A model of relational leadership: The integration of trust and leader–member exchange

This article presents a model of relational leadership based on a review of leader-member exchange (LMX) and interpersonal trust. This model asserts that the LMX relationship is built through interpersonal exchanges in which parties to the relationship evaluate the ability, benevolence, and integrity of each other. These perceptions, in turn, influence the behaviors predicted by LMX researchers. This integrated model of relational leadership provides insights into the dynamics of leader-subordinate relationships and resolves some of the inconsistencies in the LMX research without losing the richness and uniqueness of the exchange theory. A number of propositions for future research in relational leadership are also suggested.     

Beyond leader–member exchange (LMX) differentiation: An indigenous approach to leader–member relationship differentiation

The existing literature has established that leaders differentiate among their followers; however, the focus has long been on the Western leader–member exchange (LMX) theory. This paper examines leader–member relationship differentiation from an indigenous, leader–member guanxi (LMG) perspective. Using a sample of 60 groups and 228 employees, we examined the dual effects of LMG differentiation on employee job satisfaction, organizational commitment, turnover intention, and co-worker helping behavior after controlling for LMX, LMX median, and LMX differentiation. The results of this study supported the proposed dual effects of LMG differentiation, demonstrating that LMG differentiation, in general, is detrimental to employees' work attitudes and their intentions to stay in an organization. On the contrary, interestingly enough, LMG differentiation can accentuate the positive relationship between LMG and job satisfaction, organizational commitment, and co-worker helping behaviors.     

Balance in leader and follower perceptions of leader–member exchange: Relationships with performance and work attitudes

Using a sample of 285 matched pairs of employees and supervisors, we explore the extent to which congruence in leader and follower ratings of LMX quality is related to follower job performance and work attitudes. An original conceptual model is introduced that identifies four combinations of leader and follower LMX ratings: balanced/low LMX (low leader and follower LMX), balanced/high LMX (high leader and follower LMX), follower overestimation (low leader LMX/high follower LMX), and follower underestimation (high leader LMX/low follower LMX). As expected, balanced/low (high) LMX relationships were associated with relatively low (high) levels of follower job performance, organizational commitment, and job satisfaction, while the incongruent combinations generally yielded intermediate levels of follower outcomes. However, follower underestimation was also related to high levels of follower job performance, whereas follower overestimation was associated with high levels of follower satisfaction and organizational commitment. Implications of these findings for future LMX research are considered.     

Perceptions of politics and organizational cynicism: An attributional and leader–member exchange perspective

As the political perspectives of organizations gain acceptance, leadership is increasingly viewed as a political process. While some researchers have begun to shun the notion that politics should be viewed as necessarily bad and undesirable, it is still commonly seen as a negative attribute of the organizational environment. Moreover, organizational members who perceive themselves to be working in negative political environments may develop cynical attitudes toward the organization. The purpose of this paper is to provide insight into the role that attributions play in eliciting negative cognitive and affective reactions to the political environment. We argue that because the quality of the leader–member exchange (LMX) is often central to these reactions, LMX theory and research possess considerable promise for enhancing our understanding of these processes. We explore attributional processes in detail, with special attention to (a) how these attributional processes occur within a leader–member relationship and (b) how attributions ultimately impact perceptions of politics, as well as organizational cynicism.     

Differentiation in leader–member exchange: A hierarchical linear modeling approach

This paper explores possible antecedents and consequences of leader–member exchange (LMX) differentiation. LMX differentiation is a group-level construct, defined as the degree to which members working with the same leader differ in terms of their LMX relationship quality with their leader. Specifically, we hypothesize that leaders’ personal universalistic values are negatively correlated with LMX differentiation. LMX differentiation, in turn, moderates the lower-level effect that LMX has on performance evaluation. Using surveys from leaders and subordinates as well as archival data from six companies, we found support for these arguments. However, we did not find support for a hypothesized cross-level moderation effect of differentiation on the effect LMX has on interactional justice. Implications for theory and discussion of future research directions are also addressed.     

Attachment and emotion regulation: Compensatory interactions and leader–member exchange

The current study draws on attachment theory (Bowlby, 1982) to examine how attachment (a relationship-based trait disposition), and the interaction between attachment and emotion regulation, relate to LMX quality. Data were collected from subordinates and supervisors in a variety of work settings. Attachment anxiety and attachment avoidance negatively predicted LMX quality. Moderator effects were found between attachment and emotion regulation.     

The bad boss takes it all: How abusive supervision and leader–member exchange interact to influence employee silence

Abusive supervision is a dysfunctional leadership behavior that adversely affects its targets and the organization as a whole. Drawing on conservation of resources (COR) theory, the present research expands our knowledge on its destructive impact. Specifically, we propose a moderated mediation model wherein abusive supervision predicts subordinate's silence behavior through emotional exhaustion, with leader–member exchange (LMX) acting as the contextual condition. Two-wave data collected from 152 employees in the service industry in Macau supported our hypothesized model. We found that abused subordinates resort to remain silent in the workplace due to their feelings of emotional exhaustion. Further, the presence of high LMX makes the adverse impact of abusive supervision even worse. Theoretical and practical implications are discussed. We also offer several promising directions for future research.     

Use and misuse of levels of analysis in leadership research: An illustrative review of leader–member exchange

Prior reviews have focused on if leadership literature pays homage to levels of analysis; our purpose is to take stock of how well and in what ways levels issues are implemented in theory and hypotheses formulation, construct conceptualization, measurement, and data analysis. To illustrate these notions, we provide an in-depth review of 163 multi-level empirical leader–member exchange (LMX) and vertical dyad linkage (VDL) studies published between 1972 and 2012. Our findings indicate that the volume of multi-level studies in LMX has drastically increased recently and the majority of these studies cast theory and hypotheses at the same level. With regard to alignment of levels of theory/hypotheses with measurement and with data analyses, however, roughly one out of two published studies suffers from misalignment of levels. Most of this misalignment occurs in studies where the dyad level of analysis, a key component of LMX, is an explicit or implicit focus. We conclude with a discussion of the implications for the LMX literature, and present recommendations to guide multi-level leadership research.     

A multi-level analysis of leader–member exchange and creative performance in research groups

We investigated the effects of LMX in leader and member ratings on leader and member creative performance among 137 leader–member dyads in academic and commercial R&D groups. By using the sub-dimensions of LMX-MDM (affect, loyalty, contribution, and professional respect) we wanted to show which dimensions of the leader–member relationship that is beneficial to creative performance. Analyses were conducted with consideration to nesting and dependencies occurring in the data. Findings indicated that certain sub-dimensions of exchanges between leaders and followers are substantive for creative performance in either positive or negative ways, depending on academic and commercial setting. LMX sub-dimensions were also differently related to creative performance depending on leaders' or members' perspective. The mixed results of this study indicate that LMX theory needs further analysis from a multidimensional, multitarget, and multilevel perspective.     

When opposites do (and do not) attract: Interplay of leader and follower self-identities and its consequences for leader–member exchange

Employees' self-identities, or the ways in which they define themselves relative to others, have implications for the quality of leader and follower relationships at work. Although self-identity has been examined within the context of transformational and charismatic leadership, its relevance for leader–member exchange (LMX) has received little attention. In this study we integrate LMX and self-identity theories. Doing so proved useful because it was found that leader and follower identities predicted LMX quality, as did the fit between leader and follower identities and interactions among fit at different self-identity levels. LMX quality fully mediated relationships of self-identity fit with job performance, regardless of whether LMX was reported by subordinates or their supervisors. Lastly, we also found that self-identity predicted LMX agreement across supervisors and subordinates. Implications of our findings for theory and practice are discussed.     

Relative leader–member exchange,negative affectivity and social identification: A moderated-mediation examination

We argue that leader–member exchange (LMX) standing relative to the LMX relationships of other coworkers (RLMX) in workgroups may influence employees' job performance. Based on social comparison and social identity theories, we develop a moderated-mediation model of the psychological processes linking RLMX and job performance, and test it on a sample of 252 employees and 42 managers working in two large banks. Results of hierarchical regression analyses provide support for the model. We found that RLMX was positively related to social identification after controlling for perceptions of LMX; and also that social identification mediated the relationship between RLMX and job performance. We found further that negative affectivity moderated the relationship between RLMX and social identification which, in turn, also mediated the interactive effect on job performance.     

Quantitative and qualitative examination of propositions concerning supervisor–subordinate convergence in descriptions of leader–member exchange (LMX) quality

Two studies were conducted to quantitatively and qualitatively examine supervisor–subordinate differences in perceptions concerning the quality of their LMX relationship. The results provided strong support for a lack of construct convergence between these two perspectives. Specifically, the findings suggest that leaders tend to focus more on task-oriented subdimensions and tend to give them greater weight when evaluating LMX relationships. However, subordinates are more oriented toward the social aspects of the relationship and perceive them as more important. This differential pattern was found to be generalizable across gender, race, and industry types.     

Charismatic,ideological, and pragmatic leaders: An examination of leader–leader interactions

Although a number of researchers have examined and demonstrated the unique relationships different types of leaders develop with their followers (Dansereau, F., Graen, G.B., & Haga, W.J. (1975). A vertical dyad linkage approach to leadership within formal organizations: A longitudinal investigation of the role making process. Organizational Behavior and Human Performance, 13, 46–78.; Dienesh & Liden, 1986; Mumford, 2006), relatively little is known regarding how outstanding leaders interact or work together (Hunter, Bedell-Avers, Mumford, 2009-this issue). Given the particular importance of such questions, especially when considering leaders who have the potential to influence national and worldwide developments, the intent of the present study was to examine the leader–leader exchange relationships of charismatic, ideological, and pragmatic leaders. Due to the difficulty associated with examining high-level leader–leader exchanges, a hybrid qualitative–quantitative approach was taken to assess the interactions of Frederick Douglas, W.E.B. Dubois, and Booker T. Washington – three high-level leaders who responded to the same crisis, in the same time period, in the same region of the world. The results provide preliminary evidence regarding the interactions of charismatic, ideological, and pragmatic leaders; in fact, they indicate that leaders interact in a manner consistent with their mental model.     

Outcome favorability in the link between leader–member exchange and organizational citizenship behavior: Procedural fairness climate matters

The study developed an integrated model of the relationship among leader–member exchange (LMX), outcome favorability, procedural fairness climate and employee organizational citizenship behavior (OCB). Using three-phrase multilevel data from multiple sources collected from 238 employees working with 42 supervisors at manufacturing firms in China, we found that (1) LMX was positively related to outcome favorability and OCB, (2) procedural fairness climate moderated the relationship between outcome favorability and OCB, and (3) the indirect effect of LMX on OCB (via outcome favorability) was stronger when procedural fairness climate was high rather than low. The study provides insight on the LMX–OCB relationship and the integration of LMX and fairness research.     

Academics’ perception of identity (re)construction: a value conflict created by performance orientation

Journal of Management and Governance - University autonomy and performance orientation have been the central points of the French higher education modernisation reforms since the 1990s. These...     

Social and economic leader–member exchange and employee creative behavior: The role of employee willingness to take risks and emotional carrying capacity

In the current study we explore the relational aspect of leadership for stimulating employee creative behavior. Drawing on leader-member exchange (LMX) theory, we propose that the association between two distinct types of leader-member exchange relationships (social [SLMX] and economic [ELMX]) and creative behavior is mediated by employee willingness to take risks and moderated by emotional carrying capacity. Based on two-wave data from a sample of 147 employees, we surprisingly find only marginal support for the association between SLMX and creative behavior, and, as expected, we find no support for the association between ELMX and creative behavior. We do find evidence of the full mediation of willingness to take risks in these two associations. Furthermore, we also find a positively significant interaction of SLMX with emotional carrying capacity (ECC), but no support for the interaction of ELMX with ECC in predicting employee creative behavior. We contribute to a deeper view of understanding the leadership of employee creativity as a relational process, contingent upon both employee characteristics as well as the nature of leader-member exchange.     

Further specification of the leader political skill–leadership effectiveness relationships: Transformational and transactional leader behavior as mediators

The present investigation was a three-source test of the intermediate linkages in the leader political skill–leader effectiveness and follower satisfaction relationships, which examined transformational and transactional (i.e., contingent reward behavior) leader behavior as mediators. Data from 408 leaders (headmasters) and 1429 followers (teachers) of state schools in the western part of Germany participated in this research. The results of mediation analyses, based on bias-corrected bootstrapping confidence intervals, provided support for the hypotheses that political skill predicts both transformational and transactional leader behavior, beyond other established predictors, and that transformational and transactional leader behavior mediate the relationships between leader political skill and leadership effectiveness. The contributions to theory and research, strengths and limitations, directions for future research, and practical implications are discussed.     

Perceptions of and reactions to leader toxicity: Do leader–follower relationships and identification with victim matter?

This experimental study examined the influence of leader–follower relationships (i.e., LMX) and target salience on perceptions of leader toxicity and intentions to challenge the leader. There are no studies that evaluate the effect of leader–follower relationships on these two variables. Participants (n = 298) with work experience viewed a video of a leader acting in a destructive manner toward a target. As predicted, LMX out-group participants perceived the leader to be toxic to a greater extent than participants with favored status, and indicated greater intent to challenge the leader. With regard to target salience, the results also showed that observers perceived the leader to be toxic to a greater extent when the leader was targeting someone in their LMX grouping, but there were no significant differences in challenging intentions based on the target's LMX status. Implications for leaders, followers, and organizations are discussed.     

Delistings and the costs of governance: a study of European stock exchanges 1996–2004

In recent years there has been a dramatic increase in delistings from stock exchanges in the US and Europe, and this trend has been partly attributed to increasing administrative costs in listed companies. Has corporate governance regulation gone too far? We examine delistings from European stock exchanges 1996–2004 and find that standard corporate governance regulation—like investor protection and corporate governance codes—is associated with more delistings and in particularly going private transactions. In contrast, the tendency to go private is found to be lower, when the quality of overall governance is high. The results continue to hold when we take into consideration that governance policy may be endogenous.