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The purpose of this paper is to identify a number of limitations of the theory on leader‐member exchange (LMX). This paper aims to argue that under certain conditions high quality LMX can be dysfunctional. It proceeds to identify the antecedents and outcomes of dysfunctional LMX.

This paper examines the theory on LMX and justice to identify the conditions that lead to dysfunctional LMX and its consequences.

A review of the extant literature indicates that favouritism by the leader and the reliance on impression management by followers can lead to dysfunctional LMX. This can then lead to negative reactions from group members and undermine work group cohesiveness.

This paper points to new directions for research in LMX. It highlights the need to recognize that under certain conditions high quality LMX can be perceived as unfairness.

Managers need to recognize issues needing their attention in developing quality exchange with their subordinates. Failure to address these issues can undermine work group performance.

This study contributes to the debate on the role of LMX. Specifically, it attempts to add to the discussion in the emerging literature on dysfunctional LMX.

Leader-member exchange (LMX) generally refers to the leadership process centered on the interactions between leaders and direct reports. The basic premise of high quality leader-member exchange relationships holds that direct reports gain tremendous benefits through these partnerships. LMX is perhaps the most commonly researched theory of leadership. However, few studies have specifically examined the role of dyad members’ sex as a predictor of quality LMX. Several studies investigating the role of dyad members’ sex and quality LMX examined the effect of sex in an aggregated variable, demographic similarity, which often included other demographic characteristics such as age, education level and race, yielding mixed results. This article’s purpose is to (a) review the evolution of leader-member exchange theory, (b) examine literature regarding potential effects of sex of dyad members on quality leader-member exchanges, and (c) discuss implications and future research concerning the role of dyad members’ sex and leader-member exchanges.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the relationship between the styles of conflict management and the quality of dyadic exchanges between leader and follower, controlling for age, gender, education, and organizational tenure.

The methodology was quantitative and incorporated the Rahim Organizational Conflict Inventory‐II and Leader‐Member Exchange Version 7 survey instruments.

There were significant findings with respect to quality of dyadic relationship and use of conflict management styles. The lower the dyadic relationship quality, the more moderating styles are introduced into the relationship.

The limitations of the study were: participants were selected by the vice president of human resources for this international company and were limited to current US employees; the study was limited to one company, thereby limiting the ability to generalize study findings; and the study focused on correlational data, and made no attempt to address the cause and effect issues related to conflict, conflict management, leader‐member exchange, or leadership.

The value of this study is its original contribution to the research literature, as no previous studies which incorporated both conflict management and leader‐follower relationship quality could be found during the exhaustive literature review.

While technological advances have been changing the way that services are delivered to customers, direct interaction between banks’ front-line staff and customers still holds its distinct position in the banking sector. This research investigates the relationship between interactional justice and the willingness of commercial banks’ front-line staff to engage in customer-centric behaviors, as well as the mediators behind this relationship.

This research combined both qualitative and quantitative research methods. In-depth interviews were employed to explore the potential mechanisms underlying the relationship between interactional justice and customer-centric behavior and to develop the specific measurement scale for customer-centric behavior in the banking service context. A survey was conducted to test the conceptual model using a sample of 312 customer contact employees working in Vietnamese commercial banks.

The research results indicate that interactional justice significantly enhances employees’ willingness to engage in customer-centric behaviors, and this relationship is partially mediated by overall job satisfaction and the leader-member exchange relationship.

This research faces several limitations. The first limitation concerns the fact that the data are based on self-reports, which might lead to common method biases. Second, this study used a sample drawn from the North of Vietnam only. Third, this study adopted a limited set of measurement items due to the concerns of model parsimony and data collection efficiency. Fourth, we followed prior justice work to assume the linear relationship between interactional justice and leader-member exchange, in which the leader-member exchange is hypothesized to be the outcome of fair treatment (Erdogan and Liden, 2006; Masterson et al., 2000). Last, we only considered how leaders treat their followers through the lens of interactional justice, while interactional justice differentiation has also been affirmed as a crucial determinant of leader-member exchange and employees’ performance.

This research is noteworthy that it is the first to take a social exchange perspective to examine customer-oriented behavior as an outcome of interpersonal interactions in the workplace. Accordingly, it delivers a key message to bank supervisors: “Treat employees the way you want your customers to be treated.”

Eighty elected leaders and 388 followers were sampled to test the relationships between leaders’ emotional intelligence and the quality of leader-member exchange. Results of the field study found a significant relationship between leaders’ emotional intelligence (total) and leader-member exchange quality. Specific subscales of emotional intelligence were also predictive of leader-member exchange theory. Leaders’ empathetic response and interpersonal skills each correlated with leader-member exchange. Implications and directions for research are discussed.

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.

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.

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.

This study extends previous literature on social exchange by investigating the mediating effects of leader‐member exchange on the relationship between procedural justice, job attitudes and turnover in a unionized setting. Past research has shown that procedural justice and subordinate/supervisor exchanges are related to job attitudes and turnover. These relationships have normally been studied in non‐union settings, in which union contextual variables are not considered. The current study uses hierarchical linear modeling to test theoretical models of these relationships in a unionized setting, where procedures and managerial treatment are more clearly defined and regulated. Results reveal that both procedural justice and leader‐member exchange are related to organizational commitment and job satisfaction and leader‐member exchange is related to actual turnover. Leadermember exchange partially mediates the relationship between procedural justice and these job attitudes after accounting for the effects of union commitment (at the individual level) and union‐management relations (at the store level). From a managerial perspective, our results emphasize the importance of proper selection, training and performance appraisal of supervisors, with treatment and support of employees as a main focus.

This paper aims to investigate the impact of task interdependence and leader–member exchange, as social exchange variables, on affective commitment and turnover intent of new workers in an industry with high attrition rates. In addition, the paper examines the mediating effects of affective commitment.

The present study drew insights from the literature to formulate hypotheses that link the two social exchange variables on affective commitment and turnover intent. Through the utilization of the data collected from 441 call center agents working for eight call centers in the Philippines, the hypotheses were tested and analyzed using structural equation modeling.

The results reveal that task interdependence and leader–member exchange are positive antecedents of affective commitment and negative predictors of turnover intent. Further analysis reveals that affective commitment fully mediates the effects of the two social exchange variables on turnover intent.

The results imply that call centers can help improve new workers' affective commitment and reduce their turnover intent through job designs that can facilitate high task interdependence. Furthermore, training team leaders or supervisors to develop leadership styles that are more focused on people and relationships may also increase the agents' commitment and reduce their quit intention.

This paper is the first to demonstrate that social exchange variables can also impact the affective commitment and turnover intent of new workers in an industry known to have heavy supervisorial monitoring, high demands in terms of work quotas and high turnover rates.