Being on the Same Page Matters: A Meta-Analytic Investigation of Leader-Member Exchange (LMX) Agreement

Although leader-member exchange (LMX) theory offers a detailed account of leader-follower relationship building, the importance of LMX agreement as a theoretically meaningful relational phenomenon has received less attention. This has, in turn, limited scholarly understanding of its pivotal role in...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Journal of applied psychology 2023-09, Vol.108 (9), p.1540-1558
Main Authors: Yuan, Zhenyu, Sun, Ui Young, Effinger, Alexander L., Zhang, Jingyu
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Agreements
Business Organizations
Citizenship
Collectivism
Followership
Human
Individualism
Leader Member Exchange Theory
Leader-member exchange
Leadership
Organizational citizenship behaviour
Task performance
Theories
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Summary:Although leader-member exchange (LMX) theory offers a detailed account of leader-follower relationship building, the importance of LMX agreement as a theoretically meaningful relational phenomenon has received less attention. This has, in turn, limited scholarly understanding of its pivotal role in leader-follower relationships. We conducted a meta-analysis to synthesize the substantive implications of LMX agreement for leader-follower relationships and to further understand which factors may influence its variation across samples. Results from the random-effects metaregression analyses provided strong support for the moderating role of LMX agreement at the between-study level. Specifically, with higher levels of sample-level LMX agreement, the relationships between LMX and followers' task performance and organizational citizenship behaviors were stronger. Moreover, different national culture configurations (i.e., horizontal individualism vs. vertical collectivism) and changes in relationship tenure were significantly associated with LMX agreement. We also examined a host of methodological factors, which generally had a very limited impact on the study findings. Overall, these meta-analytic findings suggest LMX agreement should be considered as a key relational contingency in LMX theory, as it can help unlock the full potential of high-quality leader-follower relationships. Moreover, as a substantively meaningful phenomenon, its variation across situations is intricately related to contextual influences. Based on our theoretical integration and empirical synthesis, we discuss the implications for LMX theory and identify important directions for the next stages of LMX research.
ISSN:0021-9010
1939-1854
DOI:10.1037/apl0001089