Leadership and Follower Voice: The Role of Inclusive Leadership and Group Faultlines in Promoting Collective Voice Behavior

We developed and tested a theoretical model to examine how and when inclusive leadership affected collective voice behavior in this study. We identified two voice-relevant mediators—group psychological safety (an emergent state) and information elaboration (a group process) to clarify the mechanisms between inclusive leadership and collective voice behavior. Further, according to the person–situation interaction approach, we brought the faultlines theory to the inclusive leadership literature and considered group faultlines as a positive moderator to maximize the effects of inclusive leadership. With a two-wave, two-source design, we collected data from 301 employees within 67 research and development groups in China. We found that inclusive leadership positively affected collective voice behavior through the mediating mechanisms of both group psychological safety and information elaboration. Additionally, this effect was stronger in high faultlines situation. The findings suggest that leaders should show inclusiveness to motivate collective voice, especially in groups with high faultlines.

Moving Beyond a Categorical Approach to Diversity: The Role of Demographic Faultlines

Recent research has suggested a conciliation of the different approaches to conceptualizing diversity through a theory of group faultlines, which are dividing lines that may split a group into subgroups based on the alignment of demographic attributes. This chapter will discuss the theory underlying faultlines and the findings of research in this area. Further, it will argue for how multi-attribute conceptualizations of diversity may be used to more accurately represent complex interactions between people and allow for more appropriate tests of the effects of heterogeneity in groups. This chapter concludes with a number of questions that faultline researchers may consider in the future.