The Role of Inclusive Leadership in Supporting an Inclusive Climate in Diverse Public Sector Teams

• Author: Ben Kuipers,Sandra Groeneveld,Tanachia Ashikali
• Published date: 01 September 2021
• DOI: 10.1177/0734371X19899722
• Date: 01 September 2021
• Subject Matter: Articles

https://doi.org/10.1177/0734371X19899722

Review of Public Personnel Administration

2021, Vol. 41(3) 497 –519

© The Author(s) 2020

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DOI: 10.1177/0734371X19899722

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Article

The Role of Inclusive

Leadership in Supporting an

Inclusive Climate in Diverse

Public Sector Teams

Tanachia Ashikali1, Sandra Groeneveld1,

and Ben Kuipers1

Abstract

In organizations with a diverse workforce, inclusive leadership is assumed to be

required to support the full appreciation and participation of diverse members. To

date, studies identifying how leadership enables an inclusive climate in diverse teams

are scarce. The aim of this study, therefore, is to examine how inclusive leadership

fosters inclusiveness in diverse teams. Hypotheses were tested on a sample of 293

team members clustered in 45 public sector teams using structural equation modeling.

The results showed that inclusive leadership positively moderates the negative

relation between team ethnic–cultural diversity and inclusive climate. This study

shows that greater team diversity does not automatically yield an inclusive climate.

Inclusive leadership is needed to support an inclusive climate in which different team

members are valued for what they bring to work practices. Inclusive leadership is

crucial for fostering inclusiveness in diverse teams. Limitations are discussed and

recommendations for future research are proposed.

Keywords

team ethnic–cultural diversity, inclusive climate, inclusive leadership, public sector,

structural equation modeling

Introduction

Achieving a diverse workforce is, for many public organizations, a central theme based

on the expected outcomes that diversity could bring. Notably, from a representative

bureaucracy perspective, workforce diversity can enhance an organization’s legitimacy

1Leiden University, The Hague, The Netherlands

Corresponding Author:

Tanachia Ashikali, Leiden University, Turfmarkt 99, 2511 DP, The Hague, The Netherlands.

Email: t.s.ashikali@fgga.leidenuniv.nl

899722ROPXXX10.1177/0734371X19899722Review of Public Personnel AdministrationAshikali et al.

research-article2020

498 Review of Public Personnel Administration 41(3)

and responsiveness to a diversifying society and, therefore, instigated many diversity

management efforts in public organizations (Andrews et al., 2005; Groeneveld & Van

de Walle, 2010; Pitts et al., 2010).

Recent studies imply that simply enhancing the representation of more diverse

employees is not enough though. To fully tap into the intended outcomes of diversity,

organizations need to focus on including them (Mor Barak et al., 2016; Shore et al.,

2018). Scholars have, however, raised questions about how to foster this inclusion.

This need for careful attention to inclusion becomes even more important when exam-

ined in the context of teams. An inclusive climate is considered a prerequisite for

inclusion and allows for making use of a wide range of perspectives and ideas that can

enrich decision-making processes and boost the performance of diverse teams. The

attention has thus shifted toward from simply achieving diversity to the need to foster

inclusive working environments to be appreciative of differences and to support the

integration of minority employees (Andrews & Ashworth, 2015; Ashikali &

Groeneveld, 2015; Sabharwal et al., 2018).

Previous studies in public management and human resource management (HRM)

show that, among other aspects, diversity management and leadership are important

for fostering organizational inclusiveness (Andrews & Ashworth, 2015; Ashikali &

Groeneveld, 2015; Bae et al., 2017; Brimhall, 2019; Sabharwal et al., 2018). Emerging

studies in both the public management and generic management literature underline

the need for supportive leadership to enable fruitful cooperation in diverse teams

(Guillaume et al., 2017; Joshi & Roh, 2009; Kearney & Gebert, 2009; Van Knippenberg

et al., 2013; Van Knippenberg & Van Ginkel, 2010) and, hence, to enable inclusiveness

in organizations and teams (Bae et al., 2017; Paustian-Underdahl et al., 2017; Randel

et al., 2018; Ritz & Alfes, 2018).

Research on public leadership tends to focus on dyadic follower–leader behavior

(Knies et al., 2016; Ospina, 2017). Abovementioned mechanisms indicate that inclu-

siveness depends on interactions between team members. To realize public organiza-

tions’ goals of representativeness and responsiveness to a diverse society (Bishu &

Kennedy, 2019; Feeney & Camarena, 2019), identifying and understanding how lead-

ership enables an inclusive climate in diverse public sector teams is needed. This

study, therefore, examines the role of inclusive leadership in supporting an inclusive

climate within diverse teams. This leads to our central research question:

Research Question: To what extent does inclusive leadership moderate the rela-

tionship between team diversity and an inclusive climate?

Both the public management and generic management literature offer many studies

on different leadership styles and their outcomes (e.g., Boekhorst, 2015; Chrobot-

Mason et al., 2016; Gotsis & Grimani, 2016; Randel et al., 2018). These various lead-

ership styles are conceptually distinctive and grounded in different normative

arguments for their intended outcomes. Randel et al. (2018), in their review of the lit-

erature, discuss a number of different leadership styles, and conclude that inclusive

leadership, that involves a set of behaviors aimed at supporting team members’ full