Leadership and Inclusion Among Public Child Welfare Workers

Background:  In an effort to more closely reflect the populations they serve, leaders of public child welfare organizations have focused their efforts on recruiting a more diverse workforce.  Yet diversity can have beneficial (e.g., creativity, originality) as well as detrimental (e.g., misunderstanding, miscommunication) outcomes.  Recent research points to inclusion as key in channeling diversity into positive outcomes.  Although recent research provides evidence for the success of inclusion among diverse employees, little has been done to investigate whether or not leaders can directly influence employee sense of inclusion. We aim to make a unique contribution by specifically examining the relationship between leadership and inclusion among child welfare workers. More specifically, our study focused on the relationship between quality of the leader-member relationship and employees’ sense of inclusion, taking into account other important organizational factors, such as gender, race, ethnicity, job position, perception of fairness, and tenure with the organization. This information has the potential to highlight where to target workplace interventions aimed at creating an inclusive environment.

Method: The current study uses data from 363 public child welfare employees located in the western region of the United States. We first analyzed the difference in inclusion scores of employees who reported a good quality relationship with their leaders compared to those who reported poor relationship quality, using the LMX (leader-member exchange) measure. We then conducted a linear regression analysis to determine the association between LMX and inclusion, while controlling for other important work-related factors (i.e., perceptions of diversity, fairness, gender, ethnicity, position, and tenure). Analysis was conducted using SAS 9.3 statistical software. Existing measures with demonstrated validity and reliability were used for all constructs.

 

Results: The sample was diverse, with approximately 31% of the sample self-reported as Caucasian, 29% Latino, 22% African American, 12% Asian and 6% in the mixed racial/ethnic category. The initial t-test results indicated significant differences (t= -9.26, df=265, p<.001) in inclusion for employees who had a high quality LMX relationship (m= 64.98, se=10.15) compared to those who report a low quality LMX relationship (m= 52.73, se=10.30). Regression findings indicated that LMX (β= .76, t= 6.88, p<.001), perceptions of diversity (β= .23, t= 2.73, p=.01), and fairness (β= .27, t= 3.77, p<.001), were all significantly associated with inclusion, with LMX having the strongest association for increasing perceptions of inclusion.

 

Discussion/implications: Our study is among the first few to examine the relationship between leadership and inclusion, providing evidence for the important role child welfare leaders have in creating an inclusive environment. Previous research provided evidence for the positive outcomes of an inclusive work-place, such as increased job satisfaction and reduced conflict and turnover, and has motivated organizations to find ways to improve perceptions of inclusion among their employees. This study suggests that if leaders focus on improving the quality of their relationships with their supervisees they could contribute to a more inclusive organizational environment.