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This conceptual article develops a theory-based set of themes that characterize how a leader and member interact based on their attachment style, motivation to lead and follow and their interpersonal orientation.

This study proposes that the leader's and member's attachment styles, effectuated by their motivation to lead and/or follow and their interpersonal orientation, determine the emergence of primary (most frequently occurring) and secondary (less frequently occurring) leader–member relationship (LMR) themes.

The themes are labelled mutual affirmation, control, prestige, mutual indifference, conflict, imbalance and co-dependence. The article describes how these seven themes are grounded in their own streams of research, including leader–member exchange (LMX) as the basis for the first three, and how the themes vary in behaviors that generate the operational outcomes of psychological safety, proactivity and functionality, which, in turn, yield performance outcomes. Performance outcomes affect the leader's and member's perceptions of their relationship and their anticipation for the future. Leader–member similarity, situational pressures and perceptions of others' relationships moderate LMR development.

Each theme reflects a pattern of interactions that produces degrees of psychological safety felt by the leader and member, proactivity of the leader and member to devote energy to their relationship and how well the leader and member function together. The behaviors, in turn, influence how the leader and member perceive each other and themselves and their anticipation for the future of the relationship.

The model can be used by organizational development and human resource professionals to assess leader–member dyads and train leaders and members to be aware of factors that influence their relationship and how these factors affect performance outcomes.

The model contributes to the literature on leader–member relationships by suggesting a theory-based set of themes that characterize how the leader and team member interact and how their relationship develops.

Although the importance of group leader and group member dyadic relationships has been increasingly emphasized, only few studies have focused on the dyadic level analysis of leader–member relationships. By integrating theories of relational leadership and relational dyadic communication among workgroups, the purpose of this paper is to propose a theoretical model that links relative leader–member exchange quality (RLMX) and relative leader–member conversation quality (RLMCQ) to group performance, as mediated by group cooperation.

The model was tested in a field study with multiple sources, including 232 leader–member dyads and 407 workgroup peer dyads among 70 intact workgroups. Data were collected on-site during paid working hours from four training sessions. Group members were surveyed four times (Time 1, Time 2 and Time 3) and group leaders were surveyed once (Time 4) to minimize common method bias. The hierarchical linear modeling and polynomial regression approach were used to determine the mediating effects of the group cooperation.

In this study, the authors found support for indirect effects of relative RLMX and RLMCQ on group performance through the mediating role of group cooperation.

The cross-sectional design of the current study is to be interpreted with caution, concerning any conclusions about the causal ordering of the variables in the model.

In organizational situations with group leaders and group members already in high-quality relationships and conversation, management should endeavor to facilitate opportunities for cooperation among group members and a means to also enhance team–member exchange.

By introducing LMCQ and group member cooperative behavior in workgroups, this study actively respond to the scholars’ warnings that ignoring the workgroup context may hamper the progress in understanding the factors that will inhibit or enhance workgroup behavior.

Building on social informational processing theory, the purpose of this paper is to develop and test a theoretical model of moderated mediation in which social loafing tendency serves as an intervening mechanism that explains associations among two dimensions of leader–member relationships (formal and informal relationships, namely, leader–member exchange and leader–member guanxi) and customer service performance.

The authors designed a field study to test the hypotheses presented in this paper. A survey of 304 supervisor–employee pairs and matched customers generally provide support for this model.

The authors found that social loafing tendency played a mediating role between leader–member relationships and customer service performance. Co-worker service-oriented OCB moderated the positive relationship between leader–member guanxi and loafing tendency.

More samples should be collected from both private and state-owned company. Both the informal and formal leader–member relationships should be unanimously included in examining how the leader–member relationships influence focal employee’s attitude and behavior, particularly in societies where the informal relationship plays noticeable role.

Managers should properly deal with formal and informal relationship with subordinates.

The influence of leader–member guanxi on employees and organization is controversial in extant literature. In some sense, this finding contributes to extant literature by further clarifying the influence of guanxi on the focal employee’s performance.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the underlying process of a relative leader–member dyadic communication behavior linking association between ethical leadership and organizational identification in Malaysia’s diverse workplace.

Based on relational dyadic communication, social comparison and social identity theories, the authors develop a mediation model. The model illustrates the link between the relative leader–member dyadic communication behavior processes, ethical leadership and organizational identification. The model was tested on a sample of 273 group members from 58 groups working in large government link corporations in Malaysia.

Results of hierarchical regression analysis provide support for the model. The authors found that ethical leadership was positively related to relative leader–member dyadic communication behavior based on the norms and values of budi context. Budi is a social norm in the Malaysian context that helps employees to know how they should interact with others. Budi is manifested through the use of language and should be used or present in the interactions or conversations with others.

The relative shared norms and values of budi mediate the relationship between ethical leadership and organizational identification after controlling for the perception of individual leader–member dyadic communication behavior on norms and values of budi.

The purpose of this study is to address the construction of trust in leader member exchange (LMX) relationships as a multidimensional phenomenon and identify the importance of emotional and collective factors contributing to this phenomenon.

Ten health care professionals (five leaders and five members) were interviewed to subject to qualitative thematic analysis.

Four main themes in the data were identified (work roles, collectivity, interaction and participation) and linked to two main elements of LMX trust relations: core and contextual. The results extend understanding of the construction and maintenance of trust in LMX relationships, indicating that it is a more complex and socially constructed phenomenon than previously described.

Despite identified limitations of the study (the small amount of empirical material, interpretive research method and purposive sampling of participants), the findings reveal that constructing trust in LMX relationships is more multidimensional than generally portrayed in traditional LMX theory and its three-stage continuum. This study suggests that a broader perspective should be adopted in LMX research, treating it not only as a collective phenomenon but also considering leaders and members as emotional individuals.

Understanding the multidimensional nature of LMX relationships is helpful for developing interpersonal relationships in organizations and leadership practices through recognition of the importance of the transparency, practices and adequacy of mutual interaction. The results presented here may contribute to such understanding and help leaders to relate to members as both subjective individuals and parts of a complex social network. The results may also increase members' awareness of possible ways that they can promote the development of good LMX relationships in organizations.

The novelty of the study relates to the identification of the collective, emotional and multidimensional nature of LMX relationships.

The impact of leader-member exchange (LMX) differentiation on group performance has been considered ambiguous. The purpose of this paper is to resolve this ambiguity by theorizing and examining a curvilinear relationship between LMX differentiation and group performance, and the moderating effects of group diversity on this relationship.

Data were drawn from 63 work groups (consisting of 322 members and 63 group leaders) selected from 27 technology service companies in South Korea. Group members rated their perceived LMX quality, while the human resource (HR) directors of each company assessed group performance.

The results showed that LMX differentiation had an inverted U-shaped relationship with group performance and that gender diversity and age diversity negatively moderated that relationship. However, the interaction between LMX differentiation and education-level diversity was not significant.

This study extends extant research by addressing the inconsistency among theoretical perspectives on the effects of LMX differentiation. This study transcends earlier research by considering the complex process of LMX differentiation, such as the curvilinear relationship between LMX differentiation and group performance, and the moderating effects of group diversity on that relationship.

This study seeks to empirically examine the impact of goal interdependence and leader‐member relationship on cross‐cultural leadership in joint ventures in China.

The research question is how to facilitate leader‐member relationships between foreign managers and Chinese employees in joint ventures in China. Two hypotheses were generated. This study applies the theory of cooperation and competition and the theory of LMX to develop responses to the research questions. Completed survey questionnaires were analyzed on a valid sample of 199.

Results supported the theorizing that cooperative goals between managers and employees can strengthen their leader‐member relationships, which in turn facilitate cross‐cultural leadership. The results also extended this theorizing to cross‐cultural settings.

Although the theory of cooperation and competition and the theory of LMX were developed in the West, they could be useful in Chinese contexts for understanding cross‐cultural leadership.

Foreign managers working in joint ventures in China who develop strongly cooperative goals may be able to develop high quality relationships that in turn promote employee commitment and performance.

This study provides overall support for the theory of cooperation and competition and the theory of LMX. Although developed in the West, they have been found useful for predicating behavior in Chinese contexts regarding cross‐cultural leadership.

This chapter examines how leader–member dyadic communication in the Malaysian workplace operates at the leader–member dyadic level in the context of cultural norms. We propose a model of leader–member dyadic communication based on the cultural norms of budi bicara, which in turn influences the perception of workplace mentoring in Malaysia. The model is tested by using hierarchical multiple regression with data obtained from a sample of 510 employees in three Malaysian organizations. Results show that leader–member dyadic communication in the workplace is linked with the career mentoring perceptions. These findings partially validate our proposed model and provide empirical support for the central roles of communication exchange processes in mentoring.

This study aims to make visible the dynamic nature of leader–member exchange (LMX) in the changing realm of health-care leadership.

The qualitative study used an open questionnaire, which was distributed amongst nursing staff and managers at a Finnish public university hospital.

The participants described partly LMX theory, but the leader-member relationship was also influenced by the organizational culture and the existing management practices. Nursing staff were found to have a more variable and dynamic role in the LMX relationship than has previously been reported. The research therefore provided novel information for the field of health-care research.

The presented research was limited by the content of the data, as the collected single narratives were rather short; however, the fact that a large number of narratives were collected from diverse participants strengthened the ability to reliably answer the research questions.

Although the participants described partly LMX theory, the leader–member relationship is also influenced by the organizational culture and existing management practices; the finding that nurses have more variable roles in LMX relationships in the health-care context was new insight in this field. Therefore, the presented findings can help decision-makers change the current, perhaps antiquated, leadership practices at health-care organizations.

This study provides new insight into the field of LMX research in terms of the important role of nursing staff, the organizational factors that influence the LMX relationship and the dynamic nature of LMX relationships.

The paper aims to establish the relationship between leader member exchange (LMX) relationship and work role performance through the dynamic process of employee engagement. The study outlines why and how leadership is important for employee engagement and effective work role performance. Adopting a survey based research design, a sample of 198 Indian working managers at different levels including various sectors has supported our hypotheses that employee engagement mediates the relations between LMX and work role performance. It provides empirical insights about how employee engagement process influences the LMX and work role performance relationships. The results also suggest that high quality relationship of employees with their leaders is positively related to employee engagement and their work role performance.