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

Introduction

According to the United Nations’ 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, advancing gender equality is ranked as the fifth of the 17 core Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), which call for urgent action by all countries to develop global partnerships to drive change (Gender equality and women’s empowerment, 2015). Although societies have witnessed some progress in advancing gender equality and empowerment through some intergovernmental collaborations over the past decades, gender inequalities that are deeply rooted in traditional gender expectations and roles still block women’s access and advancement to leadership positions (Ely & Rhode, 2010), especially for public positions and in corporate and elite professional settings (Eagly & Carli, 2007). Hogue and Lord’s (2007) research pointed out that gender biases in leadership contexts are present at three levels: in the ways that 1) organizations structure leadership paths and promotion policies; 2) people perceive women leaders’ qualifications; and 3) women leaders navigate in order to shape their leadership experiences and identities. Furthermore, a woman’s qualifications for leadership are questioned at each of the three levels (Ely & Rhode, 2010).

Similarly, gender inequalities remain a particular concern in the public relations profession where women make up 70% of the public relations workforce in the United States but only hold less than 30% of top leadership positions in the industry (Shah, 2015). Particularly, the gender inequalities and discriminations are more predominant for women of color, who account for less than 6% of the female professional population in the industry (U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, 2020). Research done by earlier feminist scholars in public relations confirmed that the existence of institutional barriers (or the glass ceiling) are the essential key factors preventing women from being promoted and limiting their advancement opportunities (Toth & Cline, 1989, 1991; Toth & Grunig, 1993). The journey to top leadership is particularly difficult for women of color due to various historical and societal factors rooted in gender and racial stereotypes (Hon, 1995; Grunig et al., 2001; Wrigley, 2002).

Some recent research further contributes to our understanding of barriers to women’s leadership in public relations by addressing gendered assumptions in leadership assignments (Vardeman-Winter & Place, 2017), gendered leadership styles (Aldoory & Toth, 2004; Place & Vardeman-Winter, 2018), and lack of sufficient female role models and mentoring in top leadership (Meng & Neill, 2021; Place & Vardeman-Winter, 2018). In a recent extensive literature review of research on women in public relations over the past four decades, Topić et al. (2020) also confirmed the continued prejudices and discriminations toward women, which prevent women from reaching leadership positions.

Apparently, being successful in the public relations profession is still a challenge for women as reflected in the actual pay gap, the limited leadership advancement opportunities, and the ongoing battle to be involved, heard, valued and respected in decision making. Although recruiting and retaining diverse individuals has been increasingly recognized as important in diversity management in public relations (Meng & Berger, 2018), the efforts are insufficient yet to recognize the full potential of women in the field. As research continues highlighting the importance of inclusive practices as an effective means for organizations to eliminate inequalities and discriminations (Mor Barak, 2011), the inclusive leadership theory, extended from the relational leadership research, has emerged as a key theoretical construct for realizing the benefits leader inclusiveness can bring to the workplace (Chrobot-Mason and Roberson, 2021). However, there is little research on the impact of inclusive leadership on women in public relations and how it influences organizational structure and environment where leadership is enacted and achieved. Thus, it is meaningful to explore whether inclusive leadership can affect women in public relations and their leadership and empowerment journey.

By doing so, we contribute to the research on women and leadership in public relations in three ways. First, we introduce inclusive leadership as a potential theoretical framework to address the challenge the profession is facing in building a more diverse and inclusive workforce. While the existing literature on inclusive leadership has discussed some antecedent conditions affecting the development of inclusive leadership behaviors in employee relations and management (Nishii & Mayer, 2009), research on its effects on women, racial minorities, and empowerment in public relations remains scarce. Secondly, we propose and develop a theoretical model to predict the instrumental role of inclusive leadership in affecting the overall organizational environment. Our theoretical model helps broaden and deepen our understanding of the powerful influence inclusive leadership could generate on an organization’s diversity climate and its practice of participative leadership. Lastly, our theoretical model extends the predicting power of inclusive leadership through its direct and indirect impacts on women’s perceptions on empowerment and career growth opportunities. We conclude our research with strong theoretical and practical implications.

Theoretical framework and literature review

In the broader discussion of leadership paradigm, research on inclusive leadership is largely aligned with diversity management (Kalev et al., 2006; Yang & Konrad, 2011) and leader-follower interactions of the relational leadership theory (Uhl-Bien, 2006). Research on leader inclusiveness has emerged as a key psychological construct to decompose the benefits that leaders’ inclusive behaviors and skills can bring to the workplace by welcoming and valuing the contributions of individual followers (Ferdman, 2014). Consequently, scholars have proposed different views on the meaning of inclusive leadership and its impact on diversity management and organizational effectiveness (e.g., Ernst & Chrobot-Mason, 2010; Nembhard & Edmondson, 2006; Nishii, 2013; Roberson, 2006).

Although the research on inclusive leadership captures the notion of valuing differences and contributions of diverse team members in the leadership and diversity literature, the theory itself has not yet been applied to public relations research to explore its potential in expanding our current knowledge in diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI), nor has the research on inclusive leadership been organized to frame relevant public relations theories to address one of the biggest challenges the profession is facing. While the public relations profession has been constantly criticized for lacking racial and gender diversity and inclusion (Shah, 2017), why have there been relatively few in-depth discussions of how inclusive leadership can be learned, developed, and incorporated to create an inclusive environment?

In the following sections, we explore the nature of inclusive leadership by reviewing several different but related lines of research. We also review recent research that has examined several critical conditions and outcomes related to inclusive leadership. By doing so, we introduce a theoretically-grounded framework of inclusive leadership and propose a theoretical model to predict the powerful impact the construct could generate on many aspects within the organizational environment. The theoretical model centers on the instrumental role of inclusive leadership in supporting women in public relations, especially historically marginalized and underrepresented groups, to achieve empowerment and career commitment and growth.

Inclusive leadership

Earlier research on inclusive leadership views it as a particular form of relationship leadership theory. From the perspective of relational leadership, the definition of inclusiveness is enacted and socially constructed through leader-follower interactions through which leadership is produced and enabled (Uhl-Bien, 2006). Uhl-Bien (2011) argued that the relational perspective moves leadership research beyond the concept of “Great Man Theory” by emphasizing leadership as a social change process (p. 65). Similarly, Carmeli et al. (2010) defined inclusive leadership as a specific manifestation of relational leadership, which highlights leaders’ role in listening to and understanding the needs of followers. Thus, inclusive leadership is characterized by leaders’ openness, accessibility and availability within the organizational environment (Carmeli et al., 2010). Conversely, Roberson’s (2006) research on inclusive leadership addressed the relational perspective of inclusiveness more on the followers’ end. Roberson argued that inclusive leadership explains the degree to which individuals feel they are a part of the critical organizational process.

At the same time, inclusive leadership has also been defined as a two-way influence process between leader and followers by emphasizing the shared decision making, active consultation and participation within a team and in the context of organizational management (Hollander, 2009). In addition, the identity research emerged from the optimal distinctiveness theory (Brewer, 1991) has suggested that an inclusive framework allows members in the group to feel like insiders by generating feelings of inclusion while retaining their sense of uniqueness (Shore et al., 2011). Shore et al. (2018) argued that inclusion is achieved through the combination of uniqueness and belongingness.

A more common approach in inclusive leadership research has largely evolved around inclusive leadership behaviors as developed by Edmondson (1996, 2003). This approach provides a more common framework that can facilitate inclusive leadership by creating psychologically safe environments. Edmondson (2003) refers to psychologically safe environments as cultures with a shared belief that members are safe to engage in interpersonal risk-taking and for speaking up without being subjected to negative repercussions. This stream of inclusive leadership research resonates with the power relations theory in public relations research (Berger, 2005). The power relations theory argues that the empowerment model in public relations integrates “dialogue, inclusion, negotiation, and shared power guide” decision making while enabling individuals to “do the right thing and to actualize the possibilities of a practice serving the interests and voices of many” (Berger, 2005, p. 6).

Consistent with Edmondson’s (2003) research on inclusive leadership and organizational performance, Nembhard and Edmondson (2006) further defined leader inclusiveness by focusing on behaviors engaged by leaders to include other members’ opinions and contributions. According to their definition, inclusive leadership indicates “an invitation and appreciation for others’ contributions” regardless of status or power (Nembhard & Edmondson, 2006, p. 947). Consequently, the implementation of inclusive leadership generates many positive outcomes at the organizational level, including increased psychological safety (Nembhard & Edmondson, 2006), work engagement (Choi et al., 2015), creativity and innovative work behaviors (Choi et al., 2017), and building a positive diversity climate (Randel et al., 2016).

Inclusive leadership and career growth opportunities

Following the positivist approaches to the study of leadership, Carmeli et al. (2010) argued inclusive leadership as a particular form of relational leadership, which encompasses three dimensions to address leaders’ openness, accessibility and availability. From this perspective, the application of inclusive leadership can improve followers’ job satisfaction while creating an open, inclusive and relaxed working environment for greater motivation to work (e.g., Choi et al., 2015; Meng & Berger, 2019). Similarly, Nembhard and Edmondson’s (2006) research confirmed that leader inclusiveness increases the psychological safety of team members and their work quality.

Drawing on the theory of social exchange, Jin et al. (2017) confirmed that inclusive leadership attributes to increased team members’ career commitment. Inclusive leadership further encourages members to inject more efforts into the realization of organizational goals. At the same time, members project to attain brighter future career growth opportunities with their present job (Javed et al., 2019). Therefore, following this line of inclusive leadership research, we proposed our baseline hypothesis to predict the impact of inclusive leadership on female public relations professionals’ perceived career growth opportunities:

H1: Inclusive leadership positively affects female public relations professionals’ perceived career growth opportunities.

Inclusive leadership and organizational diversity climate and its practice of participative leadership

Chrobot-Mason and Roberson (Chrobot-Mason and Roberson, 2021) proposed the Model of Inclusive Leadership by outlining three major components influencing the process of inclusive leadership: antecedent conditions, behaviors, and outcomes. They proposed that an organization’s policies might motivate the implementation of inclusive leadership. This proposition has largely emphasized the value of organizational policies and practices on inclusive leadership. Meanwhile, a different perspective in earlier inclusive leadership research provides a more critical discourse argument that the prerequisite of inclusive leadership and diversity-specific practices shall be a critical antecedent condition to facilitate building the positive climate for diversity and inclusion (Nishii, 2013; Nishii & Mayer, 2009). When leaders are taking a more active role in practicing inclusive behaviors in decision making, the organization will become more likely to foster a positive diversity climate by moving from saying to doing with relevant policies and practices in place. Previous research has confirmed that inclusive leadership in the context of a positive diversity climate can reduce turnover intentions of racioethnic minorities and women (McKay et al., 2007), increase employee engagement of racioethnic minorities (Volpone et al., 2012), and enhance leader-directed and work group-directed helping behaviors (Randel et al., 2016).

Similarly, when individual differences are valued and incorporated into the main work of an organization, the overall effectiveness of the organization can be improved through the practice of inclusive leadership. As reviewed earlier, the inclusive approaches focus on establishing norms by inviting active consultation and participation, with the goal of achieving shared decision making within a team or organization (Uhl-Bien, 2006). Thus, inclusive leadership becomes fundamental to relational theory because it drives followers’ perceptions that leaders are open, fair, accountable, and attentive to their needs (Tyler & Lind, 1992). However, given its conceptual focus on high-quality relationships between leader and followers, inclusive leadership has been criticized for its interchangeability with leader-member exchange and path-goal theory in leadership literature (Nishii & Mayer, 2009), which also address the importance of participation. In this stream of leadership research, participative leadership is considered one of the fundamental leader behaviors in contemporary studies of the path-goal leadership approach (Asamani et al., 2016; Schriesheim et al., 2006). Scholars have defined participative leadership as shared influence and joint decision making between a leader and his/her followers in management (Koopman & Wierdsma, 1998).

Although research on both participative management and inclusive leadership has addressed the two-way influence process between leader and followers (e.g., Hollander, 2009; House & Mitchell, 1974), scholars have argued that the inclusive approaches in inclusive leadership differ from participative leadership as specified in the path-goal theory in three ways. First, the goal of inclusive leadership is to create a shared identity among members in order to build the sense of belonging. Second, the participative approach in inclusive leadership aims at reducing status differences and fosters the sense that each individual is treated with respect and concern. Lastly, inviting active consultation and participation is to ensure each member has equal voice and input (Ferdman, 2014; Randel et al., 2018; Shore et al., 2011). Overall, inclusive leadership focuses on building the genuine sense of being valued by inviting and appreciating the contributions of all individuals, while participative leadership in the path-goal theory emphasizes the consequences and outcomes by harnessing employees’ motivation to maximize productivity and increase group performance from the perspective of participative management (Nembhard & Edmondson, 2006).

Following this line of research, we argue that the psychological sense of being valued will drive followers’ motivation of being productive. Thus, the implementation of inclusive leadership will influence the organization’s practice of participative leadership. Therefore, our second set of hypotheses are rooted in research indicating the roles of inclusive leadership in fostering a positive diversity climate and facilitating the practice of participative leadership at the organizational level:

H2a and H2b: Inclusive leadership positively affects organization’s diversity climate (H2a) and its practice of participative leadership (H2b).

H2c and H2d: Consequently, the establishments of a positive diversity climate (H2c) and participative leadership practice (H2d) will also positively affect female public relations professionals’ perceived career growth opportunities.

Inclusive leadership and empowerment

Earlier research on empowerment focuses on the psychological cognition and intrinsic motivation of individuals in four aspects: meaning, competence, self-determination and impact (Spreitzer, 1995). Empowerment research encourages the decentralized decision-making process in an organization to invite employees at all levels to take a proactive orientation and build a sense of control over work to maximize contributions (Ioannidou et al., 2016; Spreitzer, 1995). This argument is consistent with the theory of power relations in public relations (Berger, 2005), which addresses the critical roles of dialogue and mutual recognition in building decision-making processes that are “noncoercive, self-reflective, inclusive of other points of view, and consider public relations to be an important relationship variable” (p. 16). Specifically, in power relations theory, power and influence are closely related terms and used interchangeably as “influence is the process through which power is actually used or realized” (Berger & Reber, 2006, p. 4). Thus, empowerment reflects the capacity to “get things done by affecting the perceptions, attitudes, beliefs, opinions, decisions, statements, and behaviors of others” (p. 5).

In this context, inclusive leadership may be considered most relevant and suitable as it invites and values diverse ideas and perspectives. Hollander (2009) argued that the effectiveness of inclusive leaders rests in the empowerment of their followers by delegating power to employees where employees enjoyed great autonomy in control and responsibility (Nishii & Mayer, 2009). When followers have the strong perception that their opinions, experiences and contributions are valued, the feelings of greater empowerment emerged (Nishii & Mayer, 2009). Randel et al. (2018) also confirmed the positive relationship between inclusive leadership and psychological empowerment. Thus, the strong connection between the practice of inclusive leadership and enhanced empowerment cannot be underestimated. Following this line of research, we proposed our third set of hypotheses:

H3a: Inclusive leadership positively affects female public relations professionals’ perceived empowerment.

H3b and H3c: Consequently, the establishments of a positive diversity climate (H3b) and the organization’s practice of participative leadership (H3c) will also positively affect female public relations professionals’ perceived empowerment.

H3d: Female public relations professionals’ perceived empowerment positively affects their career growth opportunities.

Finally, considering the presence of several critical organizational factors (i.e., organization’s diversity climate and its practice of participative leadership) and their joint roles in building the sense of empowerment, we also propose the possible mediating power of such factors in linking inclusive leadership to female public relations professionals’ perceived career growth opportunities. Following this argument, we proposed our last hypothesized relationship.

H4: The relationship between inclusive leadership and female public relations professionals’ career growth opportunities is mediated by organizational diversity climate, its practice of participative leadership, and the perceived empowerment.

Based on the above literature review and theoretical analysis, we proposed our theoretical research model as displayed in Figure 1. The proposed theoretical model predicts the relationship between inclusive leadership and women’s career growth opportunities by considering the possible mediating effects from organization’s diversity climate, its practice of participative leadership and the perceived empowerment of female professionals in the organization’s decision making. The following sections explain our research design, measures of theoretical constructs, and the results of our model testing.

Figure 1. The proposed structural equation model of inclusive leadership on women’s perceived empowerment and career growth opportunities as enriched by organizational diversity climate and its practice of participative leadership.

Method

Sample and procedure

This study used the online survey method in research design. The audience database of Qualtrics and its online platform were used to recruit respondents. In order to facilitate the theoretical building efforts in inclusive leadership and understand the role of inclusive leadership in supporting women’s career growth opportunities in the public relations profession, we designed the study to recruit only full-time female public relations practitioners. Qualification screening questions were also built at the beginning of the survey to enhance sample quality.

The online survey was active for four weeks in July of 2019. Based on the numbers recorded by Qualtrics, we had a total of 10,099 valid clicks from Qualtrics’ audience database over the period of recruitment. Respondents who failed to pass our qualification screening questions were directed to the end of the survey. A total of 515 respondents provided complete data on the variables examined in the current study. Three cases were excluded from the sample due to conflicting answers detected in data inspection. Thus, we were able to retain the final sample of 512 female public relations practitioners with an average age of 36.2 years (SD = 10.67).

In order to have a more diverse representation within the general female population in the profession, we integrated three demographic parameters into our sampling strategies. First, we deliberately pre-specified the ethnicity quota in order to recruit more qualified racioethnic minority women in the profession. The final sample consists of 70.3% of white women (n = 360), 19.5% of Black women (n = 100), and approximately 10% of other racial minorities including Hispanics, Asian Americans, Multiracial, and Native Americans (n = 52). Secondly, we had 56.8% of respondents (n = 291) confirming they have an official and defined leadership role in their current job while 43.2% reported no. Lastly, for years of professional experience, we recruited 29.1% of respondents (n = 149) having more than ten years of experience in the field, followed by 29.9% (n = 153) having 6–10 years of experience (29.9%) and 41.0% (n = 210) having up to five years of experience (41.0%). Table 1 displays additional demographic profiles of the sample.

Table 1. Sample’s demographic profiles

Demographics	Frequencies	Percentages
Years of experience in public relations
Up to 5 years	210	41.0%
6–10 years	153	29.9%
More than 10 years	149	29.1%
Tenure in current organization
Less than one year	52	10.2%
More than one but less than 5 years	210	41.0%
More than 5 but less than 10 years	143	27.9%
More than 10 years	107	20.9%
Reporting Level
Zero (top leader in communication)	42	8.2%
One reporting level	200	39.1%
Two and more reporting levels	270	52.7%
Gender of the direct supervisor/manager
A woman	317	61.9%
A man	195	38.1%
Gender of the top communication leader in the organization
A woman	224	43.8%
A man	288	56.3%
Type of organization
Private or state-owned company	194	37.9%
Nonprofit, government, educational or political organization	155	30.3%
Publicly held corporation (stock ownership)	106	20.7%
Communication or PR agency	56	10.9%
Other	1	0.2%
Ethnicity
White/Caucasian	360	70.3%
African American, African descent, Black	100	19.5%
Hispanic, Latino, Spanish descent	23	4.5%
Asian, Asian American, Pacific Islander	14	2.7%
Multiracial	11	2.1%
Native American, American Indian	4	0.8%
Total	512	100%

Measures

Inclusive leadership (IL)

As reviewed earlier, the stream of inclusive leadership theory and research is relatively new. Since the purpose of developing inclusive leadership theory is to address the challenges of building a more diverse workforce, the measures of inclusive leadership have largely focused on addressing specific behaviors demonstrated by leaders that can facilitate inclusive leadership and psychological safety in work teams (e.g., Edmondson, 1996, 2003). In order to address the specific inclusive leadership behaviors in the context of public relations workforce, we adapted Nembhard and Edmondson’s (2006) measures on leader inclusiveness. All items were measured by using a 7-point Likert scale from 1 (strongly disagree) to 7 (strongly agree). Statements were revised to reflect the need for inclusive practices in today’s public relations workforce. Sample items include: “My leader educates line managers about gender- and race-based stereotypes” and “My leader demonstrates commitment to build a diverse work team.” The scale’s standardized alpha reliability is .90 with a scale mean of 4.82 (SD = 1.31).

Organizational diversity climate (DC)

Since racial minorities and women often experience challenges and discrimination in the workplace and may face fewer opportunities for leadership advancement in the public relations industry (Chitkara, 2018), organizational policies and practices on diversity climate are particularly important to these individuals. Therefore, we adapted McKay et al.’s (2008) measures on diversity climate to assess respondents’ perceptions on their organization’s policies and practices on diversity climate. Statements were revised to reflect the perceptions of ethnic minorities and women in our sample and examples are: “My organization promotes gender equality through fair evaluation processes” and “My organization measures and monitors efforts and results on diversity and equity initiatives.” The scale’s standardized alpha reliability is .90 with a scale mean of 4.65 (SD = 1.35).

Organization’s practice of participative leadership (PL)

As reviewed in the literature, one of the major components of path-goal theory addresses participative leadership, which emphasizes the leadership style of inviting followers and/or team members to share in the decision making (House & Mitchell, 1974). Research also addresses participative management is effective in inviting and welcoming the contributions of a diverse range of employees with the goals of maximizing productivity and enhancing group performance (Mor Barak, 2011; Nembhard & Edmondson, 2006). In our study, a five-item adaption of the participative leadership scale developed by House and Mitchell (1974) was used to measure respondents’ perception of their organization’s efforts in practicing participative leadership. Some sample items are: “My organization helps women like me take on leadership roles in various projects or committee service” and “My organization shares decision-making power with women like me.” The scale’s standardized alpha reliability is .89 with a scale mean of 4.82 (SD = 1.39).

Empowerment (EMP)

As addressed earlier in our literature review, the working definition of empowerment in this study focused on women’s perceptions of being empowered as an influential female leader in public relations by following the argument made in the power relations theory (Berger & Reber, 2006). Such an empowerment perception focuses on shared vision, institutional recognition, advocacy of shared power, expertise and accountability. We measured empowerment by referring to Berger’s (2005, 2009) research on the dominant coalition and power relations in public relations and generated the list of 7-item measures from Berger and Reber’s (2006) research on empowerment and influence building. Some sample items are: “Having influence as a woman leader in public relations means ‘being seen as a trusted advisor’ and ‘performing more take-charge actions of delegating, problem solving, and influence upward.’” The scale’s standardized alpha reliability is .94 with a scale mean of 5.71 (SD = 1.10).

Career growth opportunities (CGO)

A five-item scale was adapted and developed to measure female professionals’ expected career growth opportunities. The scale was adapted from Bedeian et al.’s (1991) research on career growth opportunities, which refers to the expected opportunities or utility of one’s present job for attainment of valued career outcomes. Response options ranged from 1 (strongly disagree) to 7 (strongly agree). Sample items are: “This current job is relevant to my career growth and advancement” and “I specifically set out to get a leadership position with my present job.” The scale’s standardized alpha reliability is .85 with a scale mean of 4.96 (SD = 1.40). The complete measure items of all key variables are specified in the Appendix A.

Results

Data analytical approach

A structural equation modeling analytical approach using LISREL 8.8 was applied. Consistent with Anderson and Gerbing’s (1988) recommended two-step approach to structural equation modeling, we first examined the adequacy of the measurement model of the five key constructs by running confirmatory factor analysis (CFA), followed by assessing the reliability and validity of the constructs before testing the proposed structural model.

Measurement validation

The results of CFA were used to validate the five-factor orthogonal measurement model. To assess the convergent validity of the measured constructs, we used the three statistical criteria suggested by Fornell and Larcker (1981). First, the standardized indicator loading values of the item measures should be greater than .65 (the indicator loadings ranged from .68 to .86 in the measurement model). Secondly, the calculated composite reliability (CR) of each scale should exceed .80 (The CR values ranged from .90 to .94 in the measurement model). Lastly, the calculated average variance extracted (AVE) for each construct should be greater than .60 (The AVE values ranged from .62 to .70). Based on these values, we are confident that all scales demonstrated high convergent validity in our study. In addition, the internal reliability tests generated a Cronbach’s alpha value to be greater than .70 for all five key constructs (ranging from .85 to .94), further indicating the strong reliability of the scales. The results of the factor loadings, reliability and validity tests are presented in Table 2.

Table 2. Summary of factor analyses and reliability and validity test results

Variables	Item measure	Factor loading	Eigen value	Composite reliability	AVE	Cronbach’s α
Inclusive leadership	IL1	.77	4.37	.92	.62	.90
	IL2	.80	(62.45%)
	IL3	.78
	IL4	.83
	IL5	.80
	IL6	.75
	IL7	.80
Organizational diversity climate	DC1	.76	4.33	.92	.62	.90
	DC2	.79	(61.88%)
	DC3	.78
	DC4	.80
	DC5	.79
	DC6	.78
	DC7	.83
Organization’s practice of participative leadership	PL1	.82	3.47	.92	.70	.89
	PL2	.82	(69.35%)
	PL3	.85
	PL4	.83
	PL5	.85
Empowerment	EMP1	.83	4.79	.94	.68	.94
	EMP2	.82	(68.49%)
	EMP3	.81
	EMP4	.82
	EMP5	.86
	EMP6	.85
	EMP7	.80
Career growth opportunities	CGO1	.81	3.18	.90	.64	.85
	CGO2	.68	(63.52%)
	CGO3	.82
	CGO4	.86
	CGO5	.81

All items were measured on a 7-point Likert-type scale with “1 = strongly disagree” and “7 = strongly agree.” All inter-item correlations were significant at p < .01. Percentages in parentheses are total variance explained as the results of factor analyses.

The assessment of discriminant validity was achieved by the values indicated in the correlation matrix. We used the suggested cutoff of .90 in the correlation matrix to inspect construct distinctness (Bagozzi & Fornell, 1982). We also compared the square root values of the AVE with the diagonal elements in the correlation matrix as suggested by Fornell and Larcker (1981). As listed in Table 3, the values of all off-diagonal elements in the correlation matrix were less than .90, and the square root value of the AVE for each construct is greater than the correlations between the variables except for one variable, organizational diversity climate. Therefore, we believe that the measurement model also holds strong discriminant validity. In addition, since our sample consisted of women only, we included racioethnicity (racial majority = 1, minority = 0), age, leadership role (with an official leadership role = 1, without an official leadership role = 0), educational level of the subjects, and the number of years worked in public relations as control variables. Table 3 shows descriptive statistics and the correlation matrix.

Table 3. Descriptive statistics and correlations of variables

Variables	Mean	S.D.	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10
1. Age	36.2	10.67	N.A.
2. Racioethnicity	.70	.46	.04	N.A.
3. Education	2.78	1.03	−.07	−.03	N.A.
4. Leadership role	.57	.50	−.07	−.02	1.77**	N.A.
5. Years of experience	1.88	.83	.52**	.04	.10*	.03	N.A.
6. Inclusive leadership (IL)	4.82	1.31	.01	−.01	−.04	.08	−.05	(.79)
7. Organizational diversity climate (DC)	4.65	1.35	−.02	−.06	−.08	.08	−.06	.89**	(.79)
8. Participative leadership (PL)	4.82	1.39	−.02	.00	.04	.15**	−.03	.50**	.48**	(.84)
9. Empowerment (EMP)	5.71	1.10	.13**	.08	−.08	.01	−.01	.31**	.29**	.31**	(.82)
10. Career growth opportunities (CGO)	4.96	1.40	−.08	.03	−.05	.21**	−.13**	.56**	.59**	.54**	.31**	(.80)

N = 512. Numbers on the diagonal (bold values in parentheses) represent the square root of the AVE of the five key constructs. Off-diagonal elements represent the correlation between the constructs.) N.A. = not applicable to structural model.

* p < .05; ** p < .01.

Structural model testing

Based on the procedure for structural model analysis, we conducted latent path analysis to test the relationships between all constructs proposed in the theoretical model. Overall, the estimation and fit indices indicated an excellent fit between our proposed model and the data: χ² = 4.27, df = 2, p = .12, SRMR = .01, NFI = 1.00, GFI = 1.00, RMSEA = .047 with 90% confident interval for (0.0; 0.11). Our final statistical model (Figure 2) displays the results of the structural model analysis with standardized path coefficients and significant levels.

Figure 2. The statistical path diagram of the final structural equation model.

N = 512. Selected model fix indices: Chi-square = 4.27, df = 2, p = .12, SRMR = .011, NFI = 1.00, GFI = 1.00, RMSEA = .047 with 90% confident interval for (0.0; 0.11).** p < .01. * p < .05. n.s. = not significant.

Our first hypothesis predicts inclusive leadership positively affects women’s career growth opportunities. To test this hypothesis, we ran a baseline model to test the direct effect of inclusive leadership on perceived career growth opportunities. The simple linear regression model confirmed the significantly positive impact (β = .31, p < .01). Thus, H1 was supported.

Our second set of hypotheses predicts that inclusive leadership will generate a direct impact on organization’s diversity climate and its practice of participative leadership. Results from the latent path analysis supported our prediction. Inclusive leadership generates a significantly positive influence on organizational diversity climate (β = .89, p < .01), indicating a very strong direct effect (H2a). Inclusive leadership also significantly influences the practice of participative leadership (β = .50, p < .01) (H2b), indicating a strong direct effect.

In addition, our second set of hypotheses also predicts that the establishments of a positive diversity climate and participative leadership practice will also positively affect female public relations professionals’ perceived career growth opportunities. The latent path analysis projected that organizational diversity climate generates a strong and positive impact on women’s perceived career growth opportunities (β = .41, p < .01) (H2c). Results from the model testing confirmed that organization’s practice of participative leadership helps women maintain a positive belief in career growth opportunities (β = .31, p < .05) (H2d). Thus, our second set of hypotheses (H2a to H2d) were all supported.

Our third set of hypotheses focuses on exploring the relationship between inclusive leadership and empowerment. Results from the model testing confirmed leader inclusiveness generates a moderate and direct influence on women’s perceptions of being empowered as a female leader in public relations (β = .18, p < .05) (H3a). In addition, it is very important to note that the practice of inclusive leadership also generates an indirect but significant impact on empowerment through the mediating paths of organizational diversity climate and participative leadership (β = .13, p < .05). Therefore, it confirms that inclusive leadership is critical in both directly and indirectly influencing women’s perception on empowerment, when organizational diversity climate and participative leadership are observed.

In addition, our third set of hypotheses also predicts the direct influence of organization’s diversity climate and its practice of participative leadership on women’s perceived empowerment. Although the latent path analysis failed to predict the direct influence from organization’s diversity climate (β = .03, p = n.s.) (H3b) to empowerment, results confirmed the organization’s practice of participative leadership improves women’s perception on empowerment (β = .21, p < .05) (H3c). We also proposed the potential impact from women’s leadership empowerment to their perceived career growth opportunities. Based on the path analysis, the perceived empowerment and influence building will generate a direct and positive influence on women’s perceptions on career growth opportunities (β = .10, p < .05) (H3d). Thus, our third set of hypotheses were also supported except H3b.

It is important to note that the latent path analysis confirmed a significantly strong, total but indirect effect of inclusive leadership on women’s perceived career growth opportunities (β = .55, p < .05) when all three variables (i.e., DC, PL and EMP) are observed in the working environment. It indicates the importance of integrating a strong organizational diversity climate, the practice of participative leadership, and women empowerment into the inclusive leadership context to help women achieve professional career growth. Thus, relationship between inclusive leadership and women’s perceived career growth opportunities is mediated by organizational diversity climate, its practice of participative leadership, and the perceived empowerment. H4 was supported. Therefore, inclusive leadership plays a critically important role in improving women’s career growth opportunities, both directly and indirectly. The results of the latent path analysis showing total, direct and indirect effects are presented in Table 4.

Table 4. Final structural equation model with latent path analysis: Total, direct and indirect effects

Hypotheses: Path parameter	Total effects	Direct effects	Indirect effects
H1: IL → CGO (Baseline linear regression model)	.31**	.31**	–
H2a: IL → DC	.89**	.89**	–
H2b: IL → PL	.50**	.50**	–
H2c: DC → CGO	.42**	.41**	.01 n.s.
H2d: PL → CGO	.33*	.31*	.02 n.s.
H3a: IL → EMP	.31**	.18*	.13*
H3b: DC → EMP	.03 n.s.	.03 n.s.	–
H3c: PL → EMP	.21*	.21*	–
H3d: EMP → CGO	.10*	.10*	–
H4: IL → CGO (Final structural model with mediating effects)	.55**	–	.55**

IL = inclusive leadership; CGO = career growth opportunities; DC = organizational diversity climate; PL = participative leadership; EMP = empowerment.

* p < .05; ** p < .01.

Discussion

As reviewed earlier, inclusive leadership has been the focus of a growing body of leadership research recently to address leaders’ and organizations’ efforts in improving opportunities for historically marginalized and underrepresented groups (e.g., racioethnic minorities and women) and promoting organizations’ diversity management initiatives (Linnehan & Konrad, 1999). Although we recognize the importance of recruiting and supporting individuals from a variety of backgrounds and underrepresented groups could benefit the organization in building a healthier work environment, research focusing on testing and building inclusive leadership theory in public relations has not been sufficiently explored nor tested. In today’s rapidly changing and multicultural working environment in public relations, perhaps the greatest need is to determine the instrumental role of inclusive leadership in supporting women and racial minorities in the public relations industry, by following the call that inclusive leadership can be both learned and developed (Edmondson, 2003).

Consistent with the theme of this special issue, we dedicated our research to the broader umbrella of women and leadership in public relations by proposing a new theoretical framework of the influence of inclusive leadership on female public relations professionals’ (including racial minority women) perceived empowerment and career growth opportunities. Particularly, we examined the possibilities of two contextual factors at the organizational level: organizational diversity climate and its practice of participative leadership, as the mediating mechanism linking inclusive leadership to empowerment and career growth opportunities.

To achieve the purpose of this research, we examined the instrumental role of inclusive leadership in enhancing women’s perceived career growth opportunities, both directly and indirectly. First, we confirmed inclusive leadership positively affects female professionals’ career growth opportunities by affirming their perceptions on future career growth and advancement. We further tested the direct impacts inclusive leadership could generate on organizational diversity climate and its practice of participative leadership. Our results also indicated that the integration of leader inclusiveness, organizational diversity climate, and organization’s practice of participative leadership could significantly build a positive impact on women’s career growth through their perceived empowerment. The unique contributions of this study are evidenced in both theoretical and practical implications to address the role of inclusive leadership theory in advancing DEI management in public relations.

Theoretical implications

Our findings contribute to the literature of women and leadership in public relations by demonstrating how leader inclusiveness is instrumental to helping women in public relations actualize their identities as empowered individuals with continued leadership advancement opportunities along career development. Although the scholarly contributions to the inclusive leadership literature have been criticized for having various definitions of the inclusiveness construct (Chrobot-Mason & Roberson, Chrobot-Mason and Roberson, 2021), it is critical for public relations scholars to recognize the potential contributions of inclusive leadership theoretical framework to gender and diversity research in public relations. The inclusive leadership framework can be embedded in a broader relational leadership theory in public relations research that allows us to reflect upon the urgent needs to improve, diversify, and enrich the public relations workforce within the complex dynamics of organizational life.

The efforts in advancing the inclusive perspective of public relations research to value and recognize the contributions of marginalized and underrepresented groups such as women and racial minorities best describe the nature of inclusive leadership theory as a social construct with the notion that it can be both learned and developed (Edmondson, 1996, 2003). From this perspective, our research enriches the theory development efforts in public relations research by confirming the critical instrumental role of inclusive leadership in enhancing female professionals’ perceptions on their career advancement and empowerment.

In addition, our research also highlights the importance of considering inclusive leadership within the broader context of organizational environment by examining the interplays between leader inclusiveness and organization’s diversity climate and its practice of participative leadership. Although there is a long tradition of studying inclusive leadership in conjunction with various antecedent conditions (Meng, 2014; Meng & Berger, 2021; Roberson, 2006), our research presents a new way to underscore the need to embrace inclusive leadership first within the inclusion framework. Thus, with the establishment of inclusive leadership, organizations’ policies and practices of participative leadership and building a diversity climate could be possible and effective. Furthermore, evidence identified with these supportive institutional factors lend support to build the integrated view of inclusive leadership and its impacts on women’s perceived empowerment and growth opportunities in a consistent theoretical framework.

To date, research on the impact of inclusive leadership has largely focused on the relational perspective through leader-follower interactions (Hollander, 2009; Shore et al., 2011; Uhl-Bien, 2006). Some more recent research has studied inclusive leadership in relation to other organizational outcomes (e.g., Edmondson, 2003; Nembhard & Edmondson, 2006). Public relations theorists can benefit from previous research on inclusive leadership by building a unique theoretical framework of inclusive leadership, which can address the benefits that diversity can bring to the profession, the powerful influencing process that inclusive leadership can insert to reduce inequalities and discrimination in the workplace, and the positive vision it can foster to replace undesired policies and systems.

Finally, this study provides a more comprehensive view of the influence of inclusive leadership by considering several contextual factors within the organization. In this case, it presents strong evidence that the practice of inclusive leadership shall emphasize the shared responsibility and vision of every unit in the organization to ensure the success (Chrobot-Mason & Roberson, Chrobot-Mason and Roberson, 2021).

Practical implications

Our findings suggest that leaders in the organization demonstrating inclusive leadership behaviors and skills can observe measurable benefits at multiple levels. At the organizational level, leader inclusiveness presents a positive and strong influence on organization’s policies on DEI initiatives. It urges the organization to invite underrepresented groups to participate and be actively involved in the decision-making processes. At the individual level, inclusive leadership is demonstrated to facilitate female professionals in public relations to feel empowered as it is a powerful and conducive leadership style to invite dialogue, show availability, and demonstrate accessibility (Carmeli et al., 2010). To put these principles into practice, communication leaders can learn and develop inclusive skills by encouraging women and other racial minorities to bring different experiences and perspectives to the workplace, offering women to take on leadership roles on various tasks, and empowering women with more important line responsibilities that can lead to top executive positions.

Finally, the practical implications of this study extend beyond women in public relations. It is important to note that leader inclusiveness is important not only to women but also to all other underrepresented groups and racial minorities, in order to build consistency and support. Consistency between leader inclusiveness and organization’s practices should be constantly checked with regular communication between organizational leaders and underrepresented work groups. Choi et al. (2017) confirmed inclusive leadership can be learned and developed to encourage open communication that positively affects followers’ loyalty and trust. In terms of more widespread impact to the public relations profession, inclusive leadership jointly supported by a widely recognized diversity climate and consistently reinforced participative leadership may have positive benefits for society to “actualize the possibilities of a practice serving the interests and voices of many” as suggested by the empowerment theory in public relations (Berger, 2005).

Limitations and future research

Although our study provides a strong theoretical and methodological foundation in understanding the role of inclusive leadership in supporting women in public relations in empowerment and leadership advancement, our analysis is not exempt from limitations that future research should take into consideration. We acknowledge that we used self-reported measures from an all-female panel to test the hypotheses, which focused on respondents’ perceptions. Although this may raise the possibility of respondents engaging in cynicism-related reporting tendency, our purposeful and stratified sampling strategies nationwide is likely to have decreased potential biases. Future research could engage more efforts by using a combined qualitative and quantitative research design to address subtopics related to inclusive leadership.

As a study dedicated to the special issue of women and leadership in public relations, we also fully recognize the limited generalizability of our results to the broader public relations profession. In future studies, the scope of inclusive leadership theoretical framework should go beyond women in public relations. Instead, the range of samples should be expanded to include more marginalized and underrepresented groups as leader inclusiveness is acutely important to them. Future research should also examine other potential outcomes to expand our understanding of the role of inclusive leadership in a rapidly changing and multicultural working environment in public relations. Although we have adapted the measures of previous research on inclusive leadership (Nembhard & Edmondson, 2006) to test the perceptions in this study, the results also open more opportunities for future research to explore and test specific behaviors and styles by communication leaders that can facilitate inclusive leadership.

Overall, despite these limitations, our research presents an important step in theory building in public relations research by emphasizing the important impact of inclusive leadership on organizational environment and exploring how it could affect women in public relations to achieve empowerment and career advancement. We hope that our study will inspire more research in the future to deepen our understanding of inclusive leadership and gender research in public relations.

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.