16540: Does Leader Political Correctness Matter to Follower Work Outcomes? (session 25923)

With the workforce in the United States (US) becoming increasingly diverse, leaders face mounting pressure to effectively manage their diverse group of followers. Leader political correctness is one type of leadership behavior directly relevant to leaders’ effective handling of diversity, equity, and inclusion in the workplace. Surprisingly, there is little research on leader political correctness. To fill this important gap, we integrate research on moral inclusion/exclusion, political skill, and followership to examine how and when leader political correctness might influence important follower outcomes, including follower voice, organizational citizenship behaviors (OCB), authentic self-expression, and turnover intention. Based on a sample of supervisors and their direct reports in the US, the results of this study suggest that politically correct leaders tended to be perceived as moral leaders by their followers and effectively reduced follower turnover intention via their morality. In addition, followers were more likely to express their true selves when they perceived their leaders as moral, with minority followers generally viewing politically correct leaders as more moral than majority followers did. This research provides important theoretical and empirical implications.

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