Beyond Disability: Enhancing Employee Mattering Through Inclusive Leadership

Abstract

This paper examines the social inclusion of employees with disabilities through the interplay between inclusive leadership (IL) and work mattering (WM). Grounded in the social model of disability (Oliver 1990), the study adopts a systemic organizational view, emphasizing the role of leadership and workplace practices in shaping inclusion. It aimed to investigate the effect of demographic variables on respondents’ perceptions of IL and employee mattering. The data were collected from a sample of employees with disabilities (N = 239) through a survey conducted in Lithuania. To analyze the data, the Mann-Whitney U test, the Kruskal-Wallis test with Bonferroni correction, and regression analysis were employed. The results revealed a non-homogeneous distribution of employee mattering based on respondents’ gender, age, tenure, and position. Furthermore, the findings confirmed that IL behaviors increase perceptions of WM, and conversely, higher levels of WM increase perceptions of IL.