Fostering Change-oriented Behaviors:The Role Of Inclusive Leadership

Globalization,heightened competition,and rapid technological advancements have made it challenging for organizations to survive and grow.For the reason,continuous innovation in procedure,products,and services has foremost importance than ever.One of the best ways for organizations to promote innovation,responsiveness to market needs,and flexibility in terms of adopting change is through employees' change-oriented behaviors.Employees' change-oriented behaviors change-oriented organizational citizenship behavior(OCB),voice behavior,taking charge,and innovative work behavior(IWB)have significant importance and are considered as a vital source of innovation,effectiveness,competitive advantage,and ultimate success of the organization.Although there have been studies in the past that have highlighted the important role of leadership in motivating employees towards change-oriented behaviors,inclusive leadership(IL)as a form of relational leadership has been scarcely investigated in this context.IL represents a comprehensive viewpoint of leadership by simultaneously focusing on leader and employee characteristics to provide them an opportunity to work together as a unit to achieve organizational goals.IL further fulfills employees' need of uniqueness and belongingness irrespective of their diverse characteristics and thereby considered as a most suitable form of leadership with respect to the current business challenges.Considering the significance of IL and employees' change-oriented behaviors,this dissertation anticipated IL in relationship with employees change-oriented behaviors(change-oriented OCB,voice behavior,taking charge,and IWB)using employees positive psychological states(behavioral integrity(BI),trust in leadership(TIL),creative self-efficacy(CSE),psychological empowerment(PE),psychological safety(PS),and intrinsic motivation(IM))as mediator and individual differences(domain-relevant skills(DRS)and uncertainty avoidance(UA))as moderator variables in between these relationships.In order to explore the main objectives(i.e.,whether,how,and when IL effectively promotes employees' change-oriented behaviors),this dissertation accumulates a comprehensive framework followed by six separate but related research studies.Data were collected using questionnaires from the employees of different organizations in Pakistan and the United Kingdom.Structural equation modeling was applied using SPSS and AMOS to validate the proposed hypothesis(study 1-6).Overall the results confirmed the proposed relationships of study 1-6,which lead to the fulfillment of six major objectives of current research.First,this research contributed uniquely by confirming the both direct and indirect relationship of IL and change-oriented OCB via mediating role of PS(study 1).Second,the mediating roles of BI and TIL both serial and sequential in between IL and change-oriented OCB were also confirmed as a novel contribution(study 2).Third,this study contributed uniquely by uncovering the role of PE through which IL transforms its impact on employees' voice behavior(study 3).Fourth,the mediating role of TIL and moderating role of UA between IL and voice behavior was also a novel contribution which was not studied in the previous literature(study 4).Fifth,this research uncovered a unique mechanism of BI and IM as serial and sequential mediators in between IL and IWB relationship.Finally,this research identified CSE as mediator and DRS as moderator to explain when and how IL transforms its impact on taking charge behavior of employees.Taken together,IL is a more suitable form of leadership that enhances employees' change-oriented behaviors and enables organizations to compete and effectively deal with ongoing challenges.Social cognitive theory(SCT)and casual attribution were employed to develop the research models and to justify the findings of this dissertation.Theoretical and practical implications for each independent model(study 1-6)connecting IL with Change-oriented OCB,voice behavior,taking charge,and IWB are also given.