Is too much inclusive leadership a good thing?

“well-intended … inclusive leadership can lead to unanticipated negative effect on employees’ task performance when taken too far”

Can leaders be too inclusive?

This study sought to investigate that question in a Chinese context, via 191 questionnaires asking employees to report on their direct supervisor’s inclusive leadership.

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Results:

· “An inverted U-shape characterizes the relationship between inclusive leadership and subordinates’ task performance”

· “employees’ task performance is low when the supervisor’s inclusive leadership is low; task performance increases when inclusive leadership is from low to moderate levels, and task performance decreases when inclusive leadership is from moderate to high levels”

· “once the inclusive leadership moves from moderate to high level, and employees perceive the risk of exclusion declining gradually, employees will not attempt to work harder to indicate their value for the group”

· “inclusive leadership claims to respect individual’s uniqueness, and integrate different views from employees in different backgrounds which used to facilitate the development of feeling of obligation and trust”

· However, highly inclusive leadership will be confronted with very fundamental different options from employees which will lower the supervisor’s speed of decision making and employees’ perception of supervisor’s assertiveness and in turn, will negatively affect perception of supervisor’s leader effectiveness”

They suggest that while the findings probably apply more widely around the world, the “high power distance and collectivism in China” is likely to play a factor.