Adopting active or passive leadership in project-based organizations? The role of inclusive leadership in remote work environment

Abstract

Currently, there is an academic debate on whether managers adopt active or passive leadership can enhance employees’ work performance in project-based organizations. This study introduces an inclusive leadership perspective to address this issue. Questionnaire survey was used to validate the theoretical model with data from Chinese project-based organizations. The findings reveal that managers’ adoption of active or passive leadership depends on employees’ work environment and their psychological traits. Inclusive leadership which combines the active and passive characteristics can enhance remote work performance, through improving employees’ self-leadership and reducing their family-work conflict. Results also indicate that employees’ psychological resilience stimulated by the adversities is a critical factor for mitigating the impact of family-work conflict on remote work performance. Additionally, this study highlights the issue of gender differences among employee in remote work context. Finally, this study provides valuable managerial suggestions for managers in project-based organizations to improve employees’ remote work performance.