Inclusive Leadership and Innovative Work Behaviour: Empirical Evidence From the Indian Hospitality Industry

Introduction

The hospitality industry is constantly evolving. As the world becomes gradually more interconnected and technologically advanced, hotels are finding it extremely difficult to keep up with the ever-changing demands of their customers and their changing expectations. Offering the same services and products in a similar manner does not please their clients, as what is novel and innovative today will eventually become ordinary (Ko, 2015). Because of this, hotels view innovation as a key strategy for competing with the rising competition and as a weapon of excellence (Al-Ababneh, 2015). In order to boost an organization's innovativeness and ensure long-term progress, especially in the service industry, it is critical to support its employees' innovative behaviour (Li et al., 2016). For a business that relies heavily on human resources, the hospitality industry has the potential to benefit from the innovative behaviour of its employees.

Customers' dynamic desires have created an urgent need for enterprises to explore new approaches to foster innovation (Hu et al., 2017). Evidence from past studies suggests that employees are crucial in driving innovation and ensuring a company's success in the long term (Lee and Wong, 2017). Personnel utilise their skills while simultaneously engaging in discretionary behaviour, which leads to the conception, development, and adoption of novel concepts (Naqshbandi et al., 2019; Theurer et al., 2018). Therefore, these roles have an impact on how innovative workers behave (Javed et al., 2017). Further, leadership is seen as a vital element in reinforcing employees' independent functioning and has been demonstrated to encourage employees' innovative behaviour at work (Khalili, 2016; Mahmood et al., 2019). Since it forms the basis for employees' innovative work behaviours, the inclusive leadership perspective is especially well-suited for creating innovative settings (Choi et al., 2015; Weintraub and McKee 2019). Employees' innovative work behaviour can be explained as the voluntary extra-role effort that personnel make to benefit their employer over time (Eid & Agag, 2020; Zhang et al., 2021). Corporate leaders must promote and support innovative work behaviours among their workforce, though, by utilising inclusive leadership strategies.

Nembhard and Edmondson (2006) explained inclusive leadership as “leaders' positive behaviour that motivates people to contribute to the organization.” Personnel are more likely to consider themselves included in their job duties when they feel psychologically safe as a result of mutually advantageous exchange relationships with their supervisors (Javed et al., 2019). Psychological safety is a state in which people are free to express themselves without worrying about the possible repercussions on their self-perception, social standing, or professional prospects (Kahn, 1990). It is possible for employees to believe that they are receiving favourable treatment from the organisation if they are supported and helped by inclusive leaders (Carmeli et al., 2010; Nembhard & Edmonson, 2006). Carmeli et al. (2010) examined the effects of inclusive leadership, and the results suggested that inclusive leadership enhanced psychological safety. Employees' views of psychological safety are highly influenced by the associations between superiors and subordinates, particularly those felt by employees. Being able to create a suitable work atmosphere that allows for indirect information sharing can have an effect on employees' psychological safety (van der Berg, 2010).