Can some leaders have a good relationship with many followers?

Unveiling social relationships: exploring the importance of relationships as a moderator of the link between effort-reward imbalance and leader-member exchange among healthcare professionals

OBJECTIVE

Healthcare professionals are at increased risk of experiencing occupational stress and its detrimental stress-sequalae. Relevant theories that contribute to the subjective experience of occupational stress have been identified, such as the model of effort-reward imbalance (ERI) and the concept of leader-member exchange (LMX). The aim of this study was to examine how the perceived importance of social relationships at work moderates the relationship between LMX and imbalance ERI.

METHODS

A survey was conducted among N = 1,137 healthcare professionals from diverse occupational categories in a tertiary hospital in Germany. ERI was gauged using the German version of the Effort-Reward Imbalance Questionnaire (ERI-S 10). The quality of leader-employee dyadic relationships was assessed using the German version of the Leader-Member Exchange (LMX-7). The importance of social relationships was assessed on the basis of a previously validated polarity profile.

RESULTS

More than 75% of healthcare professionals reported high levels of ERI, with those involved in direct patient care particularly affected. On average, leaders rated relationship quality higher than their respective followers. Subjectively higher LMX was associated with lower ERI. This association was moderated by the perceived importance of social relationships at work. Higher subjective ratings of their importance led to a stronger association.

CONCLUSION

The study highlights the particular challenges faced in the healthcare sector. The results emphasize that the perceived importance of social relationships at work can play a key role in healthcare professionals' job stress and underline the need for stress prevention programs that engage both leaders and followers.

Research on the Relationship Between Informational Team Faultline and Team Resilience-Team Leader Member Exchange and Team Member Exchange as Mechanism

Background

This study aims to investigate how a team can be resilient in the face of crisis and adversity.

Methods

This empirical study adopted a quantitative research method. The data were collected by questionnaire survey, and the stats analysis package in R language and AMOS 23 were used for empirical analysis of 98 teams. Based on complex adaptive system theory and conservation of resources theory, this study was constructed the theoretical framework of "environmental influence - team exchange - team resilience" with informational team faultline (ITF) as independent variable, team leader member exchange (TLMX) and team member exchange (TMX) as mediating and moderating variables, and team resilience as dependent variable in the context of Chinese culture.

Results

We found that the ITF had a significant negative effect on the team resilience. TLMX and TMX played partial mediating role between ITF and team resilience. In addition, TLMX and TMX played moderating role between ITF and team resilience, that is, weakening the negative influence of ITF on team resilience.

Conclusion

This study contributes to clarify the mechanism of the influence of ITF on team resilience, and provide reference for team leaders to improve team resilience in the face of adversity.

Workplace loneliness mediates the relationship between perceived organizational support and job performance: Differing by extraversion

This study investigated the mediating role of workplace loneliness relating perceived organizational support to job performance, as well as the moderating role of extraversion in such relationship. 332 full-time Chinese employees from various enterprises voluntarily participated in the two-wave surveys via either paper-and-pencil or online survey conducted at Credamo and Tencent Questionnaire website. Hierarchical regression and bootstrapping analyses were employed to examine the hypotheses. Results indicated that workplace loneliness partially mediates the linkage between perceived organizational support and job performance; extraversion serves as a moderator in the relationship between workplace loneliness and job performance, as well as the mediating role of workplace loneliness linking perceived organizational support to job performance, such that the relationship is stronger when extraversion is high. Supplementary analyses revealed that social companionship, but not emotional deprivation, serves as a mediator in the relationship between perceived organizational support and job performance; extraversion enhanced the direct influence of social companionship on job performance, as well as the indirect influence of perceived organizational support on job performance via social companionship. Theoretical and practical implications are discussed.

Dust yourself off and try again: the positive process of career changes or shocks and career resilience

Purpose

To deepen the understanding of the process of growth and development of career resilience, this study aims to investigate the impact of career history and openness to change as antecedents of career resilience and the effect of career resilience on career self-management and career outcomes (salary and career satisfaction) over time using the Career Construction Theory.

Design/methodology/approach

The authors applied structural equation modeling with cross-lagged associations between career characteristics (number of employees, job seniority and missed promotions), openness to change, career resilience, individual career management (ICM) and career success (salary and career satisfaction) using three-wave data of 872 employees.

Findings

Openness to change had cross-lagged positive relationships with career resilience. The number of (previous) employers and missed promotions had a positive effect on career resilience, whereas job seniority was related negatively to career resilience. Furthermore, career resilience had a positive effect on individual career self-management in terms of networking, practical things and drawing attention over time. No effect was found on the individual career self-management dimension of mobility-oriented behavior over time. Finally, ICM had a positive effect on salary and career satisfaction over time.

Originality/value

Altogether these results suggest that career resilience is not only a way to stay active as an employee and cope with career changes, but it also enhances employees’ chances to achieve objective and subjective career success.

Examining the Moderating Effects of Work Unit Size and Task Analyzability in the Relation Between Leader's Communication Style and Leader-Member Exchange

There is a consensus regarding the impact of the leader’s communication on the relationship with their followers and on the achievement of organizational outcomes. This study seeks to contribute to clarifying the impact that contextual factors have on the leader’s communication in order to know how leaders should adjust their communication style, depending on the job characteristics, to build high quality relationships with their followers. Therefore, the current research examines the moderating role of two context factors in the effectiveness of leaders’ communication in generating the leader-member relationship. Through a moderation analysis on a sample of 149 white-collar workers, this research study analyzes how work unit size and task analyzability interact regarding six dimensions of leader communication style in relation to LMX. Results suggest that the work unit size moderates the relationship between two dimensions of leader’s communication style (preciseness and verbal aggressiveness) and LMX. Specifically, the positive effect of preciseness on LMX smooths as the work unit size increases. The negative effect of verbal aggressiveness on LMX becomes more intense as work unit size increases. Furthermore, task analyzability moderates the positive relationship between emotionality and LMX for low levels of task analyzability. As a result, this study contributes by deepening on why leaders’ communicative behaviors can have favorable/unfavorable results in specific contexts and on how a leader can modulate his/her communication style according to the context, in order to improve the LMX. Implications are discussed.

Differential Relationship of Person- and Task-Focused Leadership to Team Effectiveness: A Meta-Analysis of Moderators

Building on previous findings of C. S. Burke et al. and Ceri-Booms et al., this meta-analytic review aims to investigate the moderating impact of team size, interdependence, power distance culture, effectiveness criteria, and study settings on the differential relationship of person- and task-focused leadership with team effectiveness. Based on 52 studies with 4,958 teams, results suggested that the differential effects of leadership were moderated by effectiveness criteria and the interaction between team characteristics and culture in societies. In high power distance societies, the relationship between person-focused leadership and team effectiveness was stronger in small teams that were characterized by high interdependence. In low power distance societies, the larger effect size of a person-focused leader was found in small teams, while task-focused leadership emerged as a stronger predictor of team effectiveness than person-focused leadership in large teams. Results can be used to guide leader development programs needed to enhance team effectiveness.

Attachment style and leader-member exchange

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to examine psychological attachment styles (secure, anxious, and avoidant) as antecedents to leader-member exchange (LMX) quality both directly and through their impact on employees’ efforts to build high quality LMX relationships. Employees with secure attachment styles are proposed to be successful at building high quality LMX relationships while employees with anxious and avoidant styles are proposed to display the opposite effect.

Design/methodology/approach

Data were collected through a survey of 213 employees nested in 37 work groups. Hypotheses were tested using multilevel modeling within MPlus.

Findings

Results indicated that secure and anxious attachment styles were associated with LMX only by impacting the exertion of effort specifically aimed at relationship development with the manager. Alternatively, the avoidant style was directly and negatively linked to LMX but not associated with effort undertaken to build a high quality relationship.

Practical implications

The effects of attachment style on effort to develop high quality LMX relationships reveal that subordinate attachment style may impact those subordinates’ ability and interest in developing positive LMX relationships. Therefore, managers may need to purposively deviate from typical LMX development processes in order to create a more conducive environment for developing high quality relationships with subordinates of differing attachment styles.

Originality/value

This study is one of the first to examine the mediating impact of effort to build high quality LMX relationships given personal propensities (attachment style) to form relationships in the workplace.

Hierarchical power and personality in leader-member exchange

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to examine the role of supervisor and subordinate personality in high quality supervisor-subordinate (leader-member exchange; LMX) relationships.

Design/methodology/approach

In this field study, 142 supervisors drawn from a leadership development program, and 509 of their subordinates, completed a personality survey and reported on the quality of their relationships.

Findings

Self and partner personality (agreeableness and extraversion), and the match between them were predictors of LMX. Consistent with approach/inhibition theory of power, personality traits of relationship partners had a stronger effect when the partner held a position of power (i.e. supervisors) than when the partner was a subordinate.

Practical implications

The results inform organizational selection by showing the importance of supervisory traits for the formation of high quality supervisor-subordinate relationships. They may also help organizations facilitate the development of high quality supervisory relationships. The findings also suggest that it is critical to consider the balance of power when assessing LMX, along with factors that lead to its development, or benefits that ensue from it.

Originality/value

To date, there is an assumption that certain traits predict the development of high quality relationships between supervisors and subordinates. The results point out the importance of considering the role of power in LMX relationships. The paper shows that the effects of supervisory traits, which are rarely examined in the context of LMX relationships, more strongly predict LMX than do the traits of subordinates.

Transactional Leader–Member Exchange Relationships and Followers’ Work Performance

In this study, we test whether leader political skill moderates the relationship between more transactional leader–member exchange (LMX) relationships and follower work performance. A field study was conducted among 753 followers and 153 leaders from several Norwegian business organizations. The results showed that the negative relationship between more transactional LMX relationships and follower work performance was weaker for employees with a highly politically skilled leader. Thus, leader political skill seemed in part to mitigate the negative effects of transactional LMX. This is an important observation, since finding alternative routes to enhanced work performance of followers in less favorable transactional LMX relationships is essential. Implications for future research and practice are discussed.

If and when social and economic leader-member exchange relationships predict follower work effort

Purpose

– The purpose of this paper is to conceptualize social leader-member exchange (SLMX) and economic leader-member exchange (ELMX) as two separate dimensions of leader-member exchange, and examines how intrinsic work motivation moderates their relationship with follower work effort.

Design/methodology/approach

– Data were obtained from 352 employee-leader dyads from the public health sector in Norway (response rate=61.9 percent). Hierarchical linear modeling was used to test the relationship between subordinate rated SLMX and ELMX relationships and leader ratings of work effort.

Findings

– This study replicates prior research showing that SLMX is positively related and ELMX negatively related to followers’ work effort. A significant interaction between SLMX and intrinsic motivation is also revealed, suggesting that SLMX relationships are important with respect to work effort for followers who exhibit lower levels of intrinsic work motivation.

Research limitations/implications

– The data were cross-sectional, thus prohibiting causal inferences.

Practical implications

– SLMX relationships may be particularly important for the work effort of followers low in intrinsic motivation. Leaders may draw on this finding and seek to aid the development of the relationship by means of relationship-oriented behaviors.

Originality/value

– Given the importance of maximizing the performance of all the followers, a better understanding of the conditions under which SLMX and ELMX relationships relate to work effort is particularly important. The present study advances knowledge on SLMX and ELMX relationships by demonstrating how intrinsic motivation moderates how SLMX and ELMX relationships relate to follower work effort.

Leader-Member Exchange and Innovative Behavior

This study investigates the process underlying the relationship between leadership and employees’ innovative workplace behavior. By combining findings from leader-member exchange (LMX) theory and from research on psychological empowerment, we propose that empowerment mediates the effects of LMX on innovative behavior. We tested the proposed process model with a structural equation model based on a time-lagged questionnaire study with a sample of 225 employees. This design allowed us to investigate the proposed effects under control of the temporal stability of innovative behavior. In partial support of the hypotheses, the model revealed a full mediation of LMX on subsequent innovation behavior via psychological empowerment. The indirect effect was significant even when controlling for the stability of innovative behavior over time.