Skip to main content
Have a personal or library account? Click to login
Beyond Disability: Enhancing Employee Mattering Through Inclusive Leadership Cover

Beyond Disability: Enhancing Employee Mattering Through Inclusive Leadership

Open Access
|Oct 2025

References

  1. AlMulhim, Abdullah Fahad, and Sanaa Mostafa Mohammed. 2023. “The impact of inclusive leadership on innovative work behavior: A mediated moderation model.” Leadership & Organization Development Journal 44 (7): 90726. DOI: 10.1108/LODJ-05-2023-0224
  2. AlMunthiri, Ohoud, Shaker Bani Melhem, Faridahwati Mohd Shamsudin, and Shaikha Ali Al-Naqbi. 2024. “Does leading with inclusiveness promote innovative behaviours? Examining the role of work engagement and psychological safety.” International Journal of Organizational Analysis 32 (10): 24682493. DOI: 10.1108/IJOA-09-2023-4003
  3. Bahl, Nina Kavita Heggen, Hilde Eileen Nafstad, Rolv Mikkel Blakar, Emil Øversveen, Morten Brodahl, Ottar Ness, and Isaac Prilleltensky. 2023. “How older adults recovering from substance use problems experience mattering.” BMC Health Services Research 23 (1). DOI: 10.1186/s12913-023-10413-x
  4. Bao, Yuangen. 2024. “A dual mediation model of the association between principal inclusive leadership and teacher innovative behavior.” Scientific Reports 14 (1): 12320. DOI: 10.1038/s41598-024-63332-0
  5. Besser, Avi, Gordon L. Flett, Taryn Nepon, and Virgil Zeigler-Hill. 2022. “Personality, cognition, and adaptability to the COVID-19 pandemic: Associations with loneliness, distress, and positive and negative mood states.” International Journal of Mental Health and Addiction 20 (2): 97195. DOI: 10.1007/s11469-020-00421-x
  6. Bierman, Alex, Laura Upenieks, Yeonjung Lee, and Fahimeh Mehrabi. 2024. “Mattering and self-esteem as bulwarks against the consequences of financial strain for loneliness in later life: Differentiating between- and within-person processes.” Research on Aging 46 (3–4): 24157. DOI: 10.1177/01640275231221326
  7. Bierman, Alex, Laura Upenieks, Yeonjung Lee, and Megan Harmon. 2023. “Consequences of financial strain for psychological distress among older adults: Examining the explanatory role of multiple components of the self-concept.” Socius 9 (January). DOI: 10.1177/23780231231197034
  8. Bonhag, Rebecca, and Laura Upenieks. 2023. “Working only for the weekend? How workplace social connections impact workers’ sense of mattering and mental health.” Society and Mental Health 14 (1): 5672. DOI: 10.1177/21568693231165786
  9. Bonhag, Rebecca, and Paul Froese. 2022. “Sources of mattering for women and men: Gender differences and similarities in feelings of social significance.” Sociological Perspectives 65 (4): 74867. DOI: 10.1177/07311214211057119
  10. Brewer, Marilynn B. 1991. “The social self: On being the same and different at the same time.” Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin 17: 47582. DOI: 10.1177/0146167291175001
  11. Carmeli, Abraham, Roni Reiter-Palmon, and Enbal Ziv. 2010. “Inclusive leadership and employee involvement in creative tasks in the workplace: The mediating role of psychological safety.” Creativity Research Journal 22 (3): 250260. DOI: 10.1080/10400419.2010.504654
  12. Çetinkaya, Bülent, and Tahir Yeşilada. 2022. “Inclusive leadership and employee innovative work behaviours: Testing a psychological empowerment and leader-member exchange moderated-mediation model.” Journal of Psychology in Africa 32 (1): 1520. DOI: 10.1080/14330237.2021.2002035
  13. Choi, Suk Bong, Thi Bich Hanh Tran, and Byung Il Park. 2015. “Inclusive leadership and work engagement: Mediating roles of affective organizational commitment and creativity.” Social Behavior and Personality 43 (6): 93144. DOI: 10.2224/sbp.2015.43.6.931
  14. Dadfar, Mahboubeh, David Lester, and Siyamak Sanadgol. 2021. “The interpersonal mattering scale: Its reliability and validity in an Iranian sample.” Mental Health, Religion and Culture 24 (3): 24460. DOI: 10.1080/13674676.2020.1726884
  15. Ellington, Linda Marie. 2023. “Mattering.” International Journal of Adult Education and Technology 14 (1): 111. DOI: 10.4018/ijaet.329603
  16. Etherson, Marianne E., Martin M. Smith, Andrew P. Hill, Simon B. Sherry, Thomas Curran, Gordon L. Flett, and Paul L. Hewitt. 2024. “Perfectionism, feelings of not mattering, and suicide ideation: An integrated test of the perfectionism social disconnection model and the existential model of perfectionism.” Journal of Psychoeducational Assessment 42 (6): 725742. DOI: 10.1177/07342829241237421
  17. Flett, Gordon L. 2022. “An introduction, review, and conceptual analysis of mattering as an essential construct and an essential way of life.” Journal of Psychoeducational Assessment 40 (1): 336. DOI: 10.1177/07342829211057640
  18. Flett, Gordon L. 2024. “Mattering matters in youth suicidality: Implications for implementing in practice.” Child Protection and Practice 2 (August): 100041. DOI: 10.1016/j.chipro.2024.100041
  19. Flett, Gordon, Attia Khan, and Chang Su. 2019. “Mattering and psychological well-being in college and university students: Review and recommendations for campus-based initiatives.” International Journal of Mental Health and Addiction 17 (3): 66780. DOI: 10.1007/s11469-019-00073-6
  20. Flett, Gordon L., Mallory Long, and Elizabeth Carreiro. 2022. “How and why mattering is the secret to student success: An analysis of the views and practices of award-winning professors.” The Interdisciplinary Journal of Student Success 533.
  21. Flett, Gordon L., and Marnin J. Heisel. 2021. “Aging and feeling valued versus expendable during the COVID-19 pandemic and beyond: A review and commentary of why mattering is fundamental to the health and well-being of older adults.” International Journal of Mental Health and Addiction 19 (6): 244369. DOI: 10.1007/s11469-020-00339-4
  22. Giangrasso, Barbara, Silvia Casale, Giulia Fioravanti, Gordon L. Flett, and Taryn Nepon. 2022. “Mattering and anti-mattering in emotion regulation and life satisfaction: A mediational analysis of stress and distress during the COVID-19 pandemic.” Journal of Psychoeducational Assessment 40 (1): 12541. DOI: 10.1177/07342829211056725
  23. Gupta, Shuchi, Nishad Nawaz, Abhishek Tripathi, Shafaq Arif Chaudhry, and Khushbu Agrawal. 2022. “Impact of inclusive leadership on innovation performance during coronavirus disease 2019 outbreak: Mediating role of employee innovation behavior and moderating role of psychological empowerment.” Frontiers in Psychology 13 (August). DOI: 10.3389/fpsyg.2022.811330
  24. Haizlip, Julie, Courtney McCluney, Morela Hernandez, Beth Quatrara, and Valentina Brashers. 2020. “Mattering: How organizations, patients, and peers can affect nurse burnout and engagement.” JONA: The Journal of Nursing Administration 50 (5): 26773. DOI: 10.1097/nna.0000000000000882
  25. Hanh Tran, Thi Bich, and Suk Bong Choi. 2019. “Effects of inclusive leadership on organizational citizenship behavior: The mediating roles of organizational justice and learning culture.” Journal of Pacific Rim Psychology 13. DOI: 10.1017/prp.2019.10
  26. Javed, Basharat, Sayyed Muhammad Mehdi Raza Naqvi, Abdul Karim Khan, Surendra Arjoon, and Hafiz Habib Tayyeb. 2019. “Impact of inclusive leadership on innovative work behavior: The role of psychological safety.” Journal of Management and Organization 25 (1): 11736. DOI: 10.1017/jmo.2017.3
  27. Jung, Ae Kyung, and Mary J. Heppner. 2017. “Development and validation of a Work Mattering Scale (WMS).” Journal of Career Assessment 25 (3): 46783. DOI: 10.1177/1069072715599412
  28. Katsaros, Kleanthis K. 2022. “Exploring the inclusive leadership and employee change participation relationship: The role of workplace belongingness and meaning-making.” Baltic Journal of Management 17 (2): 15873. DOI: 10.1108/BJM-03-2021-0104
  29. Korkmaz, Ayfer Veli, Marloes L. van Engen, Lena Knappert, and René Schalk. 2022. “About and beyond leading uniqueness and belongingness: A systematic review of inclusive leadership research.” Human Resource Management Review 32 (4): 100894. DOI: 10.1016/j.hrmr.2022.100894
  30. Kuknor, Sunaina Chetan, and Shubhasheesh Bhattacharya. 2022. “Inclusive leadership: New age leadership to foster organizational inclusion.” European Journal of Training and Development 46 (9): 771797. DOI: 10.1108/EJTD-07-2019-0132
  31. Lee, Seung Eun, and Ja-Kyung Seo. 2024. “Effects of nurse managers’ inclusive leadership on nurses’ psychological safety and innovative work behavior: The moderating role of collectivism.” Journal of Nursing Scholarship 56 (4): 554562. DOI: 10.1111/jnu.12965
  32. Li, Tong, and Ningyu Tang. 2022. “Inclusive leadership and innovative performance: A multi-level mediation model of psychological safety.” Frontiers in Psychology 13 (June). DOI: 10.3389/fpsyg.2022.934831
  33. Liu, Yonghua, Yangchun Fang, Le Hu, Nuo Chen, Xiaodu Li, and Yuhui Cai. 2024. “Inclusive leadership and employee workplace well-being: The role of vigor and supervisor developmental feedback.” BMC Psychology 12 (1): 540. DOI: 10.1186/s40359-024-02029-5
  34. Lombard, Ella J., and Sapna Cheryan. 2023. “Does my work matter? Reduced sense of mattering as a source of gender disparities.” Social and Personality Psychology Compass 18 (1): e12907. DOI: 10.1111/spc3.12907
  35. Lundqvist, Daniel, Andreas Wallo, Alan Coetzer, and Henrik Kock. 2023. “Leadership and learning at work: A systematic literature review of learning-oriented leadership.” Journal of Leadership and Organizational Studies 30 (2): 20538. DOI: 10.1177/15480518221133970
  36. Mahamid, Fayez, Gordon L. Flett, Masood Zangeneh, and Dana Bdier. 2024. “Psychometric properties and factorial structure of general mattering scale, anti-mattering scale, and fear of not mattering inventory within the Palestinian context.” Journal of Psychoeducational Assessment 42 (8): 955968. DOI: 10.1177/07342829241273257
  37. Marco, Jose Heliodoro, Joaquín García-Alandete, Sandra Pérez Rodríguez, Verónica Guillén, Rosa M. Baños, and Maria Pilar Tormo-Irun. 2022. “Spanish validation of the multidimensional existential meaning scale: Which dimension of meaning in life is more associated with psychopathology in people with mental disorders?” Frontiers in Psychiatry 13 (February). DOI: 10.3389/fpsyt.2022.832934
  38. Matera, Camilla, Patrizia Meringolo, and Mattia Reino. 2021. “Metastereotypes, perceived mattering, and well-being among minority groups.” Psychology, Health and Medicine 26 (10): 127481. DOI: 10.1080/13548506.2020.1823442
  39. McComb, Sarah E., Joel O. Goldberg, Gordon L. Flett, and Alison L. Rose. 2020. “The double jeopardy of feeling lonely and unimportant: State and trait loneliness and feelings and fears of not mattering.” Frontiers in Psychology 11 (December). DOI: 10.3389/fpsyg.2020.563420
  40. Mohamed, Salwa Ahmed, Abdelaziz Hendy, Omaima Ezzat Mahmoud, and Sayeda Mohamed Mohamed. 2022. “Mattering perception, work engagement and its relation to burnout amongst nurses during coronavirus outbreak.” Nursing Open 9 (1): 37784. DOI: 10.1002/nop2.1075
  41. Nembhard, Ingrid M., and Amy C. Edmondson. 2006. “Making it safe: The effects of leader inclusiveness and professional status on psychological safety and improvement efforts in health care teams.” Journal of Organizational Behavior 27 (7): 94166. DOI: 10.1002/job.413
  42. Oliver, Michael. 1990. The politics of disablement. London: Macmillan Education UK. DOI: 10.1007/978-1-349-20895-1
  43. Paradisi, Monica, Camilla Matera, and Amanda Nerini. 2024. “Feeling important, feeling well. The association between mattering and well-being: A meta-analysis study.” Journal of Happiness Studies 25 (1–2). DOI: 10.1007/s10902-024-00720-3
  44. Pearlin, Leonard I., and Allen J. LeBlanc. 2009. “Bereavement and the loss of mattering.” In Extending Self-Esteem Theory and Research, edited by Timothy J. Owens, Sheldon Stryker, and Norman Goodman, 285300. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. DOI: 10.1017/cbo9780511527739.013
  45. Pernice, Francesca Maria, David E. Biegel, June Yung Kim, and Deborah Conrad-Garrisi. 2017. “The mediating role of mattering to others in recovery and stigma.” Psychiatric Rehabilitation Journal 40 (4): 395404. DOI: 10.1037/prj0000269
  46. Prihadi, Kususanto Ditto, Calvin K.W. Chang, and Goo Lyann. 2021. “Keeping millennials from quitting due to work stress: The roles of mattering, commitment and entrepreneurship orientation.” International Journal of Public Health Science 10 (2): 44550. DOI: 10.11591/ijphs.v10i2.20839
  47. Prilleltensky, Isaac. 2020. “Mattering at the intersection of psychology, philosophy, and politics.” American Journal of Community Psychology 65 (1–2): 1634. DOI: 10.1002/ajcp.12368
  48. Pychyl, Timothy A., Gordon L. Flett, Mallory Long, Elizabeth Carreiro, and Rafik Azil. 2022. “Faculty perceptions of mattering in teaching and learning: A qualitative examination of the views, values, and teaching practices of award-winning professors.” Journal of Psychoeducational Assessment 40 (1): 14258. DOI: 10.1177/07342829211057648
  49. Randel, Amy E., Benjamin M. Galvin, Lynn M. Shore, Karen Holcombe Ehrhart, Beth G. Chung, Michelle A. Dean, and Uma Kedharnath. 2018. “Inclusive leadership: Realizing positive outcomes through belongingness and being valued for uniqueness.” Human Resource Management Review 28 (2): 190203. DOI: 10.1016/j.hrmr.2017.07.002
  50. Rosenberg, Morris, and B. Claire McCullough. 1981. “Mattering: inferred significance and mental health among adolescents.” In Research in Community and Mental Health: A Research Annual, edited by Roberta G. Simmons, 2:16382. Greenwich, Connecticut: JAI PRESS INC.
  51. Scarpa, Michael P., Cengiz Zopluoglu, and Isaac Prilleltensky. 2022. “Mattering in the community: Domain and demographic differences in a US Sample.” Journal of Community Psychology 50 (3): 14811502. DOI: 10.1002/jcop.22728
  52. Schmidt, Carissa J., Sarah A. Stoddard, Justin E. Heinze, Cleopatra H. Caldwell, and Marc A. Zimmerman. 2020. “Examining contextual and relational factors influencing perceptions of societal and interpersonal mattering among rural youth.” Journal of Community Psychology 48 (6): 201332. DOI: 10.1002/jcop.22401
  53. Shafaei, Azadeh, Mehran Nejati, Maryam Omari, and Fleur Sharafizad. 2024. “Inclusive leadership and workplace bullying: A model of psychological safety, self-esteem, and embeddedness.” Journal of Leadership and Organizational Studies 31 (1): 4158. DOI: 10.1177/15480518231209018
  54. Shah, Hassan Jalil, Jenho Peter Ou, Saman Attiq, Muhammad Umer, and Wing Keung Wong. 2022. “Does inclusive leadership improve the sustainability of employee relations? Test of justice theory and employee perceived insider status.” Sustainability (Switzerland) 14 (21). DOI: 10.3390/su142114257
  55. Smith, William G. 2008. Does Gender Influence Online Survey Participation? A Record-Linkage Analysis of University Faculty Online Survey Response Behavior. Online submission. San José State University. https://eric.ed.gov/?id=ED501717
  56. Taylor, John, Michael J. McFarland, and Dawn C. Carr. 2019. “Age, perceptions of mattering, and allostatic load.” Journal of Aging and Health 31 (10): 183049. DOI: 10.1177/0898264318795805
  57. Taylor, John, and R. Jay Turner. 2001. “A longitudinal study of the role and significance of mattering to others for depressive symptoms.” Journal of Health and Social Behavior 42 (3): 31025. DOI: 10.2307/3090217
  58. Thijm, Jacqui. 2023. “Mattering vs belonging and the impact of academic advisors: Online professional part-time students – a case study.” Journal of Learning Development in Higher Education 29. DOI: 10.47408/jldhe.vi29.1091
  59. Thornton, Kailey B. 2024. “Perceptions of mattering among general education teachers: Replication, validation, and extension of the fundamental elements of mattering scale for teachers (FEMS-T).” PhD diss., University of Memphis. https://digitalcommons.memphis.edu/etd
  60. Tian, Guixian, and Zhuo Zhang. 2020. “Linking empowering leadership to employee innovation: The mediating role of work engagement.” Social Behavior and Personality 48 (10). DOI: 10.2224/SBP.9320
  61. Zeng, Hao, Lijing Zhao, and Yixuan Zhao. 2020. “Inclusive leadership and taking-charge behavior: Roles of psychological safety and thriving at work.” Frontiers in Psychology 11 (February). DOI: 10.3389/fpsyg.2020.00062
  62. Zhu, Xiji, Feng Jiang, Sabrina D. Volpone, David C. Baldridge, and Ran Li. 2025. “The role of inclusive leadership in reducing disability accommodation request withholding.” Journal of Management February. DOI: 10.1177/01492063251314453
DOI: https://doi.org/10.16993/sjdr.1235 | Journal eISSN: 1745-3011
Language: English
Page range: 521 - 536
Submitted on: Dec 16, 2024
Accepted on: Sep 10, 2025
Published on: Oct 10, 2025
In partnership with: Paradigm Publishing Services

© 2025 Agota Giedrė Raišienė, Violeta Rapuano, Justina Budreikaitė, published by Stockholm University Press
This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.