1. The Effect of Personality Traits on the
Relationship Between Inclusive
Leadership and LMX, and Its Outcomes
Research Project for the degree of Master of Science in Human Resource
Studies
Bella Mirzamagomedova
December 17, 2015

2. Why this topic ?
Novelty
 New interesting topic
 Mostly unresearched/not deeply researched
Originality
 explores diversity in terms of personality traits
Actuality
 this research appears when academic research
is particularly interested in various effects related
to inclusion

3. Research question:
‘To what extent does inclusive
leadership behavior affect OCB, job
satisfaction and job performance through
leader-member exchange relationship, and to
what extent does extraversion versus
introversion affect the relationship between
the inclusive leadership and leader-member
exchange relationship?’

4. What is….
Inclusive leadership
 A person, who leads/manages/supervises a group/team by
creating relationships with subordinates in order to
accomplish tasks for mutual interest, whereby the leader
collaborates rather than commands them (Hollander,
2009).
 An IL creates an environment of inclusion, where different
voices are respected and heard, diverse viewpoints are
valued, and everyone is encouraged to make a meaningful
contribution (Pless & Maak, 2004, p.130-131)
LMX
 Relationship between IL and a subordinate, where if the
employee is a member of an “in-group” – there is a high-
quality LMX between the leader and the employee.
 Employee is a member of an “out-group” – low-quality LMX
(Organ, 2006).

5. Inclusive leadership theory
 H1: The more the leader is inclusive, the higher is the leader-
member exchange relationship.
Social exchange theory
 H2: The higher the quality of LMX, the more employees will be likely
to engage in OCB.
 H3: The higher the quality of LMX, the higher the job satisfaction of
employees.
 H4: The higher the quality of LMX, the higher the job performance of
employees.
 H5: LMX partially mediates the relationship between inclusive
leadership and OCB, job satisfaction and job performance.
Conceptual model
Theories & Hypotheses I

6. Theories & Hypotheses II
Compensation of Resources Theory (COR)
 H6: The more the leader is inclusive, the higher is the leader-member
exchange relationship, whereby this relationship is moderated by
personality traits, such that the effect for introverts is stronger than for
extraverts.
 Hypothesized relationship between introverts and extraverts:

7. Methods
Participants (only working in teams)
 264 employees, 84 men (31.8%) and 180 women
(68.2%)
 Most respondent worked in the OC in Roermond
 The qualifications for participating were:
 Amount of members between 4 and 25
 Team members interact face-to-face
 Team members have both individual and common goals
 The team works exclusively in and for one organization
 The team works together for at least 3 months
 Team members are interdependent in their tasks
Measurement and procedure
 Existing scales were used
 In Dutch and in English (“forward- and back-translation”
method used by Degroot, Dannenburg, & Vanhell, 1994)
 Data collected via questionnaires in both Dutch and
English languages via Qualtrics and paper versions

8. Analyses
 Sequential regression analysis (for direct effects,
mediation and moderation)
 Conditional Process analysis by Hayes (Hayes,
2012) (for the moderated mediation, model 7)

9. Results H1 – H5
H1 supported by both analyses
 Inclusive leadership was positively associated with LMX (b = 1.26, t (220)
= 5.23, p < .001).
H2 rejected/not significant model
 LMX was not significantly associated with OCB (b = .01, t (220) = .25, p >
.5).
H3 was supported
 LMX was positively associated with job satisfaction (b = .23, t (220) =
2.88, p < .05). Additionally, IL was positively related to job satisfaction (b
= .15, t (220) = 2.04, p < .05).
H4 accepted
 LMX and job performance (β = .192, p < .01).
H5 partially accepted
 Only the positive relationship between IL and job satisfaction through
LMX was supported

10. Inclusive leadership LMX
Personality traits:
extraverts
OCB
Job satisfaction
.620***
.010
.040
Job performance
.179*
Age
Educational level
Service sector
-.008***
.116***
* p < .05; Sobel test: z-value = 1.177
**p < .01;
*** p < .001.
.180**
.253***
.235**
.133**
.170*
Direct effects (hypothesized)
Direct effect of IL (not hypothesized)
Effects of personality traits (not hypothesized)
Effects of age (not hypothesized)
Effects of educational level (not hypothesized)
Regression analysis for
mediation

11. Results H6
H6 incongruent results
 The results of the moderation in regression analysis supported H6:
personality traits were moderating the relationship between inclusive
leadership and LMX, and the effect for introverts was slightly stronger
than for extraverts (b = -.229, p= .001).
The moderating effect of personality traits on IL and LMX

12. Moderated mediation analysis
Inclusive leadership
Personality traits:
Introverts > extraverts
OCB
Job satisfaction
1.263***
-.019
.029
* p < .05;
**p < .01;
*** p < .001.
Job performance
.234*
LMX
-.229*
.265**
.218**
.806**
.177**
Age
Service sector
-.006**
-.005**
.444***
.156*
.114*
Direct effects (hypothesized)
Direct effect of IL (not hypothesized)
Effects of personality traits (not hypothesized)
Effects of age (not hypothesized)
Effects of service sector (not hypothesized)

13. Results H6
 The moderated mediation analysis conducted
in Process did not provide any support for the
moderated role of personality traits.
 The Index of the moderated mediation
showed no conditional indirect effect
moderated by personality traits in 1st analysis
(95% CI (-.04| .02); 2nd - (95% CI (-.15| .01); 3rd
- (95% CI (-.05| .01).

14. Additional findings
 Negative effect of age on job
performance, and OCB
 Positive relationship between
service sector and OCB
 Positive relationship between
education and job performance

15. Conclusion
 IL leads to high-quality leader member
exchange relationship between the
leader and subordinates.
 LMX leads to job satisfaction and job
performance
 IL leads to job satisfaction
 LMX mediates the positive relationship
between IL and job satisfaction
 Inconclusive results regarding
personality traits

16. Practical & Theoretical
Implications
 Confirms the usefulness to organize
various trainings/workshops in order to
create inclusive environments
 Provides strategies for effective
leaders
 Provides results that can be taken into
consideration by policy-makers to
create policies to encourage
supervisors to be inclusive
 Shows the importance of IL

17. Future research and
limitations
 Sample size
 Generalizability
 Variety of methods
 Research design
 More perspectives for objective
results
 More elements of the personality
traits
 Other/additional variables