SOCIAL BEHAVIOR AND PERSONALITY, 2015, 43(6), 931–944

© Society for Personality Research

http://dx.doi.org/10.2224/sbp.2015.43.6.931

INCLUSIVE LEADERSHIP AND WORK ENGAGEMENT:

MEDIATING ROLES OF AFFECTIVE ORGANIZATIONAL
COMMITMENT AND CREATIVITY

SUK BONG CHOI

Korea University
THI BICH HANH TRAN
University of Ulsan
BYUNG IL PARK
Hankuk University of Foreign Studies

We examined the mediating roles of affective organizational commitment and employee

creativity in the relationship between inclusive leadership and employee work engagement.
Participants were 246 employees of 6 companies in the services industry in Vietnam, and
they completed the Employee Work Engagement Scale, Inclusive Leadership Scale, Affective
Organizational Commitment Scale, and Employee Creativity Scale. We found that inclusive
leadership was positively related to employee work engagement, and that both affective
organizational commitment and employee creativity mediated this relationship. Our findings
represent a theoretical contribution to social exchange theory and provide useful managerial
implications for organizations to improve work engagement among employees.

Keywords: inclusive leadership, employee work engagement, affective organizational

commitment, employee creativity, social exchange theory.

Employee work engagement has been viewed as one of the most critical drivers
of business success (Strom, Sears, & Kelly, 2014), and has been linked to several
positive individual and business outcomes, including improved individual
productivity, increased turnover for the business, improved organizational

Suk Bong Choi, College of Business and Economics, Korea University; Thi Bich Hanh Tran, School
of Business Administration, University of Ulsan; Byung Il Park, College of Business Administration,
Hankuk University of Foreign Studies.
Correspondence concerning this article should be addressed to: Byung Il Park, College of Business
Administration, Hankuk University of Foreign Studies, 270 Imun-dong, Dongdaemun-gu, Seoul
130-791, Republic of Korea. Email: [email protected]

931
932 INCLUSIVE LEADERSHIP, COMMITMENT, AND CREATIVITY

citizenship behaviors, greater managerial effectiveness, and increased customer

satisfaction (Blomme, Kodden, & Beasley Suffolk, 2015). In contrast, employee
disengagement leads to reduced productivity and higher costs. Nevertheless, the
level of employee engagement in modern organizations is low. The results of
a survey conducted by Gallup (2013) in 140 countries revealed that the global
average percentage of work engagement was 13%. Only 30% of U.S. employees
were engaged in their work, and the levels of engagement in Australia, South
Korea, Japan, and China were reported as 24%, 11%, 7%, and 6%, respectively
(Gallup, 2013). Studies of factors that influence work engagement are, thus, vital
to improve organizational performance (Blomme et al., 2015).
Leadership is a major factor affecting work engagement (Bakker, Albrecht,
& Leiter, 2011) because leader behavior acts not only as a source of motivation
and satisfaction for employees but also creates a healthy environment to support
employee work engagement. However, few studies, especially empirical ones,
have been conducted to examine the impact of specific leadership styles, for
example, transformational (Ghadi, Fernando, & Caputi, 2013), authentic (Hassan
& Ahmed, 2011), and ethical (Den Hartog & Belschak, 2012), on employee work
engagement. There has also been little research dedicated to investigating the
influences of inclusive leadership. Moreover, in empirical studies of leadership
and work engagement, the positive influences of transformational leadership,
whereby the leader stresses motivating employees to achieve organizational
goals (Ghadi et al., 2013), have been confirmed. However, differing work char-
acteristics mean that different groups of employees prefer different styles of
leadership. Bakker and colleagues (2011) have also suggested that an increase in
the level of work engagement can be achieved by exercising a specific style of
leadership. Further, Shuck and Herd (2012) stated that an implicit focus by the
leader on meeting employee needs is crucial to creating an engaged workforce. In
the present study, we argued that when the leader is using an inclusive style this
may exert a considerable influence on work engagement because the leader is
focused on fulfilling employee needs (Hollander, 2009). In addition, we examined
the influences of inclusive leadership on employee work engagement—and the
possible mediating effects of affective organizational commitment and employee
creativity in this relationship—from the perspective of social exchange theory.
The main tenet of social exchange theory (Blau, 1964) is that when one
party performs a favor or does something that is valuable for another party, the
receiving party will reciprocate with something equally valuable. Therefore, the
relationship between leaders and employees may evolve into one of reciprocity
(Strom et al., 2014). When an employee receives socioemotional resources
from the leader of the organization—for example, through the leader using an
inclusive leadership style—that employee feels obliged to repay the organization,
and work engagement is one method of such repayment (Saks, 2006). Similarly,
 INCLUSIVE LEADERSHIP, COMMITMENT, AND CREATIVITY 933
drawing on social exchange theory, employees with positive perceptions about
their leader have greater affective organizational commitment. Support from the
leader increases the employee’s sense of moral obligation to fulfill organizational
objectives and may be reciprocated by a higher level of employee affective
organizational commitment. Social exchange theory also sheds some light on the
link between inclusive leadership and employee creativity. Support from, and
rewards provided by, inclusive leaders to employees result in greater involvement
by the employees in creative tasks and increased attachment to their organization
(Carmeli, Reiter-Palmon, & Ziv, 2010), which ultimately increases the chances
of the survival of the organization (Lin & Liu, 2012). Intellectual and emotional
support from inclusive leaders helps to shape and maintain work contexts that
motivate employees to perform creative behaviors (Carmeli et al., 2010). Social
exchange theory may, therefore, offer insight into the relationships among
inclusive leadership, affective organizational commitment, employee creativity,
and work engagement.

Development of Hypotheses

Inclusive Leadership and Work Engagement

An inclusive leadership style has been referred to as representing “leaders
who exhibit openness, accessibility, and availability in their interactions with
followers” (Carmeli et al., 2010, p. 250). Hollander (2009) regarded inclusive
leadership as a mode of relational leadership in which the focus is on leaders
listening and paying attention to followers’ needs, and followers perceiving
that leaders are available to them. In other words, inclusive leaders are always
supportive of followers, and maintain open communication with them to invite
input. These leaders exhibit concern about the interests, expectations, and
feelings of their followers, and are available and willing to provide assistance
(Carmeli et al., 2010).
Employee work engagement was defined by Schaufeli, Salanova,
González-Romá, and Bakker (2002) as “a positive, fulfilling, work-related
state of mind that is characterized by vigor, dedication, and absorption” (p. 74).
Vigor concerns high levels of energy and mental resilience while working, the
willingness to invest effort in one’s work, and persistence even in the face of
difficulties. Dedication is regarded as a sense of significance attributed to one’s
work, and absorption denotes the state of being wholly concentrated on, and
deeply engrossed in, one’s work (Schaufeli et al., 2002).
Inclusive leadership is positively associated with employee work engagement.
First, under the lens of social exchange theory, inclusive leaders who exhibit
openness, accessibility, and availability provide beneficial resources to employees.
The perception that they are receiving these resources motivates employees
934 INCLUSIVE LEADERSHIP, COMMITMENT, AND CREATIVITY

to reciprocate by applying themselves more fully to their work roles and

devoting more cognitive, emotional, and physical resources to the organization.
Therefore, in response to the receipt of beneficial resources, employees become
more engaged in their work (Strom et al., 2014). Second, inclusive leaders
challenge and encourage employees to make a greater contribution to their
organization (Hollander, 2009). The provision of appropriate challenges and
support by leaders has been shown to encourage followers to reach beyond
their in-job requirements (Detert & Edmondson, 2011). Third, by being open,
available, and accessible to followers, inclusive leaders may increase employees’
job satisfaction, which ultimately positively influences the employees’ work
engagement (Avery, McKay, & Wilson, 2007; Hollander, 2009). Therefore, we
formed the following hypothesis:
Hypothesis 1: Inclusive leadership will be positively related to employee work
engagement.

Inclusive Leadership and Affective Organizational Commitment

Affective organizational commitment is one of three facets of organizational
commitment, which is made up of affective, continuance, and normative
commitment (Meyer & Allen, 1997). It denotes the desire and willingness to stay
with the organization (Kleine & Weißenberger, 2014).
Inclusive leadership may be linked to affective organizational commitment
in three ways. First, inclusive leaders are open, listen and respond to follower
opinions, value their contributions, and share their visions with followers, so
that their followers are likely to experience feelings of empowerment, freedom,
fairness, and trust (Liden, Wayne, & Sparrowe, 2000). In the context of social
exchange theory (Blau, 1964), this favorable treatment motivates employees to
reciprocate by exhibiting enhanced affective commitment to the organization
(Eisenberger, Armeli, Rexwinkel, Lynch, & Rhoades, 2001). Hung, Ansari, and
Aafaqi (2004) found that when employees like and respect their supervisors, they
exhibit a high level of affective organizational commitment. Second, inclusive
leaders who perform supportive behaviors may meet employees’ socioemotional
needs for approval, esteem, and affiliation, which, in turn, leads to increased
affective organizational commitment among those employees (Meyer, 2009).
Lastly, when inclusive leaders behave in a supportive manner, this is appreciated
by employees and their uncertainty, anxiety, and role stress are minimized
(Hollander, 2009), thus enhancing employees’ affective commitment to the
organization. Therefore, we formed the following hypothesis:
Hypothesis 2: Inclusive leadership will be positively related to employees’
affective organizational commitment.
 INCLUSIVE LEADERSHIP, COMMITMENT, AND CREATIVITY 935
Affective Organizational Commitment and Work Engagement
There are three possible explanations for the link between affective
organizational commitment and work engagement. First, when they feel
strong affective organizational commitment, employees feel obligated to the
organization, so they work hard to achieve organizational goals and become
more involved in organizational activities (Rhoades, Eisenberger, & Armeli,
2001). They engage not only in beneficial in-role behaviors but also in
beneficial extrarole behaviors (Detert & Edmondson, 2011). Second, employees
who are committed affectively to the organization tend to develop a positive
attitude toward the tasks they are assigned. Because they like working for, and
maintaining their role in, the organization (Meyer & Allen, 1997), they value the
tasks they are given and have a positive view of the work they do. Therefore,
they become more willing to invest in their work, and want to perform better and
stay with the organization (Meyer & Allen, 1997). The desire to maintain their
role pushes them to put more effort into their work (Luchak & Gellatly, 2007).
Therefore, we proposed the following hypothesis:
Hypothesis 3: Affective organizational commitment will be positively related to
employee work engagement.

Inclusive Leadership and Employee Creativity

Creativity is seen as the production of novel and useful ideas (Amabile, Conti,
Coon, Lazenby, & Herron, 1996; Hon, Bloom, & Crant, 2014) and concerns
how flexibly and imaginatively individuals approach problems. In the business
setting, creativity has been viewed as an important precedent of innovation and
a key to gaining competitive advantages (Litchfield, Ford, & Gentry, 2014).
Inclusive leadership is conducive to employee creativity in three ways. First, in
the context of social exchange theory, when employees perceive that inclusive
leaders offer them beneficial resources, they feel obliged to repay the leader.
The desire to reciprocate encourages the employees to put effort into problem
solving that often requires them to formulate useful and creative ideas (Lin &
Liu, 2012). Second, supportive behaviors of inclusive leaders serve to shape
positive social exchanges between leader and employees, which helps to develop
employee expertise, cognitive thinking, and motivation to be engaged in creative
work (Amabile et al., 1996; Carmeli et al., 2010). By being open to input from
their employees and available to discuss new ideas, inclusive leaders supply
employees with opportunities to develop their skills, knowledge, and cognitive
thinking (Carmeli et al., 2010). Finally, Fredrickson (2001) has suggested that
when employees experience positive feelings or emotions, their cognitions and
actions are enhanced, resulting in novel and creative ideas. As the inclusive
behaviors of leaders tend to lead to employees experiencing positive feelings
and emotions (Hollander, 2009), the employees are likely to come up with novel
936 INCLUSIVE LEADERSHIP, COMMITMENT, AND CREATIVITY

and creative ideas when their leader behaves inclusively. Thus, we formed the
following hypothesis:
Hypothesis 4: Inclusive leadership will be positively related to employee
creativity.

Employee Creativity and Work Engagement

Our proposal that creativity will positively influence employee work
engagement is based firstly on the premise that creative employees are able to
tolerate anxiety and think laterally, which helps them to be more focused on
their work and, therefore, become more engaged. Second, when they exhibit
creativity in their work, employees may receive compliments and respect from
their supervisors, colleagues, and even customers (Amabile, Barsade, Mueller,
& Staw, 2005). As a result, the employees are more likely to experience a
positive mood associated with their work, which makes them more enthusiastic
and motivated to be engaged in their work (Avery et al., 2007). Therefore, we
proposed the following hypothesis:
Hypothesis 5: Employee creativity will be positively related to their work
engagement.

Mediating Roles of Affective Organizational Commitment and Employee

Creativity in the Relationship Between Inclusive Leadership and Work
Engagement
We have argued that inclusive leadership will positively influence work
engagement through the mediator of affective organizational commitment.
As inclusive leaders seek to meet employees’ socioemotional needs in the
organization, employees feel attached to the organization, and thereby more
involved in activities to achieve organizational goals (Rhoades et al., 2001).
Thus, inclusive leadership causes employees to be more engaged in their work
via strong affective organizational commitment. In addition, when employees
perceive that their opinions and inputs are genuinely valued by inclusive leaders,
they feel secure enough to maintain their job in the organization (Detert & Burris,
2007), which means that they have formed a strong affective organizational
commitment.
We also argued that inclusive leadership would positively influence work
engagement through the mediator of increased employee creativity. Supportive
behaviors of inclusive leaders, such as openness to input from employees
and willingness to provide resources for employees, may enhance employee
creativity (Amabile et al., 1996; Hollander, 2009). Positive exchanges between
inclusive leaders and employees provide the employees with opportunities to
develop expertise, cognitive thinking, and motivation to participate in creative
work. Creativity helps employees to reduce uncertainty about the future of their
 INCLUSIVE LEADERSHIP, COMMITMENT, AND CREATIVITY 937
job, which makes them more engaged in their work. In addition, the supportive
behaviors of inclusive leaders also lead to the forming of positive affect among
employees, which helps to shape conditions for employees that will be conducive
to coming up with novel and creative ideas (Fredrickson, 2001). When they
perform creatively, employees have more opportunities to experience a positive
mood associated with their work and organization (Avery et al., 2007). Thus, we
proposed the following hypotheses:
Hypothesis 6: Employees’ affective organizational commitment will mediate the
relationship between inclusive leadership and the employees’ work engagement.
Hypothesis 7: Employee creativity will mediate the relationship between
inclusive leadership and employee work engagement.

Method

Participants
Employees of six Vietnamese companies in the services industry participated
in this study. Of these companies, there were two focused on banking, two others
in telecommunication, and the remaining two in hospitality. Each company had
more than one branch in Vietnam, but we contacted only the main branches
in the northern city of Hanoi for data collection because it is the city with the
highest population in the country and the rates of employee concentration in
services enterprises are high. Of the respondents, 69% were male, and 79%
were aged between 25 and 39 years, 15% were aged under 25 years, and 6%
were aged over 40 years. In terms of level of education, 6% had less than a
bachelor’s degree, 73% had a bachelor’s degree, and 21% had a postgraduate
degree. Most respondents (91%) worked between 40 and 60 hours per week,
with the rest (9%) working between 20 and 40 hours per week. Finally, 1% of the
respondents had a working tenure of 10 years in the organization where they were
currently employed, 44% between 5 and 10 years, 37% between 2 and 5 years,
and 18% less than 2 years. Out of 300 employees contacted for data collection,
258 returned their forms, for a response rate of 86%. Of these, 12 were invalid
because of omitted and incorrect answers, so 246 valid responses were used for
data analysis.

Measures
The items for each measure (employee work engagement, inclusive leadership,
affective organizational commitment, and employee creativity) were assessed on
a 7-point Likert scale, where 1 = strongly disagree and 7 = strongly agree.
Employee Work Engagement Scale (EWE; Schaufeli et al., 2002). We
measured employee work engagement using the nine-item EWE. Sample items
are “Time flies when I am working”, and “When I get up in the morning, I look
938 INCLUSIVE LEADERSHIP, COMMITMENT, AND CREATIVITY

forward to going to work.” In this study, the Cronbach’s alpha reliability estimate
for the EWE was .979.
Inclusive Leadership Scale (ILS; Carmeli et al., 2010). Inclusive leadership
behavior was measured using the nine-item ILS. Sample items are “The manager
is open to hearing new ideas”, and “The manager encourages me to access him/
her on emerging issues.” In this study, the Cronbach’s alpha reliability estimate
for the ILS was .797.
Affective Organizational Commitment Scale (AOC; Meyer and Allen, 1997).
We measured affective organizational commitment using the six-item AOC.
Sample items are “I feel a strong sense of belonging to my organization”, and
“I feel like part of the family at my organization.” In this study, the Cronbach’s
alpha reliability estimate for the AOC was .923.
Employee Creativity Scale (EC; Tierney, Farmer, & Graen, 1999). We used
the nine-item EC to measure employee creativity. Sample items are “I found new
ideas for existing methods or equipment”, and “I solved problems that had caused
difficulties for other employees.” In this study, the Cronbach’s alpha reliability
estimate for the EC was .961.
Control variables. It has been suggested that the level of employees’ work
engagement may be influenced by personal characteristics, such as gender (Avery
et al., 2007), age (Schaufeli et al., 2002), level of education (Avery et al., 2007),
working hours, and organizational tenure (Thorsteinson, 2003). Therefore, we
controlled for each of these variables. Gender was a dummy variable (1 for men,
2 for women). Age was measured in years. Level of education was measured on
a scale ranging from 1 (middle school or below) to 4 (graduate school or above).
Organizational tenure was measured using respondents’ self-reported years of
working in the organization.

Results

Before testing the hypotheses, common method bias was assessed using
Harman’s single-factor test for all items based on the method described by
Podsakoff, MacKenzie, Lee, and Podsakoff (2003). Our results suggest that no
general factor emerged to account for the majority of the variance; in fact, the
largest factor explained 36.148% of the variance. Therefore, common method
bias did not affect this analysis. In addition, variance inflation factors (VIF)
were calculated to check for multicollinearity. VIF values ranged from 1.043 to
1.657, and these are all lower than the upper limit of 10.0 (Neter, Wasserman,
& Kutner, 1989). Therefore, multicollinearity issues did not affect this analysis.
The reliability of the constructs was tested using Cronbach’s alpha (), and these
ranged from .797 to .979. These results indicate that most measures showed
adequate internal consistency. To ensure the discriminant validity, we also carried
 INCLUSIVE LEADERSHIP, COMMITMENT, AND CREATIVITY 939
out confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) by calculating goodness-of fit index
(GFI), incremental fit index (IFI), normed fit index (NFI), Tucker-Lewis index
(TFI), comparative fit index (CFI), root mean square error of approximation
(RMSEA), and root mean square residual (RMR). The CFA results indicated
that the four-factor model had a better level of fit than did the other models (2/
df = 1.714; GFI = .909; IFI = .991; RMR = .026; RMSEA = .054; NFI = .979;
TLI = .990; CFI = .991). This indicates that the four variables had acceptable
discriminant validity.
We used structural equation modeling to examine the relationship between
inclusive leadership and employee work engagement, and the mediating roles of
affective organizational commitment and employee creativity in this relationship.
The values (see Table 1) collectively suggested that the model fitted well (Hu &
Bentler, 1999). As shown in Table 1, Hypotheses 1 to 5 were all supported.

Table 1. Standardized Estimates From the Structural Model

Paths
Direct effects Coefficient t Outcome

Inclusive leadership → Work engagement (H1) .143* 2.306 Supported

Inclusive leadership → Affective organizational
commitment (H2) .280*** 4.242 Supported
Affective organizational commitment →
Work engagement (H3) .203** 3.123 Supported
Inclusive leadership → Employee creativity (H4) .166** 2.677 Supported
Employee creativity → Work engagement (H5) .288*** 3.840 Supported

Mediating effects Indirect Direct Degree of

mediation
Coefficient
(partial vs. full)
Inclusive leadership → Affective organizational
commitment → Work engagement (H6) .056** .248** Partial
Inclusive leadership → Employee creativity →
Work engagement (H7) .047** Partial

2 = 275.605 (df = 130, p = .001); RMR = .026; GFI = .898; CFI = .986; RMSEA = .068; NFI =
.974; IFI = .986; TLI = .984.

Note. * p < .05; ** p < .01; *** p < .001.

To test for the roles of affective organizational commitment and employee

creativity as mediators in the relationship between inclusive leadership and
employee work engagement, we conducted a bootstrapping test with a sample of
5,000. The results in Table 1 show that both affective organizational commitment
and employee creativity had roles as partial mediators in the relationship between
inclusive leadership and work engagement. Accordingly, Hypotheses 6 and 7
were supported.
940 INCLUSIVE LEADERSHIP, COMMITMENT, AND CREATIVITY

Discussion

In the existing literature regarding leadership, scholars suggest that a specific

leadership style can foster a highly motivated workforce (Bakker et al., 2011);
accordingly, in our study, we found that using an inclusive style of leadership
was an effective way to make the employees more engaged. Carmeli et al. (2010)
found that the characteristics of inclusive leaders, such as openness, accessibility,
and availability, make employees feel more motivated to engage in work. Our
findings are also congruent with those of Saks (2006) and Chughtai and Buckley
(2008), indicating that leaders’ behaviors have significant effects on the level of
employee work engagement.
By examining a previously underexplored facet of leadership in relation to
work engagement in our study, we have made a valuable contribution to the
existing body of knowledge on leadership and work engagement. Although
many previous researchers have focused on the role of leadership in work
engagement in empirical studies, they have paid particular attention to how a
transformational leadership style can spur employee work engagement (Ghadi et
al., 2013). In studies on transformational leadership, the focus has been on how
leaders motivate followers to become more committed to organizational goals
(Kanungo, 2001). However, using an inclusive style of leadership may constitute
another path through which leaders can increase employee work engagement by
attending to follower needs (Hollander, 2009). This observation is in line with
previous calls to focus on follower needs when creating an engaged workforce
(Shuck & Herd, 2012).
According to the findings of both Bates (2004) and Saks (2006), employee
work engagement positively influences individual and organizational outcomes,
including productivity, turnover, organizational citizenship behaviors, managerial
effectiveness, and customer satisfaction. By demonstrating a significant link
between inclusive leadership and work engagement, we raise the possibility that
inclusive leadership positively affects organizational outcomes by increasing
employee work engagement. We believe that future studies are warranted,
in which researchers examine the mediating role of work engagement in the
relationship between inclusive leadership and outcomes within the organization.

Theoretical Implications
Our study has three primary theoretical implications. First, our findings
provide a basis for an extension to social exchange theory. Although social
exchange theory has largely been used as a theoretical lens to explain the link
between leadership and work engagement (Blau, 1964; Saks, 2006; Wang, 2008),
our results suggest that this theory may also help to explain the influences of
inclusive leadership on other variables, like affective organizational commitment
 INCLUSIVE LEADERSHIP, COMMITMENT, AND CREATIVITY 941
and employee creativity. Our results also underline the promise of affective
organizational commitment and employee creativity as mediating variables in
the relationship between inclusive leadership and employee work engagement
and, thus, as an underlying mechanism fostering work engagement. Both of
these constructs have commonly been studied as outcomes (Amabile et al.,
2005; Dutton, 2003), but our findings may actuate researchers to include them as
mediating constructs when they examine a variety of relationships.

Managerial Implications
Our findings also indicate that, in order to enhance employee work engagement,
managers need to raise supervisor awareness of the positive effects of inclusive
leadership on employee work engagement, so that supervisors will have greater
commitment to the application of this type of leadership at work. Furthermore,
managers should provide immediate supervisors with a program of training,
performance assessment, and a reward system regarding the practices of inclusive
leadership that will help them to effectively exhibit openness, accessibility, and
availability with their employees. To maximize the effectiveness of inclusive
leadership, managers also need to make various efforts, such as offering
organizational rewards, ensuring procedural justice, promoting supervisor
support, and putting in place an organizational learning system to facilitate
employees’ affective organization commitment and employee creativity.

Limitations and Future Research Directions

A limitation in our research was that our study had a cross-sectional design.
Future researchers should conduct longitudinal studies to verify our findings. A
second limitation is that the ratings of all variables were collected from the same
group of employees, which may have resulted in inflated relationships because
of single-source effects. We encourage future researchers to collect data from
various sources. Third, we conducted our fieldwork with Vietnamese service
companies, so we recommend caution when generalizing the findings to other
type of firms (e.g., in the manufacturing industry) or organizations in different
countries or cultures. To increase the generalizability, future researchers should
conduct studies with larger and more generalized samples. Another path for
future research is to examine variables other than those we examined in this study
as mediators in the relationship between inclusive leadership and employee work
engagement.

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