Abstract:

The faculty members in the higher education institutes perform numerous tasks encompassing research, teaching, consultancy, mentoring and administration. This makes their profession highly stressful and leads to Emotional exhaustion which is one of the extreme varieties of work-related strain resulting in a general loss of feeling, concern, trust, interest, and spirit. Inclusion is the buzzword and aims at providing fair and equitable workplace to the employees. Leaders play an important role in creating inclusive climate and practices. Their leadership styles have been found to affect the burnout amongst the employees. Inclusive leadership practices support and empowers the employees, contributes towards their learning and development, believes in shared decision making, recognizes the efforts of the employees and creates an environment where everyone is heard. The present research through systematic literature review methodology aims to study the impact of inclusive leadership on the emotional exhaustion of the faculty members. The study also intends to find out the characteristic features of inclusive leadership which have an impact on the emotional exhaustion of the faculty members in the higher education institutions. The articles on “Inclusive leadership and Emotional Exhaustion in higher education were explored, analysed and synthesized for content analysis through systematic literature review. PRISMA flow diagram 2020 was used to ensure the replicability of the study and demonstrate the quality of the review. The inclusion criteria comprise of peer reviewed articles indexed in Scopus database published till date (Year 2023). The query string “Inclusive Leadership” “Inclusive leaders” “Emotional Exhaustion” “Burn Out” “Faculty Members” “Higher Education” were used in the search.

The present study highlights the prevalence of emotional exhaustion amongst the faculty members existing largely because of their workload, multiple responsibilities and duties. Inclusive leadership practices act as the driver for reducing the emotional exhaustion of the faculty members. The present research has concluded that there are numerous aspects of the academic career which induce emotional exhaustion in the faculty members and impacts their job performance negatively. The leaders can help in addressing the problem offering support facilities. Findings reveal that a climate of care and support helps in reducing job stress as well as help in contributing towards greater connectedness, enhanced wellbeing and improved teaching and research productivity. Faculty members value autonomy and leaders in academic institutions can help in ensuring the same. Additionally, having reward mechanisms which appreciate the faculty member’s contribution also helps in addressing emotional exhaustion. Inclusive work climate practices, offering psychological safety, addressing the training needs and having a re look into the work load of the faculty members can help in curbing the problem. The demands of Higher education often leave faculty members feel exhausted. In severe cases it results in faculty attrition as well. Emotional exhaustion is a critical concern and leaders have an important role in ensuring to reduce the same. To ensure that these expected practices are encouraged, we suggest that policy makers and regulators should devise policies to enable academic leaders adopt inclusive leadership practices.

Keywords:

Inclusive Leadership, Inclusive leaders, Emotional Exhaustion, Burn Out, Faculty Members, Higher Education.