Inclusive Leadership and Attitudes Toward Hiring Workers with Intellectual Disability: The Mediating Role of Autonomy

This study examines whether the autonomy of workers with intellectual disability (ID) mediates the relationship between inclusive leadership by supervisors within a business and coworkers’ attitudes toward hiring workers with ID. Data were collected from 113 employees without ID across six industries (hotels, public administration, agriculture, construction, social services, and other services) in Spain who worked daily with a coworker with ID. Using a cross-lagged design, inclusive leadership was measured at time one, while autonomy and attitudes were assessed at time one and four consecutive working days later for the focal worker with ID (time two). Mediation was tested using regression-based path analysis with bootstrapped confidence intervals for the indirect effects. Results indicated that autonomy at time two fully mediated the relationship between inclusive leadership at time one and coworkers’ attitudes at time two, controlling for baseline autonomy and attitudes. Inclusive leadership was positively associated with autonomy in workers with ID, which in turn was positively related to more positive hiring attitudes toward workers with ID. These findings underscore autonomy as a mediator linking inclusive leadership to attitudes in non-ID coworkers.