Employee change participation during the COVID-19 pandemic: The role of inclusive leadership, trust in leadership, and bottom-up learning

By drawing on the social exchange theory, the paper proposes a moderated mediation model to examine the influence of trust in leadership and bottom-up learning on the relationship between inclusive leadership and employee change participation. The research was conducted during the second wave (August 2020 to February 2021) of the COVID-19 pandemic concurrently in Paris (France) and Athens (Greece). Participants were employees and their supervisors from a multinational ICT company. The research findings suggest that in both countries, trust in leadership mediates the positive relationship between inclusive leadership and employees’ change participation. In contrast, they failed to provide support for the potential moderating role of bottom-up learning. The results indicate that should leaders and change management practitioners manage to influence positively employees’ trust in leadership by employing inclusive practices and procedures, they will enhance their level of participation during change.