Waterlilies: Does a Follower’s regional feeling negate the humble leader effect?

The literature to date has predominately focused and assumed that leader humility effect is functional across contexts. Nevertheless, scholars have speculated that leader humility may not be universally effective. In this research, we empirically examine whether leader humility can sustain a positive effect on regionally diverse context. In social identification and categorization in diversity management research, regional identification (i.e., groups of people defined by location) is subsumed into social identity and subsequently ignored. Moreover, it is not clear how regional identity influences individuals from different regions of the same country in regards to the inclusion practices induced by humble leaders. Does leader humility foster followers’ perceptions of inclusiveness? Does regional identity undercut leader humility effects toward inclusion practices? Drawing from theories of social identity and social information processing, we argue that followers’ regional identity plays a contextual constraint on leader humility that fosters followers’ work engagement via their perception of inclusiveness. Results from a survey-based study provide general support for the proposed hypotheses.