Beyond personal Leader Member Exchange (LMX) quality:the effects of perceived LMX variability on employee reactions

A fundamental tenet of Leader–Member Exchange (LMX) theory is that leaders develop different quality relationships with their employees; however, little research has investigated the impact of LMX differentiation on employee reactions. The current research investigates whether perceptions of LMX variability (the extent to which LMX relationships are perceived to vary within a team) affects employee job satisfaction and wellbeing beyond the effects of personal LMX quality. As LMX variability runs counter to principles of equality and consistency, which are important for maintaining social harmony in groups, it is hypothesized that perceptions of LMX variability will have a negative effect on employee reactions, via its negative impact on perceived team relations. Two samples of employed individuals were used to investigate the hypothesized relationships. In both samples, an individual's perception of LMX variability in their team was negatively related to employee job satisfaction and wellbeing (above the effects of LMX), and this relationship was mediated by reports of relational team conflict.

Work-life balance benefits:employee attitudes and behaviors through the lens of social exchange theory

The question of what to provide employees in order that they reciprocate with desirable behaviors in the work place has resulted in a great amount of work in the area of social exchange. Although offering fair compensation, including salary or wages and employee benefits, has been extensively studied, the effects of offering specific types of benefits, such as work-life balance benefits, and the intangible rewards that such an offering inadvertently offers, has only been minimally explored. Utilizing past literature, this current research examined the offering of work-life balance benefits, the value employees place on those benefits, the communication of the benefits by the organization to employees, and their effect on employee attitudes and behaviors. The goal was to identify the effect on desirable outcomes when work-life balance benefits are offered to determine the usefulness to the organization of offering such benefits. To test these effects, a study of an organization known to offer a strong work-life balance benefits package was undertaken. This was accomplished through the distribution of questionnaires to identify the possible relationships involving 408 employee respondents and their 79 supervisors. This was followed with interviews of 12 individuals to ascertain the true reasons for links observed through analysis. Analysis of the data was accomplished through correlation analysis, multilevel analysis and regression analysis generated by SPSS. The results of the quantitative analysis showed support for a relationship between the offering of work-life balance benefits and perceived organizational support, perceived distributive justice, job satisfaction and OCBO. The analysis also showed a lack of support for a relationship between the offering of work-life balance benefits and organizational commitment, OCBI and IRB. The interviews offered possible reasons for the lack of support regarding the relationship between the offering of work-life balance benefits and organizational commitment as well as organizational citizenship behaviors (OCBI and IRB). The implications of these findings on future research, theory and practice in the offering of work-life balance benefits are discussed.

Leader-member exchange and attitudes:a theoretical and empirical integration

The central proposition of this thesis is that there are key benefits to examining leadership perceptions as an attitude towards the leader. In particular, it is argued that doing so can provide an enhanced understanding of leadership perceptions and therefore advance theory in this area. To provide empirical support for this theoretcial integration, the current research focused on one of the most popular leadership theories, leader-member exchange (LMX), and demonstrated how the concept of attitude strength could advance understanding of how and when LMX influenced employee job performance. Although the measurement of LMX requires employees to provide a cognitive evaluation of their relationship with their leader, previous research has, to date, not considered this evaluation to be an attitude. This thesis provides a justification for doing so and develops two novel constructs: LMX importance and LMX ambivalence. Both of these variables are argued to represent previously unconsidered facets of the LMX relationship, which, according to attitude theory, provide a more multifaceted understanding of leadership perceptions than previously envisaged. Such an understanding can provide a more detailed understanding of how such perceptions influence outcomes. Two studies provided an empirical test of the above reasoning. Study 1, a longitudinal field study, demonstrated initial support for many of the hypotheses. LMX amivalence was shown to lead to poorer task performance and organisational citizenship behaviour, mediated by the experience of negative affect. Evidence was also found for the moderating effect of LMX importance, although felt obligations was not found to mediate this moderated effect. While Study 1 used project groups as its participants, Study 2 provided a first test of the construct in an organisational setting; with three companies proving data. Again, strong support was found for the negative effects of LMX ambivalence on employee outcomes, with evidence also found for the role of perceived organisational support in mitigating these negative effects. Support was also found for the moderated mediation hypothesis related to LMX importance, although this was only found in the largest organisation sample. Some of the main theoretical and methodological implications of viewing leadership perceptions as attitudes to the wider leadership area were discussed. The cross-fertilisation of research from the attitudes literature to understanding leadership perceptions provides new insights into leadership processes and potential avenues for further research.