisfaction, and work H4: Work engagement has a mediating role in the effect of
engagement inclusive leadership on job satisfaction.
It has been supported by different researches for years that Methodology
leaders are the main factors to guide and support employees
while being on course for satisfying and engaging their This study aims to determine the mediating role of work
jobs. As George, and Zhou (2007) emphasized that most engagement to the effects of inclusive leadership on job
relevant research and researchers are generally focusing on satisfaction. First of all information related to the sample
detailed/overall leader support without making and scales were given. Afterwards, the statistical model
discrimination among the tasks and supports of the leaders created under the light of data and analyses and findings
at work. At this point, inclusiveness of the leaders has an were noted. Within this scope, confirmatory factor
importance for the overall support to create job satisfaction analyses were carried out and correlations among the
and work engagement. According to Hollander (2012), variableswere also determined and structural equation
inclusive leaders can be defined as a nourisher for fairly model were created.The results concerning with the
understanding employees' reliance and faithfulness. regression analyses and the tests of hypotheses were
Nembhard, et al., (2006) emphasize that inclusive leaders presented. According to the research, Figure 1 can be seen
invite their followers to the decision making process in an below to be able to show the relationships among the
organization to act for increasing their satisfaction and mentioned variables.
commitment.
Figure 1. Relationships among the research variables
Samples and demographic features female and 261 were male. 103 of the participants were
between the ages of 18-30, 185 of them were between the
The population of this research consists of the hotel ages of 31-45 and 54 of them had the age of 46 and over.
employees. Employees who are working at four and five- Among these participants, 109 of them work in the front
star hotels were chosen by the convenience sampling office, 125 work in the food and beverage department, 36 of
method as the samples of this research. Due to the time and them work in sales-marketing, 10 work in human resources
cost limitation, questionnaires were distributed 400 and 62 participants work in the housekeeping department.
employees in randomly chosen 15 hotels. 359 out of 400 78 of the all participants have 1-5 year work experience
questionanire forms were filled out but 342 of them found while 189 of them have 6-10 year experience and 75 of
appropriate for the analyses. 81 of the participants were
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Pacific Business Review International
Samples and demographic features “The manager encourages me to access him/her on
emerging issues” (accessibility) and
The population of this research consists of the hotel
employees. Employees who are working at four and five- “The manager is ready to listen to my requests”
star hotels were chosen by the convenience sampling (availability). The Cronbach alpha for this measure was
method as the samples of this research. Due to the time and .94.
cost limitation, questionnaires were distributed 400 Work Engagement Scale (WE) created by Schaufeli,
employees in randomly chosen 15 hotels. 359 out of 400 Bakker, & Salanova (2006) consists of 9 items and 3
questionanire forms were filled out but 342 of them found dimensionsincluding vigour, dedication and absorption.
appropriate for the analyses. 81 of the participants were Sample items were as follows:
female and 261 were male. 103 of the participants were
“At my work, I feel bursting with energy” (vigour),
between the ages of 18-30, 185 of them were between the
ages of 31-45 and 54 of them had the age of 46 and over. “My job inspires me” (dedication) and
Among these participants, 109 of them work in the front
“I feel happy when I am work intensely” (absorption). The
office, 125 work in the food and beverage department, 36 of
Cronbach alpha for this measure was .94.
them work in sales-marketing, 10 work in human resources
and 62 participants work in the housekeeping department. Job Satisfaction Scale (JS) developed by Chen, Ku, Shyr,
78 of the all participants have 1-5 year work experience Chen, and Chou (2009) with 5 items and one dimension
while 189 of them have 6-10 year experience and 75 of was also used in this research. The Cronbach alpha for this
them have 11 years and more experience at work. measure was found as .95.
Scales Data analyses and findings
Three different scales about inclusive leadership (IL), work SPSS 21 and AMOS programs were used to analyzed the
engagement (WE), and job satisfaction (JS) were gathered collected data. Confirmatory factor analysis was used to
by using a 5-point Likert-type scale ranging from 1 examine the structural validity of the measurement model
(strongly disagree) to 5 (strongly agree). in which all scales used in the study were examined
together.According to the goodness of fit values
Inclusive Leadership Scale (IL) with the 9-item and 3
? ? obtained and presented in Table 1 below, it is seen that
dimensions (openness, availability, and accessibility)
the scales and research model are in good agreement with
constructed by Carmeli, et al. (2010) was used. Sample
the data (Meydan and Þeþen, 2015; Gürbüz and Þahin,
items were as follows:
2016).
“The manager is open to hearing new ideas” (openness),
Table 1. The goodness of fit statistics of the scales and research model
Goodness
of fit
values
÷2 df CMIN
/DF
SRM
R
IFI CFI TLI RMSEA
Inclusive
Leadership
50,18 24 2.091 .021 .991 .991 .987 .057
Work
Engagement
48.50 24 2.02 .016 .991 .991 .986 .055
Job
Satisfaction
12.00 5 2.40 .010 .996 .996 .992 .064
Measurement
Model
283.0
4
22
1
1.281 .032 .992 .992 .991 .029
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Volume 12 issue 10 April 2020
÷2 =Relative Chi Square Index, df=Degree of fredoom, consistency coefficients are shown in Table 2 below. When
SRMR=Standardized Root Mean Square Residual, examined, positive and significant relationships were
IFI=Incremental Fit Index, CFI=Comparative Fit Index, found among the research variables. In addition to this, it is
TLI= Tucker-Lewis Index, RMSEA= Root Mean Square seen that the CR values of the research variables are
between .94 and .96; and AVE values are between .74 and
The relationships among the variables, mean, standard .80 and CR> AVE.
deviation, mean variance (AVE) values, combined
reliability (CR) values, Cronbach Alpha internal
In order to examine the causal relationships and mediation highest likelihood method was used in the 95% confidence
effect based on the hypotheses, the causal structural interval with 5000 samples and the Monte Carlo Parametric
equation model presented in Figure 2 below was analyzed. Boostrap Option was selected. Lower Bounds and Upper
To test the mediation role, the significance of indirect Bounds of Boostrap confidence interval ? ? ? ? are shown
effects was examined by using boostrap method. The in Figure 2 below:
Figure 2. The causal structural equation model
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Pacific Business Review International
Research hypotheses were tested on structural model with Work engagement as a mediator variable, has a positive and
implicit variable. The research model provides the significant effect on job satisfaction (â = .445, p <.001). In
goodness of fit values (÷2 / df = 1.28; SRMR = 0.32; IFI = this case, H3 is supported.
0.99; TLI = 0.99; CFI = 0.99; RMSEA = 0.03). It was also found that inclusive leadership has an indirect (â
As a result of the analysis, inclusive leadership has totally = .276, p <.001) and significant effect on job satisfaction.
(â = .483, p <.001, 95% CI [.35, .60]) and directly (â = .208, So, H4 is supported.
p <.001, 95% CI [.07, .35]) positive and significant effect A cc or di ng t o t h e re s e a r c h f i n di ng s, w o r k
on job satisfaction. In this case, H1 is supported. engagementpartially mediate to the effects of inclusive
Besides, inclusive leadership has a positive and significant leadership on job satisfaction. Because boostrap
effect on work engagement (â = .620, p <.001). So, H2 is confidence interval values do not include 0 (zero) value.
also supported.
Table. 3. Mediating analysis
Tested way
â SE BC %95 GA
LB UB
Work
Engagement
<--- Inclusive
Leadership
0,620*** 0,80 .49 .74
Job
Satisfaction
<--- Work
Engagement
0,445*** 0,73 .29 .58
Job
Satisfaction
<--- Inclusive
Leadership
Total Effect
(c)
0,483 0,62 .35 .60
Direct Effect
(c’)
0,208*** - .07 .35
Indirect Effect
(axb)
0,276*** - .18 .38
Note: n= 342 (5.000 Bootstrap sample), YD %95 GA = Bias corrected %95 Confidence
interval, X= Inclusive Leadership, Y= Job Satisfaction, M= Work Engagement, a= the effect
of X on M, b= the effect of M on Y, c= the total effect of X on Y, c’= the effect of X on Y.
***p<.001
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Volume 12 issue 10 April 2020
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