The relationship between inclusive leadership, organizational justice, work engagement and organizational citizenship behavior in healthcare workers

Purpose Based on social exchange theory, this study aims to determine the relationship between inclusive leadership in their managers and organizational justice perceived by healthcare workers and work engagement and organizational citizenship behavior. Design/methodology/approach A cross-sectional and correlational study was performed by healthcare workers ( n = 330) working in a city hospital for at least six months in Türkiye. Descriptive statistics, correlation and regression analysis were used in data analysis. The hypotheses were tested using Hayes’ PROCESS macro (v4.1). Findings It was determined that inclusive leadership had a positive significant effect on organizational justice, work engagement and organizational citizenship behavior; and organizational justice had a positive significant effect on work engagement and organizational citizenship behavior. In addition, it was found that work engagement also had a significant effect on organizational citizenship behavior. It was found that organizational justice had a partial mediating role between inclusive leadership and work engagement, while its mediating role between inclusive leadership and organizational citizenship behavior was not statistically significant. In addition, work engagement was found to have a partial mediating role in the effect of inclusive leadership on organizational citizenship behavior. Research limitations/implications The limitations of this study can be summarized as follows: First, the data were collected from the employees in a hospital based on the self-reports of the participants. The fact that the study used a cross-sectional design limited the establishment of a causal relationship between variables. Since the study was planned during the COVID-19 period, the participants were reached through convenience sampling. Isolation measures due to the pandemic led to a lower response rate than expected. To reveal more generalizable results, it may be recommended to collect the data at different periods in future studies and to include different types of healthcare institutions. Practical implications Inclusive leadership of the healthcare managers will lead to positive employee outcomes by preventing the disadvantages brought by internal conflict in the work environment. Originality/value This study indicates that managers’ inclusive leadership style will improve perceived organizational justice and work engagement and will lead employees to exhibit the desired extra-role behavior, such as organizational citizenship behavior.