Inclusive leadership and women in public relations: defining the meaning, functions, and relationships

ABSTRACT

The purpose of this research is to introduce inclusive leadership as a new theoretical framework to understand its meaning and functions in advancing gender equalities and empowerment in public relations leadership. By proposing an inclusive leadership theoretical model, we explored the roles of inclusive leadership in fostering an organization’s diversity climate and facilitating its practice of participative leadership in empowering women in public relations to reach their full potential in leadership advancement. Moreover, our results confirmed both direct and indirect impacts inclusive leadership could have on women’s perceptions of continued career growth opportunities. Our findings provide theoretical implications and practical solutions to address women’s leadership challenges through an inclusive leadership lens.

KEYWORDS:

• Inclusive leadership
• diversity climate
• participative leadership
• women in PR
• empowerment
• public relations leadership

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Funding

This study was jointly funded by The Plank Center for Leadership in Public Relations and The Arthur W. Page Center for Integrity in Public Communication.