The stress-inducing potential of inclusive leadership: Does resilience help?

• Inclusive leadership positively predicts project managers’ stress. • Project managers’ role overload mediates the relationship between inclusive leadership and the project manager's stress. • Leader resilience reduces the effect of inclusive leadership on project managers’ stress via role overload. • While inclusive leadership practices are essential in project management, they should be exercised cautiously. This study leverages the Conservation of Resource theory to investigate how project managers’ inclusive leadership might contribute to their stress through role overload while also considering how their resilience might lessen this stress. Drawing on multi-wave data from 436 leader-member dyads across various project-based sectors, including IT, construction, NGOs, and the petroleum industry, our analysis indicates a positive link between project managers’ inclusive leadership and stress, mediated by role overload. Notably, the study highlights that higher levels of resilience can reduce the effect of project managers’ inclusive leadership on stress. Our study contributes to the understanding of inclusive leadership's effects on leaders themselves, which has been a less-focused area of research within project management. Additionally, the study shows that the pursuit of inclusivity takes a toll on the project manager through increased role overload if they lack the resilience to buffer the stress-inducing potential of inclusive leadership.