Revisiting the “Authoritarian Versus Participative” Leadership Style Legacy: A New Model of the Impact of Leadership Inclusiveness on Employee Engagement

Abstract

The present quantitative research extends the large body of knowledge on the leader–follower relation. On the basis of Kahn’s (1990) engagement model, we develop a new framework featuring a curvilinear inverted U-shaped relationship between leadership inclusiveness and employee engagement. Our survey data ( N = 277), collected in the Financial Services Sector in Europe and North America, reveals that three antecedents of engagement (psychological meaningfulness, safety, and availability) mediate the relationship between our main variables. To be more specific, engagement levels culminate at a moderately high level of leadership inclusiveness followed by a “progressive decline” as inclusiveness moves further along the continuum. Despite the presence of advantages on both ends of the leadership inclusiveness continuum, we advise practicing managers to avoid both extremes in light of unjustifiable compromises.