Taking charge is an important form of proactive behavior that sustains organizational survival and individual development. Learning how to motivate employees to engage in taking-charge behavior has become one of the hot topics in the field of organizational management. Despite considerable research investigating the factors influencing taking charge, less attention has been paid to leadership-related factors, such as inclusive leadership. Based on the self-determination theory and the social information processing theory, we examined the mediating roles of psychological safety and thriving at work in the relationship between inclusive leadership and taking-charge behavior. We collected data in two stages from 205 pairs of employees and their supervisors at 17 companies in mainland China. Specifically, the results revealed that inclusive leadership promoted employees' taking-charge behavior first through psychological safety and then through thriving at work. The results describe a more detailed mechanism underlying the formation of taking-charge behavior. The results further deepen our understanding of the path from inclusive leadership to employee behavior. These findings have theoretical implications for the taking-charge literature and managerial implications for practitioners.

Purpose The topic of employees’ taking charge behaviors has garnered increasing interest in both practical and academic fields. Leaders play a critical role in influencing followers’ taking charge behaviors, yet few studies have explored the predicting role of benevolent leadership. Drawing from proactive motivation literature, this paper aims to investigate a moderated mediation model that examines work engagement as the mediator and role-breadth self-efficacy as the moderator in the relationship between benevolent leadership and taking charge. Design/methodology/approach Matched data were collected from 297 followers and their group leaders in three subsidiaries of a large telecommunication company in China. The authors used hierarchical linear modeling to test the hypotheses. Findings The results revealed that benevolent leadership was positively related to followers’ work engagement and consequently their taking charge behaviors. Moreover, such moderated mediation relationship was stronger among followers who had low rather than high levels of role-breadth self-efficacy. Research limitations/implications The primary contribution of this study is building a contingent model for the effect of benevolent leadership on follower taking charge and thereby extending the nomological networks of both benevolent leadership and taking charge literatures. Another contribution is that this research provides a new perspective to understand how leadership leads to followers’ taking charge behaviors. Originality/value This is the first study to investigate how and when benevolent leadership predicts follower taking charge.

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Purpose The purpose of this paper is to test a mediated moderation model of the joint influence of abusive supervision, high-performance work systems (HPWSs) and organizational commitment and intention to leave on employee silence. Design/methodology/approach Data were collected from 456 employees and 78 human resource managers in 78 Chinese organizations. Findings The results revealed that abusive supervision led to subordinate silence, and HPWSs intensified this effect. In addition, such moderating effect of HPWSs was accounted for by employees’ organizational commitment and intention to leave. Research limitations/implications To reduce the occurrence of employee silence, organizations should not only monitor and restrain abusive supervisory actions, but also be aware of subordinates’ work attitudes driven by organizational HPWSs. Originality/value This is the first study which demonstrates that HPWSs can foster employees’ organizational commitment and hinder their intention to leave and consequently strengthen the relation between abusive supervision and employee silence.

Purpose Matching with the timeline of major events in China, as well as major shifts in China’s human research management, the purpose of this paper is to present the comparisons of achieving styles among Chinese millennial employees, millennial university students and Generation X employees. Design/methodology/approach Drawing from the achieving styles literature as well as the life course theory, this study first proposes hypotheses on specific differences in nine achieving styles. The authors tested by using data from 889 millennial employees and 364 millennial students from five cities in China. Findings The results showed that the power direct achieving style stood out for the Chinese millennials, and the competitive direct achieving style ranked higher for Generation X. Moreover, millennial employees had higher scores for all nine achieving styles than millennial students. Practical implications This study advises that when motivating Chinese millennial employees, human resource managers can create a competitive environment and provide career planning guidance, and that to better assist millennial university students to socialize, human resource managers can develop matched internship programs. Originality/value The paper contributes to the life course literature and the achieving styles literature by comparing the differences among Chinese millennial employees, university students and Generation X.

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Although substantive research has devoted increasing attention to variability in human resource practices at the organization, group, and individual levels, the critical role of line managers' leadership in predicting this variability in the human resource management delivery and implementation process has been overlooked. Drawing from social information processing theory and human resource (HR) attributions theory, this study proposes that authentic leadership moderates the positive relationship between department-level high-performance work systems and employee-perceived high-performance work systems. Moreover, employee-perceived high-performance work systems can enhance employees' thriving at work through commitment-focused HR attributions (well-being and performance). Analyzing the matched data from 145 departments and 834 employees, we found that the extent to which departmentlevel high-performance work systems are positively related to employee-perceived high-performance work systems depends on authentic leadership within departments. We also found that employee-perceived high-performance work systems will result in commitment-focused HR attributions (well-being and performance), which in turn motivate employees to thrive at work. This study sheds light on whether and how line managers' leadership influences the HR management process.

Purpose This study aims to identify profiles of inclusion in the workplace to provide evidence-based guidance to build an inclusive organization. Design/methodology/approach Latent profile analysis (LPA), a person-centred classification analytical tool, was applied to determine the subtypes of inclusion with Mplus 7.4, using two-wave data collected from 368 employees in 8 Chinese companies. Findings Three subgroups were identified: identity inclusion group (the highest level of inclusion, 34.0%), value inclusion group (the moderate level of inclusion, 47.5%) and low inclusion group (the lowest level of inclusion, 18.5%). The findings indicate that groups with male, aged and highly educated members, as well as members from developed areas generally tend to feel more included and greater inclusion relates to more favourable outcomes and fewer detrimental consequences. Research limitations/implications As this study was conducted only in China, the results may not be generalizable to non-Chinese contexts. Practical implications The results may help organizational leaders develop a deeper understanding of the significance and the crux of inclusion. To address the duality of workforce diversity, managers can take initiatives to create an inclusive organization. To achieve inclusion, managers should pay attention to ways of improving the perceptions of inclusion among all employees. Originality/value This is among the first studies to identify the variants in inclusion in China using LPA. It reveals the subtypes and characteristics of inclusion and can serve as a starting point to explore how to realize organizational inclusion in theory and practice.