Inclusive leadership, leader identification and employee voice behavior: The moderating role of power distance

Inclusive leadership, a particular mode of relational leadership, has received extensive attention from scholars in recent years. Inclusive leadership may indicate a positive relationship to employee voice behavior, but there is little research on the relationship between them. Therefore, based on social identity theory, this study aims to examine the effect of inclusive leadership on employee voice behavior, the mediating role of leader identification, and the moderating role of power distance. Through the analysis of 232 valid sample data obtained from employees working in food manufacturing enterprises in China, the results demonstrate that inclusive leadership is positively related to employees' promotive and prohibitive voice behavior; leader identification partially mediates the effect of inclusive leadership on employees' promotive and prohibitive voice. In addition, the results also indicate that power distance not only weakens the effect of inclusive leadership on leader identification and prohibitive voice, but also weakens the effect of leader identification on prohibitive voice. The findings have enriched the research on the consequences of inclusive leadership to a certain extent, provided a new perspective for in-depth analysis on the mechanism of inclusive leadership, and theoretically deepened an understanding of the boundary conditions of inclusive leadership.