Samyia Safdar

Leadership capabilities and psychological mechanisms; (3) diversity, institutional inclusion, and technology; and (4) creativity, innovation, and team dynamics. The first thematic area focuses on inclusive climates, employee voice and identity. It has been identified that inclusive leadership influences the employee outcomes through central mechanisms namely belongingness and identification (Li, Ling, & Zhu, 2025). Oz and Meric (2026) found that teachers' organisational citizenship behaviours, including sportsmanship, civic virtue, conscientiousness, and altruism, increase when they identify strongly with their organisation. This highlights the significance of identification as a predictor of positive employee outcomes. Similarly, Shen and Shen (2025) found that employee voice behaviour is encouraged in the organisations that promote an inclusive climate. Their results confirms that organisations with inclusive climates enhance employees' confidence in communicating ideas by enhanced voice efficacy. Additionally, satisfaction with voice channel construct strengthens this relationship, especially when formal voice systems are perceived as accessible and effective. These findings highlight that inclusion requires both institutional structures that enable meaningful participation and supportive organisational climates. Fu et al. ( 2026) study also placed identity processes at centre of their study. They found that the relationship between transformational leadership and innovation is partially mediated by organisational identification. This research enhances the understanding of how shared identities can facilitate alignment and collaboration within complex organisational settings. Song, Yao, Li (2025) explored that inclusion may results in unintentional outcomes. They found that employees who are being trusted by the leaders may become victim of coworker envy which leads towards workplace exclusion. Additionally, these negative consequences mostly occur in highly competitive environments. Therefore, this study points out that a careful execution of inclusive leadership practices is required to avoid unnecessary social tensions.The second theme area centres on the leadership capabilities and psychological mechanisms. As, it advances inclusion and employee thriving. Gao, Niu, & Yu (2025) investigates how new generation employees thrive at work, and their job performance is being affected by intellectual humility leadership. Based on social exchange theory and job demandresources theory, they concluded that intellectual humility leadership which advances positive job attitudes, consequently, enhances subordinate performance and thriving at work. They further highlighted that these effects are stronger among subordinates with higher core selfevaluations, emphasising the interaction between individual characteristics and leadership behaviours. Correspondingly, Xing et al. ( 2026) explored how leader's emotional intelligence enhances team innovation. They examined how underlying mechanism namely knowledge sharing and psychological safety that influence this relationship. Their findings showed that leaders with high emotional intelligence who create psychologically safe environments contribute to greater team innovation. This highlights the significance of the relational and affective dimensions of leadership within culturally diverse teams. 2025) also investigated the leadership effectiveness by exploring the impact of team leadership on the professional development of university teachers. They concluded that organisational innovation climates strengthen the effects of leadership across the proposed pathways, while innovative self-efficacy partially supported the moderated mediation model tested in their study. These findings highlight the importance of supportive organisational contexts in enhancing the benefits of inclusive leadership. Accompanying these conclusions, Tian et al (2025) investigated how leaders' egoistic and altruistic values influence employee happiness and leadership effectiveness. Their findings indicate that altruistic values enhance employee well-being through cognitive and emotional pathways, whereas egoistic values do not generate the same level of benefits. These findings suggest that value-based leadership plays a crucial role in fostering collaborative and supportive work environments.The third theme focuses on diversity, institutional inclusion and technology in current organisations. Javeed et al ( 2025) examined the relationship between diversity and resilience, by exploring the role of gender diversity in marketing and financial decision during organisational disasters. They concluded that gender based diverse leadership groups show more empathetic communication and greater brand resilience. Guo et al. ( 2026) further explored the role of Chinese trade union in advancing employment amongst migrant workers. They found that the role of union is directly linked with employment outcomes. The union participation results in positive employment outcome by enhanced social insurance coverage, formal contracts, and labour protection. Lastly, Tahir et al ( 2026) investigated the emerging role of artificial intelligence in inclusive leadership within culturally diverse educational teams. Their theoretical investigation proposed a governance framework highlighting transparent AI protocols, interdisciplinary governance structures, human oversight, and equity audits. The study highlighted that inclusive and ethical AI implementation is necessary to promote fair leadership practices and prevent the reinforcement of existing gender inequalities.The final theme centres on creativity, innovation, and team dynamics. It is widely recognised that inclusive leadership regarded innovation. However, the mechanisms through which the leadership influences creativity remain an emerging area of research. Qiao et al (2026) explored the relationship among transformation leadership and team...

Research background and purpose: The aim of this study is to draw upon social learning theory to examine the effect of leader’s grit on creative performance and explore the sequential mediating roles of proactive attitude and employee improvisation between gritty leadership and creative performance of employees in hospitality industry of Pakistan. Design/methodology/approach: A study sample of 268 employees from hotels of Rawalpindi, and Islamabad, Pakistan was conducted consists of established questionnaires relating to measuring variables gritty leadership, proactive attitude, employee improvisation, and employee creative performance. SPSS-26 was used for descriptive statistics and correlation analysis. The theoretical model was investigated using structural equation modeling (SEM) and hypotheses testing by utilizing SmartPLS4 program. Findings: The study result indicates that gritty leadership has significant direct effect on employee creative performance. In addition, the study findings highlight that proactive attitude mediates the relationship between gritty leadership and employee improvisation. Furthermore, the study results depict that employee improvisation significantly mediates the relationship between proactive attitude and creative performance. Finally, proactive attitude and employee improvisation sequentially mediates the relationship between gritty leadership and creative performance. Value added and limitations: The research data was collected from single industry, and the culture and background of the industry builds the perceptions of the employees about creativity. By gathering information from a larger and more diverse range of cultural and industry contexts, future study can validate and improve the findings. In theoretical context, the study broadens the leadership importance with the underlying mechanism by assessing the sequential mediating effects of proactive attitude and employee improvisation in the relationship between gritty leadership and employee creative performance. Additionally, the study findings guide the managers in the organization need to adopt various styles of leadership to foster employee proactive attitude and employee improvisation which will help the employees to perform more creatively.

Purpose: This study aims to examine the impact of nurses’ paternalistic leadership style on performance, in the presence of underlying mechanisms, i.e. self-efficacy as a mediator in the high-power distance societies, namely, China and Pakistan, based on social exchange theory. Both healthcare sectors have seen several behavioral advancements in recent years. To improve things, even more, behavioral elements such as the influence of leadership styles, personality traits and so on have become more important. However, leadership styles, particularly paternalistic leadership, have received little attention in this field and need to be highlighted along with the mediating and moderating effects. Design/methodology/approach: Data were collected from public and private sector hospitals in China and Pakistan using a 6-week time lag technique. Firstly, 356 Chinese and 411 Pakistani nurses were surveyed about their perceptions of power distance, self-efficacy and paternalistic leadership. Their managers were called six weeks later for a dyadic response to provide feedback on nurses’ performance. For confirmatory factor analysis, AMOS 22 and for regression analysis, SPSS 22 was used. Findings: According to the study's findings, nurses in both countries perform well when led by a paternalistic leader. Furthermore, self-efficacy explains the relationship between paternalistic leaders and nurses’ performance. The moderated-mediation result also supported the importance of power distance. Originality/value: This study highlights the kind of nursing leadership which is beneficial in high-power-distance societies and leads to better performance. According to this research, paternalistic leadership improves nurses’ performance in both China and Pakistan. As a result, this study will be useful in high-power-distance societies, where hospital administrators can ensure that paternalism is implemented in leadership, thereby improving nurse performance.

Editorial: What makes leadership responsible and effective? Reinventing leadership in the COVID-19 outbreak

Purpose: This study aims to focus on the dual outcomes and consequences of gritty leadership, including how it encourages followers to engage proactively and, as a result, succeed in their careers. On the other hand, the way it causes job stress in employees affects the overall work-life balance. Design/methodology/approach: The snowball sampling method was used to gather data to test the dual outcomes of gritty leadership. Mid-level project employees in Rawalpindi and Islamabad provided the data. Findings: The findings of the study indicate that gritty leadership comes with both advantages and disadvantages and adds to the development of individuals. Positive spillover effects (career success) may be created by grit leaders, and vice versa (poor work-life balance). On the bright side, gritty leadership promotes career success favorably through a proactive personality. Contrarily, gritty leadership causes job stress, which has a detrimental impact on work-life balance. Originality/value: Thus, this study offers the explanatory mechanism by which the advantages and disadvantages of gritty leadership are manifested. The study is unique because it examines the results of gritty leadership and gives practitioners a realistic notion of the direction they should go.

Purpose: The success of projects is a major challenge for information technology (IT) project-based businesses (PBOs). Employees' negative emotions (NE) disrupt the employees' usual work activities by creating obstacles to routine operations. Organizations should take steps to lessen these NE. The current study assessed the mediating role of NE and the moderating influence of employee mindfulness in the association between despotic leadership (DL) and IT project success (PS).Design/methodology/approach: Time-lagged data were collected from 341 employees working in various IT-based project organizations in Pakistan using purposive sampling.Findings: Results were consistent with the authors' hypothesized framework, as DL increases employees' NE, which in turn negatively affects IT PS. In addition, mindfulness plays a buffering role in mitigating the damaging impact of DL on NE.Originality/value: Previous researchers focused on the positive aspects of leadership and its influence on PS and paid limited attention to the dark leadership style. The authors' study's findings help understand how project-based organizations can reduce employees' NE.

Purpose: Based on conservation of resources theory, the present study aims to investigate the negative leadership style (i.e. despotic leadership) and its influence on a key dimension of project success (i.e. project efficiency) directly and indirectly via employees’ job stress. Moreover, this study also aims to investigate the moderating role of resilience on the relationship between despotic leadership and employees’ job stress.Design/methodology/approach: This study used a time-lagged design and collected data via purposive sampling technique from 342 information technology project employees. Data were analyzed using SPSS 25 and AMOS 24.Findings: The findings are in line with the proposed relationship, as despotic leadership negatively influences project efficiency via employees’ job stress and resilience plays a vital role in mitigating the effects of despotic leadership on employees' job stress.Practical implications: The findings of this study provide direction to information technology firms to develop strategies to decrease employees’ stress and increase project efficiency.Originality/value: This study extends the literature on leadership and information technology projects by examining how despotic leadership influences project efficiency via employees’ job stress. Negative leadership exists in organizations but has not yet been empirically explored; this study finds that it increases subordinates’ stress level and ultimately influences project efficiency.

Background: The study investigates the impact of paternalistic leadership on the performance of nurses. Furthermore, it looks into the role of self-efficacy as a mediator in the relationship between paternalistic leadership and performance. It also looks into the role of power distance as a moderator.Methods: The study used a quantitative survey-based research approach, with questionnaire responses collected over time. Initially, 315 Chinese nurses were surveyed about their views on paternalistic leadership, self-efficacy, and power distance. While their supervisors were called after 6 weeks for a dyadic answer, they were asked to offer their thoughts on their performance. The AMOS 22 software was used for confirmatory factor analysis (CFA), while the SPSS 22 software was employed for descriptive statistics, such as the correlation and regression analysis.Results: The findings demonstrated that paternalistic leadership had a beneficial impact on performance. Furthermore, the role of self-efficacy as a mediator and power distance as a moderating mediator in this relationship has been evidenced.Conclusion: The results suggest that paternalistic leadership has a good impact on nurse performance. Furthermore, self-efficacy as a mediator explains the association between paternalistic leadership and nursing performance adequately. Furthermore, power distance appeared to be a powerful moderator, as the moderated mediation results revealed that in high-power-distant societies, such as China, self-efficacy enhances the link between paternalistic leadership and nursing performance. Limitations and future directions were also discussed.

The purpose of this study is to highlight the consequences of perceived organizational politics (POP). Based on attribution theory, we have highlighted its dual phenomena, resulting in career success and moral disengagement. Moreover, the study identifies the mediating role of social networks between POP and positive attributes stemming from it, that is, career success and the intervening role of social undermining between POP and moral disengagement. Data were collected from the faculty members of higher educational institutes. They were collected with a time lag, totaling 193 responses considered for analysis through SEM. Our study shows that POP results in both negative and positive outcomes because of its dual nature. Employees experience greater career success in the presence of POP through social networks. Simultaneously, we found strong support for the link between POP and moral disengagement through the mediating role of social undermining. The following are our conclusions.