AUTHOR=Wang Shengnan , Feng Kai , Wang Hongyan , Li Yongxin 

TITLE=Inclusive leadership and employee job performance: mediation of leader-member exchange and organizational identification

JOURNAL=Frontiers in Psychology

VOLUME=Volume 16 - 2025

YEAR=2025

URL=https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/psychology/articles/10.3389/fpsyg.2025.1615144

DOI=10.3389/fpsyg.2025.1615144

ISSN=1664-1078

ABSTRACT=BackgroundPrevious studies indicated that inclusive leadership is related to a series of positive working outcomes, but the internal acting mechanism remains unclear. This study used a three-month longitudinal design to investigate the acting mechanism of inclusive leadership on individual job performance by introducing leader-member exchange and organizational identification as mediators.MethodsThe data were collected through self-reported questionnaires and a leader-rated survey of 206 employees of a car battery manufacturer in central China.ResultsThe results revealed that inclusive leadership is positively associated with job performance, leader-member exchange, and organizational identification. A hierarchical regression and bootstrap analysis indicated that organizational identification and leader-member exchange significantly mediated the relationship between inclusive leadership and job performance, and the structural equation model supported the results.ConclusionsThe findings provide significant lessons for how organizations can gain a competitive advantage in terms of employee performance by fostering inclusive leadership, leader-member exchange, and organizational identification.