Main Article Content
Abstract
This paper examines the impact of reflective leadership on workplace belongingness, with a particular focus on gender differences. Through a combined approach of thematic and quantitative analyses, the study explores the factors that contribute to workplace belongingness and investigates potential variations in these factors based on gender. The findings reveal that reflective leadership positively influences workplace belongingness, with employees perceiving higher levels of reflective leadership in their leaders reporting higher levels of belongingness. The study identifies a safe environment, open communication, and challenging beliefs and assumptions as significant components of reflective leadership that impact workplace belongingness. The thematic analysis highlights the importance of psychological safety, effective communication, the value of work and purpose, and openness to change in fostering workplace belongingness. The quantitative analysis further reveals that the relationship between reflective leadership and workplace belongingness is stronger for female employees compared to male employees. The study emphasizes the need to consider gender-specific factors when promoting workplace belongingness, and it suggests strategies for organizations and leaders to create a positive work environment that enhances belongingness. These strategies include fostering a safe and supportive environment, promoting open communication, encouraging critical thinking, and implementing gender-specific initiatives and policies. The findings contribute to the existing literature by shedding light on the complex relationship between reflective leadership, workplace belongingness, and gender. Overall, promoting workplace belongingness contributes to improved employee well-being, satisfaction, engagement, and organizational performance.
Article Details
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
References
Braun, V., & Clarke, V. (2006). Using thematic anal-ysis in psychology. Qualitative research in psychology, 3(2), 77-101. https://doi.org/10.1191/1478088706qp063oa
Byrd, M. Y. (2022). Creating a culture of inclusion and belongingness in remote work environ-ments that sustains meaningful work. Human Resource Development International, 25(2), 145-162. https://doi.org/10.1080/13678868.2022.2047252
Creswell, J. W., & Clark, V. L. P. (2017). Designing and conducting mixed methods research. Sage publications.
Devecchi, C., & Potter, J. (2020). The reflective edu-cational change leader: concluding remarks on a journey into delivering educational change. In Delivering Educational Change in Higher Education (pp. 189-199). Routledge.
Eagly, A. H., & Johnson, B. T. (1990). Gender and leadership style: A meta-analysis. Psychological bulletin, 108(2), 233. https://doi.org/10.1037/00332909.108.2.233
Edmondson, A. C., & Roloff, K. S. (2008). Overcom-ing barriers to collaboration: Psychological safety and learning in diverse teams. In Team effectiveness in complex organizations (pp. 217-242). Routledge.
Egleston, D., Castelli, P. A., & Marx, T. G. (2017). De-veloping, validating, and testing a model of reflective leadership. Leadership & Organiza-tion Development Journal. https://doi.org/10.1108/LODJ-09-2016-0230
Enwereuzor, I. K. (2021). Diversity climate and workplace belongingness as organizational facilitators of tacit knowledge shar-ing. Journal of Knowledge Management. https://doi.org/10.1108/JKM-10-2020-0768
Fritz, C., & van Knippenberg, D. (2020). Gender and leadership aspiration: Supervisor gender, support, and job control. Applied Psycholo-gy, 69(3), 741-768. https://doi.org/10.1111/apps.12197
George, D., & Mallery, P. (2016). IBM SPSS Statistics 23 step by step: A simple guide and reference (14th ed.). New York, NY: Routledge.
Hau, E. J. (2023). Workplace belongingness: the effect of perceptions of supervisor support, perceived role discretion, and perceptions of psychological safety on perceptions of be-longingness at work. http://dx.doi.org/10.26021/14259
Katsaros, K. K. (2022). Exploring the inclusive leadership and employee change participa-tion relationship: the role of workplace be-longingness and meaning-making. Baltic Journal of Management. https://doi.org/10.1108/BJM-03-2021-0104
Lawson, K. M., Barrineau, M., Woodling, C. M., Rug-gles, S., & Largent, D. L. (2023). The Impact of COVID-19 on US Computer Science Faculty’s Turnover Intentions: The Role of Gender. Sex Roles, 88(7), 383-396. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11199-023-01361-1
Maida, A., & Weber, A. (2022). Female leadership and gender gap within firms: Evidence from an Italian board reform. Ilr Review, 75(2), 488-515. https://doi.org/10.1177/00197939209619
Pathak, D., & Srivastava, S. (2020). Journey from passion to satisfaction: roles of belonging-ness and psychological empowerment: A study on social workers. International Journal of Sociology and Social Policy. https://doi.org/10.1108/IJSSP-11-2019-0237
Pradhan, R. K., & Jena, L. K. (2017). Employee per-formance at workplace: Conceptual model and empirical validation. Business Perspec-tives and Research, 5(1), 69-85. https://doi.org/10.1177/2278533716671630
Qin, Y. S., DiStaso, M. W., Fitzsimmons, A., Heffron, E., & Men, L. R. (2022). How purpose-driven organizations influenced corporate actions and employee trust during the global COVID-19 pandemic. International Journal of Strate-gic Communication, 16(3), 426-443. https://doi.org/10.1080/1553118X.2022.2050239
Tajfel, H., Turner, J. C., Austin, W. G., & Worchel, S. (1979). An integrative theory of intergroup conflict. Organizational identity: A read-er, 56(65), 9780203505984-16.
Titus, O. F. (2022). Book Review: Leading wisely: Becoming a Reflective Leader in Turbulent times.
van Zyl, B. (2022). The value of mentoring in sup-porting career progression and a sense of be-longing for Black social workers, when work-ing in a predominantly White-dominant pro-fession. International Journal of Evidence Based Coaching and Mentoring, (S16), 3-15. https://doi.org/10.24384/221x-bw13
Waller, L. (2020). Fostering a sense of belonging in the workplace: Enhancing well-being and a positive and coherent sense of self. The Pal-grave handbook of workplace well-being, 1-27. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-02470-3_83-1