Inclusive leadership and employees’ learning from errors: A moderated mediation model

Despite burgeoning interest in employees’ learning from errors in recent decades, the current understanding of the impact of leadership on employees’ learning from errors is still very limited. To fill this void, by integrating the role identity theory into the cost–benefit analysis framework, this study developed a moderated mediation model to investigate the effects of inclusive leadership on employees’ learning from errors and tested this model using data collected at two points in time from 206 employees in China. Consistent with our hypotheses, the results show that inclusive leadership was positively related to employees’ learning from errors and that this relationship was mediated by employees’ psychological safety. The results further demonstrated that employees’ power distance moderated the direct relationship between inclusive leadership and employees’ psychological safety and the indirect relationship between inclusive leadership and employees’ learning from errors through psychological safety in such a way that the relationships were stronger when the power distance was lower. These findings extend the relevant literature and have important implications for cross-cultural and diversity management. JEL classification code: M