Does Inclusive Leadership Improve the Sustainability of Employee Relations? Test of Justice Theory and Employee Perceived Insider Status

Abstract

The concept of inclusion has moved beyond being a social construct and has received widespread attention from organisational scholars and practitioners due to its varied effects on employee behaviours and sustainable organisational outcomes. This study tests the impact of inclusive leadership on the withdrawal behaviours of employees. Perceived insider status is used as a mediator and distributive justice as a moderator. This study has collected data from nurses, physicians, and paramedics of selected tertiary hospitals in Pakistan. A convenience sampling technique was used to collect data. A total of 264 responses were analysed using the PLS-SEM approach. Results found that inclusive leadership was positively related to perceived insider status and negatively related to employee withdrawal. Perceived insider status mediated the link. The impact of inclusive leadership on perceived insider status was stronger when distributive justice was high. This study offers multiple theoretical and practical implications, as it uses justice theory as a mechanism to explain boundary conditions around the effects of inclusive leadership on employee perceptions of being insiders, managing employee withdrawals, and improving sustainability in employee relations.