Application of SPSS in the Analysis of Ways to Promote Employees’

Work Engagement

Chunlan Hou

1,2

, Lili Song

1,2

and Yong Wang

1,2,*

Key Laboratory of Mental Health, Institute of Psychology, CAS, Beijing 100101, China

Department of Psychology, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100049, China

Keywords: SPSS Statistical Analysis, Inclusive Leadership, Psychological Capital, Power Distance Orientation, Work

Engagement.

Abstract: As an effective tool for data analysis, SPSS (Statistical Product and Service Solutions) is an integrated

computer data processing software with powerful statistical functions and extremely large content, which has

been widely used in the fields of education, scientific research, communication, medical and commerce. In

this study, the correlation between inclusive leadership, employee work engagement, psychological capital,

and power distance orientation was analyzed through SPSS22.0 statistical software, and further quantitative

analysis was conducted through the plug-in Process embedded in SPSS, in order to verify the promotion role

of inclusive leadership in employee work engagement, the mediating role of psychological capital and the

moderating role of power distance orientation. The inclusive leadership scale, the work engagement scale, the

psychological capital questionnaire (PCQ-12, the short version of PCQ-24), and the power distance

orientation scale were used to measure 300 employees at three time points in this study. The results show that:

(1) Inclusive leadership significantly was positively related to employee’s work engagement; (2)

Psychological capital mediated the relationship between inclusive leadership and work engagement; (3)

Power distance orientation further moderated the indirect effect of psychological capital on inclusive

leadership and psychological capital. Specifically, with the increase of employees’ power distance orientation,

the role of inclusive leadership in promoting work engagement through psychological capital weakened. In

other words, inclusive leadership can promote work engagement by enhancing employees’ psychological

capital, which is more evident among employees with low power distance orientation.

1 INTRODUCTION

Interdisciplinary integration is an inevitable trend of

the development of science and education in the

world, as well as the current characteristics of the

times and the source of innovation. With the

economic growth and social progress, computer

technology has been widely used in many fields and

also played a significant role in promoting enterprise

management. The application and promotion of

computer technology are keeping pace with the times,

which demonstrates the development and progress of

the times, and provides great convenience for

enterprise management; in particular, the analysis and

processing of data by computer technology provides

an important basis for enterprise management

decisions and promotes the improvement of

efficiency (

Peng, Zou, 2017). As an integrated

computer data processing application analysis

software, SPSS belongs to an effective means of

current data analysis (

Wang 2018), and also meets the

increasingly urgent need for empirical quantitative

research support in enterprise management practice.

Therefore, in response to the trend of enterprise

management and multidisciplinary combination, this

study used the SPSS statistical software and its plug-

in Process to explore the ways to promote employees'

work engagement and the boundary conditions

(power distance orientation) under which inclusive

leadership promotes employee work engagement

through employees’ psychological capital, which is

of great significance to help us better understand

under what circumstances inclusive leadership can

improve employees' psychological capital, thus

promoting work engagement. By doing so, this study

also contributes to providing insights for enterprise

management.

Hou, C., Song, L. and Wang, Y.

Application of SPSS in the Analysis of Ways to Promote Employees’ Work Engagement.

DOI: 10.5220/0011195400003440

In Proceedings of the International Conference on Big Data Economy and Digital Management (BDEDM 2022), pages 605-615

ISBN: 978-989-758-593-7

605

Work engagement is defined as a positive,

fulfilling, work-related state of mind that is

characterized by vigor, dedication, and absorption

(Schaufeli, et al., 2002), and it is also defined as a

persistent state of psychological behavior that

includes positive emotional experiences, sensitive

cognition, and a highly aroused physical state when

an individual faces work (Hu, Wang, 2014). In the era

of economic globalization and increasingly complex

business environment, market demand is changing

rapidly, and enterprises are required to be more

flexible, faster, and more efficient; the degree of

workforce diversity is also enhanced with the

increase in cross-geographical mobility, and

differentiation in human capital such as employees’

job skills, values, and autonomy needs has gradually

emerged with the rise of a new generation of

employees (Mor Barak, 2014, Benson, Hardy, Eys,

2016). Especially in the era of a knowledge-based

economy, knowledge-based employees have an

increasing need for job autonomy and differentiation

(Gao, Sun, 2015), and organizations are facing

increasingly severe challenges in their daily

management. The report 2018 Trends in Global

Employee Engagement released by AON also shows

that global employee engagement reached 65% in

2017, an increase of 2% over 2016 and the same as

2015. It is evident that the overall work enthusiasm

and work engagement of global employees have not

yet reached a high level.

To deal with the management of diverse

employees, scholars have proposed the strategy of

inclusive management. Since “inclusive

development” was proposed at the 2011 annual

meeting of the Boao Forum for Asia (BFA), an

emerging leadership style, inclusive leadership, has

been gaining attention. According to Hollander

(Hollander 2009), an inclusive leader always supports

subordinates, cares about their welfare, emotions and

expectations, focuses on open communication, and

encourages and appreciates their innovative

contributions; under the “inclusive leadership”

relationship, the leaders and the subordinates aim to

achieve a win-win situation and accomplish tasks

together, which reflects that working with others is an

essential characteristic of inclusiveness; at the same

time, the two-way influence between leaders and

subordinates relies on mutual respect, recognition,

responsiveness, and responsibility. Related studies

have shown that inclusive leadership significantly

promotes employees’ Organizational Citizenship

Behavior (OCB) (Nembhard, Edmondson, 2006) and

that employees can obtain more emotional and

economic resources through interaction with

inclusive leaders, but they also need to undertake the

obligation to give back to leaders; therefore,

employees may be more likely to conduct behaviors

that facilitate the realization of organizational

performance goals for which the leader is accountable

(Choi, et al., 2017). According to Mohamed et al.

(2016), leaders who regularly care about their

employees’ work and life will influence their

employees’ work engagement through leadership

motivation. Support, respect, encouragement, and

recognition are important characteristics of inclusive

leadership, while Ceyde Maden found that leadership

empowerment and motivation can influence feedback

findings through work engagement (Ceyda Maden,

2015). To sum up, this study proposes the research

hypothesis H1: Inclusive leadership is positively

correlated with employees’ work engagement.

Being open, amiable, tolerant, and supportive, an

inclusive leader encourages differentiated individuals

to fully express themselves (Nembhard, Edmondson,

2006), deals with errors in a timely manner, improves

employees’ level of error competence, promotes

building an atmosphere of error management in the

organization (Li, Wang, 2018), and significantly

improves the psychological capital of employees

(Fang, Wang, 2016). Psychological capital is a

positive state of psychological development shown

by individuals in the process of growth and

development (Luthans, et al., 2007a), which is

specifically manifested in the following four aspects:

‘Self-efficacy’ -- an individual has the confidence and

makes necessary efforts to succeed in face of

challenges; ‘Optimism’ -- an individual has positive

attributions for present and future success and assigns

a positive interpretation to success; ‘Hope’ -- an

individual perseveres with his/her goal, adjusting

his/her approach when necessary in order to achieve

success; ‘Resilience’ -- an individual can persevere,

recover quickly and surpass when troubled and in

adversity, change the path of goal achievement

correctly when necessary, and adapt to the constant

change in order to succeed. Psychological capital is a

core positive psychological element that can be

effectively developed and managed and that has a

significant impact on individual performance

((Luthans, et al., 2007b) and positively predicts work

engagement(Liu, et al., 2013, Pan, et al, 2017, Lang,

Wang, Liu, 2019, Wang, et al., 2020). To this end, the

study shows that inclusive leadership is positively

correlated with employees’ psychological capital,

which in turn is positively correlated with employees’

work engagement. Therefore, this study proposes the

research hypothesis H2: Psychological capital plays a

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mediating role in inclusive leadership and work

engagement.

Power distance orientation refers to the extent to

which individuals accept the unequal distribution of

power in institutions and organizations based on

power distance (Hofstede, 2001, Farh, et al., 2007).

Under the influence of traditional Confucianism

culture, China is a country with high power distance

(Hofstede 2001); in Chinese organizations, there is

always an insurmountable hierarchical relationship

between leaders and subordinates, the subordinates’

compliance with authority is fully reflected (Wang,

Zhang, 2012), and leaders also tend to adopt

paternalistic leadership (Fan, Zheng, 2000). Related

studies have found that the same type of leader and

leadership behaviors vary significantly in their

effectiveness in actual organizational management.

For example, open leadership makes subordinates

with low power distance orientation feel close and

recognized, whereas, for employees with high power

distance orientation, such behavior will make them

feel at a loss (Triandis 1996). Employees with high

power distance orientation pay more attention to the

hierarchical difference between them and their

leaders. They believe that the affable and humorous

behavior of leaders is inconsistent with the traditional

authoritarian leadership style and undermines their

image of leadership; they may even perceive such

leadership as weak and ineffective, and therefore they

do not believe that working under such a leader will

bring them the sense of accomplishment, and it is thus

difficult to drive their intrinsic motivation (Romero,

Cruthirds, 2006, Yang, et al., 2017). Employees with

high power distance orientation have difficulty

accepting positive behaviors from their leaders

because for them it is an attempt by the leader to draw

closer to employees (Zhang, Huai, 2012). However,

for employees with low power distance orientation,

inclusive and amicable leaders, who establish a

relaxed and open working relationship with

employees and weaken hierarchical differences, are

more likely to motivate them (Romero, Cruthirds,

2006, Yang, et al., 2017). In this regard, the higher

the power distance orientation, the weaker the

positive effect of inclusive leadership on employees’

inner psychological state, and the weaker the positive

effect on psychological capital, which is the fourth

major capital for corporate development in addition

to the three major capitals of finance, human and

social capital; accordingly, the contribution of

inclusive leadership to work engagement is

diminished by the indirect effect of psychological

capital. Therefore, this study proposes the research

hypothesis H3: Employees’ power distance

orientation negatively moderates the relationship

between inclusive leadership and psychological

capital.

Combining H2 and H3, H4 was further proposed

in this study: Power distance orientation negatively

moderates the mediating role of psychological capital

between inclusive leadership and work engagement.

The overall hypothetical model framework is shown

in Figure 1.

Figure 1: Hypothesized Model

2 RESEARCH OBJECTS AND

TOOLS

2.1 Participants and Procedures

In October 2020, the link to the online questionnaire

was distributed to employees. In order to increase the

return rate and accuracy of the questionnaire,

employees were rewarded with a bonus incentive and

free feedback containing career development advice

related to the results. Data were recovered in three

periods, with an interval of a month. In the first phase,

the respondents were asked to evaluate the style of

inclusive leadership of their immediate supervisors,

and demographic variables were collected; in the

second phase, the respondents evaluated their

psychological capital and power distance orientation;

in the third stage, the work engagement questionnaire

was completed. After the data of those respondents

who did not answer seriously, a total of 300 valid

matching samples of questionnaires were recovered

three times.

Inclusive

Leadership

Work

Engagement

Psychological

Capital

Power Distance

Orientation

Application of SPSS in the Analysis of Ways to Promote Employees’ Work Engagement

607

2.2 Measures

Inclusive leadership was measured using 16 items

by Hollander (2009). All items were measured on a

5-point scale ranging from “1” = “strongly disagree”

to “7” = “strongly agree”. Representative items

include “my immediate supervisor highly appreciates

my work contributions (support and recognize)”, “my

immediate supervisor treats everyone equally (fair

communication)”, and “my immediate supervisor

often makes uncomfortable comments (self-

disrespect, reverse scoring)”. The Cronbach’s ɑ

coefficient for this scale in the study was 0.74.

Work engagement was measured using the short

9-item Work Engagement Scale (Schaufeli et al.,

2006). All items were measured by the respondents

on a scale ranging from “0” = “never” to “6” =

“always”. The scale contains three dimensions: vigor,

dedication, and absorption. Representative items

include “I feel strong and energetic at work”, “I am

passionate about my work”, and “my work inspires

me”. The Cronbach’s ɑ coefficient for this scale in the

study was 0.92.

Psychological capital was measured using the

short version of the Psychological Capital

Questionnaire (PCQ-24), the PCQ-12 scale, by

Luthans et al. Among these, three items measure self-

efficacy, four items measure hope, two items measure

optimism, and three items measure resilience. There

were 12 items on a 6-point scale ranging from “1” =

“strongly disagree”, “2” = “disagree”, “3” = “slightly

disagree”, “4” = “slightly agree”, “5” = “agree”, and

“6” = “strongly agree”. Representative items include

“in meetings with management, I am confident in

presenting what is within my scope of work”, “I

believe I can contribute to the discussion of the

company’s strategy”, and “for now, I consider myself

quite successful at my work”. The Cronbach’s ɑ

coefficient for this scale in the study was 0.86.

Power distance orientation was developed by

Dorfman and Howell (1988), with 6 entries. All items

were measured on a 5-point scale ranging from “1” =

“strongly disagree” to “5” = “strongly agree”.

Representative items include “in interaction with

subordinates, it is necessary for managers to use their

power position frequently to exert pressure”, and

“employees should not disagree with managers’

decisions at work”. The Cronbach’s ɑ coefficient for

this scale in the study was 0.77.

Demographic variables were designed by the

researchers themselves and included gender, age, city

of residence, education level, marital status, job

status, job position, nature of unit, seniority, etc.

2.3 Statistical Analysis Methods and

Procedures

After the invalid questionnaires were eliminated, the

questionnaires were checked and organized in this

study, and numbered and analyzed using SPSS 22.0

statistical software and the Process plug-in embedded

in SPSS. The process is shown in Figure 2.

Figure 2 SPSS Analysis Flow Chart

3 RESULTS

3.1 Demographic Data and Variable

Correlation Analysis

Table 1 shows the basic demographic information

statistics of the samples in this study. The correlation

analysis revealed (see Table 2) that inclusive

leadership is positively correlated with work

engagement (r =0.

436, p < 0.01

), which initially

validated H1.

3.2 Regression Analysis

To further verify H1, the authors conducted

regression analysis with inclusive leadership as the

independent variable, work engagement as the

dependent variable, and gender, education level,

seniority, and nature of unit as control variables. The

results found that inclusive leadership positively

predicts work engagement B = 0.72, SE = 0.088, p <

0.001), so H1 holds true.

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Table 1: Results for Demographic Data (N=300).

Basic Information

Frequency Percentage

Gender Male 137 45.70%

Female 163 54.30%

Age 20-29 98 32.70%

30-39 163 54.30%

40-49 33 11%

Above 50 6 2%

Education

Level

High

School/Vocational High

School/Junior High School

12 4%

Junior College 40 13.30%

Bachelor’s Degree 228 76%

Master’s Degree or Above 20 6.70%

Marital

Status

Single 52 17.33%

Married 239 79.67%

Cohabitation 7 2.33%

Divorced or Widowe

20.6%

Monthly

Salary

Below 3,000 6 2.00%

3000-5000 38 12.67%

5000-8000 79 26.33%

8000-10000 63 21.00%

10000-15000 89 29.67%

15000-20000 17 5.67%

Over 2,0000 8 2.67%

Job Category Ordinary Employee 104 34.67%

Junior Manage

110 36.67%

Middle Manager 71 23.67%

Senior Manage

15 5.00%

Nature of

Unit

Private Enterprise 173 57.67%

State-owned Enterprise 49 16.33%

Public Institutions 34 11.33%

Othe

s 44 14.67%

Seniority Below 1 Year 3 1.00%

1-3 32 10.67%

3-5 37

12.33%

5-10 121 40.33%

Above 10 107 35.67%

Table 2: Results of Variable Correlation Analysis (N=300).

Mean

SD 1 2 3 4 5 6 7

1. gende

1.54 0.5 1.00

2. Education

Level

3.85 0.58 0.02 1.00

3. Seniority 8.95 6.7 -0.13* -0.19** 1.00

4. Nature of

Unit

4.26 1.69 0.10 -0.04 0.05 1.00

5. Inclusive

Leadership T1

3.73 0.59 -0.11 0.11 -0.04 -0.08 1.00

6. Power

Distance

Orientation T2

2.36 0.74 -0.02 -0.01 -0.05 -0.02 -0.25** 1.00

Psychological

Capital T2

4.6 0.67 -0.25** 0.12* 0.13* -0.14* 0.49** -0.06 1.00

8.Work

Engagement

4.57 1.01 -0.18** 0.05 0.16** -0.14* 0.44** -0.13* 0.68**

Note: *p <0.05, **p < 0.01.

3.3 Validation of Mediating Effect

To validate H2, the authors used the Process

embedded in SPSS (Model, Hayes, 2017) for analysis

of the mediating role and confirmed the 95%

confidence interval for the mediating role using

Bootstrap sampling 5000 times. As shown in Table 3,

the results indicate that after gender, education level,

seniority and nature of unit are controlled, inclusive

leadership positively predicts psychological capital

(B = 0.524, SE = 0.056, p < 0.001), psychological

capital positively predicts work engagement (B =

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0.72, SE = 0.088, p < 0.001), and psychological

capital plays a partially mediating role in inclusive

leadership and work engagement (indirect effect

=0.4688, 95%CI = [0.3353,0.6213]), supporting H2.

Table 3: Analysis of Mediating Effect.

Psychological Capital T2 Work Engagement T3

B SE B SE

Gender -0.24 0.07 0.01 0.09

Education Level 0.11 0.06 -0.04 0.08

Seniority 0.02 0.01 0.01 0.01

Nature of Unit -0.04 0.02 -0.03 0.03

Inclusive

Leadership T1

0.52*** 0.06 0.72*** 0.09

Psychological

Capital T2

1.00*** 0.07

0.31***

0.49***

Note: *p < 0.05, **p < 0.01, ***p < 0.001.

3.4 Validation of Moderating Effect

To validate H3, the authors used Process Macro

embedded in SPSS (Model, Hayes, 2017) for analysis

of the moderating effect. As shown in Table 4, the

results indicate that after gender, education level,

seniority, and nature of unit are controlled, the

interaction between inclusive leadership and power

distance orientation can marginally significantly and

negatively predict psychological capital (B = -0.12,

SE = 0.071, p =0.09).

Table 4: Analysis of Moderating Effect.

Psychological Capital

B SE

Gender

-0.24 0.07

Education Level

0.10 0.06

Seniority

0.01 0.01

Unit -0.04 0.02

Inclusive

Leadership T1

0.55*** 0.06

Power Distance

Orientation T2

0.06 0.05

Inclusive

Leadership T1 *

Power Distance

Orientation T2

-0.12† 0.07

0.25

Note: † p < 0.1, *p <0.05, **p < 0.01, ***p < 0.001.

Further simple slope analysis showed that when

power distance orientation is low, the predictive

effect of inclusive leadership on psychological capital

is B = 0.6437, SE = 0.0921, p < 0.001; when power

distance orientation is high, the predictive effect of

inclusive leadership on psychological capital is B =

0.4419, SE = 0.0967, p < 0.001, indicating that as

employees’ power distance orientation increases, the

predictive effect of inclusive leadership on

psychological capital tends to decrease gradually, as

shown in Figure 3.

Figure 3: Design Sketch of the Moderating Role of Power

Distance Orientation.

3.5 The Moderated Mediation Model

With inclusive leadership as the independent

variable, work engagement as the dependent variable,

psychological capital as the mediating variable,

power distance orientation as a moderating variable,

and gender, education, seniority, and nature of unit as

control variables, the authors used the Process Macro

embedded in SPSS (model, Hayes, 2017) for the

testing of the mediating role model with moderation.

The results indicate that power distance orientation

plays a borderline significant moderating role in the

indirect effect of psychological capital on inclusive

leadership and work engagement. This is shown by

the significant indirect effect of psychological capital

in inclusive leadership and work engagement when

the level of power orientation is low (-1 SD) (indirect

effect = 0.6437, 95%CI = [0.4639, 0.8247]), and the

declined indirect effect of psychological capital when

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the level of power orientation is high (+1 SD)

(indirect effect =0.4419, 95%CI = [0.2718, 0.6472]).

The overall result model is shown in Figure 4.

Figure 4: Schematic Diagram of the Mediating Model with

Moderation.

4 DISCUSSIONS

4.1 Theoretical Implications

This study responds to the current trend of focusing

on inclusive leadership behaviors and

multidisciplinary integration and explores that the

relationship between inclusive leadership,

psychological capital, power distance orientation, and

work engagement empirically through SPSS data

analysis software and its embedded Process has some

theoretical implications.

First of all, there is a positive contribution of

inclusive leadership to job performance, work

engagement, and psychological capital. As argued by

Shore et al. (2011), inclusive leadership not only

improves employees’ organizational identity, but also

promotes their job satisfaction and enhances

organizational performance. The findings of Fang

Yangchun’s study showed that inclusive leadership

can also influence team performance by enhancing

employees’ self-efficacy (Fang 2014, Fang, Jin,

2014) and significantly increasing their psychological

capital (2016) (Fang, Wang, 2016). Psychological

capital is considered to be a core positive

psychological element that can be effectively

exploited and managed and can have a significant

impact on individual performance (Luthans, et al,

2007b) and has a positive predictive effect on work

engagement (Liu, et al., 2013, Pan, et al., 2017, Lang,

Wang, Liu, 2019, Wang, et al., 2020). This study also

found that inclusive leadership is significantly

correlated with psychological capital and work

engagement, and inclusive leadership has a

significant effect on work engagement. The effect of

inclusive leadership on psychological capital and the

effect of psychological capital on work engagement

are both significant. This is consistent with the

findings of many previous researchers.

Second, this study found that the effect of

inclusive leadership differs among employees with

different power distance orientations. Inclusive and

amicable leaders build relaxed and open working

relationships with employees, weakening

hierarchical differences; this type of leadership can

have a greater motivational effect on employees with

low power distance orientation (Romero E J,

Cruthirds, 2006, Yang, et al., 2017). However, open

leadership can make subordinates with low power

distance orientation feel close and identified while

also making employees with high power distance

orientation feel at a loss (Triandis 1996). Little is

known in previous studies about the boundary

conditions under which inclusive leadership

promotes employee work engagement through

employees’ psychological capital. Accordingly, the

moderating role of employee power distance

orientation is revealed in this study, which is a

theoretical contribution to the research in this field.

Thirdly, most previous studies on the mechanisms

and boundary conditions of the role of inclusive

leadership have been cross-sectional in nature. In

contrast, this study takes data in a time-phased

manner, which can, to some extent, avoid the bias of

a common approach and thus help to explore and

verify the relationship between variables in greater

depth.

Finally, the current research in various industries

requires a lot of data processing and analysis. In

particular, research in the direction of management

and psychology, which targets “people” and

“organizations”, requires a large amount of data and

empirical analysis. As an effective means of current

data analysis and an integrated computer data

processing application software, SPSS analysis

software can analyze the association between

different data in a more macroscopic manner, avoid

bias in empirical studies, and reveal the relationship

between different data in depth; in addition, SPSS can

effectively illustrate the relationships between

different data, explore the characteristics and inner

connections of the data, and allow the relevant

personnel to have an in-depth understanding of the

Work

Engagement

Psycholo

gical

Capital

Power Distance

Orientation

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611

events to judge whether the original data meet the

requirements of the application(Wang 2018).

SPSS combines the functions of

data organization,

analysis process, and output of results, including the

basic statistical module and some extension modules;

it can mainly perform basic statistical analysis, mean

comparison and test, analysis of variance, correlation

analysis, regression analysis, and non-parametric test

(Lu 2010). With the development of academic

research, the structures that researchers want to

explore are becoming more and more complex, so the

application of SPSS technology in empirical data

research needs to be constantly improved. Taking the

Process analysis module (e.g., Process, Hayes 2017)

as an example, it has greatly simplified the analysis

of mediating effects and also allows for a more

comprehensive presentation of results; at the same

time, it’s the automated processing of data prior to the

analysis of moderating effects also allows for the

processing of mediating and moderating effect

models with control variables. In particular, for

control variables, the Process is also specifically set

up by way of covariate processing. The process has

been greatly improved and enhanced in terms of data

analysis based on the original SPSS, which is of great

value and significance for empirical studies.

Therefore, the Process deserves more attention and

continuous improvement according to the needs,

thereby better meeting the higher requirements of

data analysis in the future.

4.2 Practical Implications

4.2.1 Organizational Teams Need to

Emphasize the Positive Role of

Inclusive Leadership

To motivate employee performance and other

organizational citizenship behaviors, it is necessary to

create an inclusive organizational culture that

encourages team leaders to manage their teams in an

“inclusive” manner. As the saying goes, “It’s easier

to recruit a thousand soldiers than to find a general to

command them”, it is important but challenging to

select the right team managers. In practice, it is found

that the best employees are not necessarily good

leaders, and an excellent leader may not play the same

role in every team. This is because there are

differences in leadership styles and organizational

climates required by different phases of the team,

varied types of tasks, or diverse characteristics of the

members. For example, when the power distance

orientation of team members is generally low, more

emphasis should be put on inclusive leadership; in the

early stages of teams and projects, due to unclear task

goals, unpredictable stress challenges, scarce

resources, and imperfect internal processes, the

inclusive and innovative team leaders may be more

likely to integrate the strengths of their teams and

achieve milestones. However, when a relatively

traditional or mature organization has clear operating

rules and process rules or a high-power distance

orientation of team members, the authoritative and

paternalistic leaders may be more likely to

communicate effectively and maintain good and

consistent team performance. What’s more, when

there are significant changes in milestones, team

development stages, and membership structure, it

may be necessary to adjust to a more appropriate

organizational leadership style in a timely manner. Of

course, in real organizations, the same team may also

have diverse employee forms or different sub-project

teams at different stages of development, which

requires leaders to apply targeted management styles

in front of the same organization and different types

of employees. This scenario is particularly common

in emerging industries and companies. This is why it

is important for current environments and

organizations to demand more and more from their

leaders. This is why the current environment and

organizations are increasingly demanding of leaders.

4.2.2 Organizations Need to Enhance the

Psychological Capital of Team

Members through Multiple

Perspectives

Research shows that psychological capital has a

positive effect on employees’ work attitudes,

performance, and organizational citizenship

behaviors; psychological capital is also dynamically

modifiable and is influenced not only by

demographic data dimensions, but also by

organizational climate, environment, leadership, and

personal experiences and even self-reinforcement

(

DEMEROUTI, et al, 2011, Cole, Daly, Mak, 2009). This

study also found a significant positive correlation

between psychological capital and work engagement.

Therefore, it is recommended to create a positive and

supportive organizational climate in the team

management process, to encourage employees to

draw positive strengths and resources from their past

life experiences and their own objective conditions

through developmental human resource management

and assessment, and to enhance their psychological

capital through continuous self-reinforcement.

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5 LIMITATIONS AND FUTURE

RESEARCH DIRECTIONS

Sample distribution. In this study, questionnaires

were mainly distributed and collected through the

internet. Due to the short time period and personal

capacity limitation, the effective matching sample is

only 300, so the data reference is limited. Relatively

speaking, the questionnaire spans a wide range of

industries, and the sample size of each industry is

small, which is not conducive to the analysis of

differences in variables between industries. At the

same time, the remote online questionnaire has lots of

problems, including the poor state of participants,

uncontrollable factors and environmental

interference, lack of contractual sense, and high data

errors and losses. This is also an obvious shortcoming

of online research as a convenient research method.

In the future, the interest and engagement of

participants can be enhanced by combining online

and offline methods or adding more attractive

interactions.

Relevant studies have proposed that there are

some boundary conditions and individual influencing

factors between psychological capital and leadership

style, such as physical distance (STORY et al. 2013),

procedural fairness (Sui et al 2012), the traditionality

of employee (Zhong, LF, et al, 2013), personal

effectiveness training (DEMEROUTI E, et al, 2011).

as well as individual education, experience, economic

and social status (e.g., financial status, social

position, social contract, time pressure), etc. (Cole,

Daly, Mak 2009). All these influencing factors have

a corresponding effect on psychological capital,

which in turn affect the moderating effect of power

distance orientation and the relationship between

inclusive leadership and work engagement under the

mediating effect of psychological capital. At present,

there are few studies on the degree and stability of

these influences, which can be used as a follow-up

research direction in order to provide more theoretical

reference and practical guidance for accurately

judging the influence of relevant dimensions.

The results of previous studies have shown that

the positive psychological state of work engagement

can also be transmitted to the individual’s life domain

and infect others. The positive emotions of work

engagement can be transmitted not only in the work

domain but also in the family domain (Rothbard

2001, Bakker, et al, 2005). Family factors, as well as

positive emotions in the organizational

environmental climate, can in turn positively

influence employees’ work engagement and

psychological capital, ultimately contributing to

improved performance and increased organizational

citizenship behavior and promoting a virtuous cycle

of family relationships and mutual reinforcement.

Therefore, the overflow and intersection of

employees’ positive state and organizational

citizenship behavior can also be used as the direction

of follow-up research, so as to enrich the relevant

research results, make them closer to the real

situation, and provide more practical guidance.

6 CONCLUSIONS

This study examined the relations among inclusive

leadership, power distance orientation, psychological

capital and employees' work engagement, revealing

that inclusive leadership significantly was positively

related to employee ’ s work engagement,

psychological capital mediated the relationship

between inclusive leadership and work engagement

and power distance orientation further moderated the

indirect effect of psychological capital on inclusive

leadership and psychological capital. Specifically,

with the increase of employees ’ power distance

orientation, the role of inclusive leadership in

promoting work engagement through psychological

capital weakened. That is to say, inclusive leadership

can promote work engagement by enhancing

employees ’ psychological capital, which is more

evident among employees with low power distance

orientation.

FUND PROJECT

Funded by National Natural Science Foundation of

China (NSFC71672186) and Institute of Psychology,

CAS (Y1CX193007)

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