Inclusive leadership and employee workplace well-being: the role of vigor and supervisor developmental feedback

Employees within organizations actively pursue and maintain their workplace well-being. Although there are current studies that have examined the linking inclusive leadership to employee workplace well-being, the underlying intrinsic link between the two remains unclear. On the basis of self-determination theory, this research examined the relationship between inclusive leadership, vigor, supervisor developmental feedback, and workplace well-being.

Data were collected from 61 teams that totaled 342 full-time employees through a 3-stage questionnaire. Multilevel Structural Equation Modeling and Monte Carlo simulations were conducted on data for hypothesis testing.

Inclusive leadership positively correlated with employee workplace well-being. Employee vigor mediates the link between inclusive leadership and employee workplace well-being. Supervisor developmental feedback moderated the relationship between inclusive leadership and employee vigor.

Inclusive leadership can improve employees’ workplace well-being by stimulating their vigor. Therefore, managers need to be able to effectively meet employees’ basic needs to stimulate their vigor. Based on meeting employees’ basic needs, managers can also provide targeted developmental feedback to meet employees’ growth needs, which can more effectively promote employees’ vigor and workplace well-being.