Talya N. Bauer

Historically, personnel selection has investigated how to select the right candidate for the job to benefit the functioning of the organization. The needs of the organization – in terms of the human capital needed to fill a particular job opening – were the primary focus, with the predictive validity of selection procedures being paramount. Although some mention was made regarding concepts like ‘face validity', that is, the degree to which the selection process looks job-related to the applicant, the viewpoint of the applicant was rarely considered. Over time, greater attention was placed on personnel selection from the perspective of job applicants. More specifically, researchers began ...

This chapter reflects on the growing relationship between Leader–Member Exchange (LMX) theory and research and social network analysis. We first discuss the themes of structure and tie strength in relation to several of the theoretical formulations of LMX theory that have served as the foundation for subsequent research. This section proceeds chronologically, beginning with the earliest work on the Vertical Dyad Linkage (as the LMX perspective was initially known) and concluding with recent empirical research integrating LMX and social networks. Our goal is to provide a narrative review of the development of the themes of structure and tie strength within the LMX literature. We then turn to recent developments in the field in which LMX differentiation figures prominently both theoretically and empirically, and engage in a close critical reading of this work from the perspective of cognitive social networks. We conclude by summarizing the opportunities for future research that emerge from our narrative and conceptual analysis.

The management of diversity in organizations will require social exchanges between members of various social/demographic groups. Yet, high-quality leader–member exchanges (LMX) are built upon the presumption of competence and trust between supervisors and their subordinates. To the extent that members of stigmatized groups endure negative stereotypes of competence (and warmth), the initial role-taking and subsequent role-making stages of LMX development may be compromised. In this chapter, we consider the potential impact of highly visible characteristics such as age, gender, race-ethnicity, and obesity on initial role-taking, as well as the influence of less visible characteristics such as disability and sexual orientation on the later role-making stage of LMX development. After laying the groundwork regarding the content of various group stereotypes, we discuss the implications of leader–member similarity/dissimilarity on LMX formation. Finally, we conclude with directions for future research linking diversity and LMX.

The relationship between Leader–Member Exchange (LMX) and work attitudes has been the focus of numerous LMX studies and meta-analyses. This chapter attempts a closer look into the “black box” of the LMX–work attitudes relationships and reviews existing research focusing on both direct relationships and boundary conditions and explanatory mechanisms. It also includes a summary of existing theoretical perspectives on LMX and explicitly addresses level-of-analysis issues in the LMX and attitudes research. Future research suggestions and theoretical extensions are discussed.

This article investigates the quality of leader–member exchange (LMX) in relation to specific resources that are exchanged between leaders and their subordinates. Drawing on the findings from a number of empirical studies that focus on LMX, we consider how various resources affect and result from LMX relationships within organizations. We also examine the view that LMX itself is a resource for some leader and member dyads, along with the implications of this approach for individual employees including both leaders and members. The article outlines six types of resources (money, goods, services, status, information and affiliation) and assigns the studies under review to each of the six categories. Finally, we discuss avenues for future research, with an emphasis on more complete or two-way exchange relationships (that is, resources are provided by, or exchanged between, the leader and the member).

In this chapter, the authors review the literatures on leader–member exchange (LMX) and on constructs related to job stress (job stressors, well-being, work–family interface), and describe how LMX is associated with these job-stress constructs. They present an integrative framework that specifies bidirectional relationships between LMX and job-stress constructs and that proposes LMX as a moderator in the relationships between the job-stress constructs. They summarize empirical research on the relationships of LMX with job stressors, well-being, and work–family variables and conclude by suggesting directions for practice and future research emphasizing the need for more methodologically sound studies.

Newcomer adjustment is the dynamic process through which new employees adapt to their new work environment and transition from organizational outsiders to insiders. Leader–member exchange (LMX) development is an important part of newcomer adjustment. This chapter aims to systematically examine the role of LMX in newcomer adjustment. In doing so, the authors hope to inspire new studies on this topic. They review and discuss previous research on (a) the antecedents of newcomer–supervisor LMX, (d) how LMX relates to newcomer adjustment outcomes, and (c) the role of LMX in expatriates and new manager adjustment. Their reviews on these three research areas summarize key theoretical arguments advanced by researchers and existing findings reported in empirical studies. Based on their qualitative review, they point out limitations in existing research on LMX and newcomer adjustment and suggest several future research directions.

Although there is now an established literature to support the basic idea that emotions are inherent in social exchange processes between leaders and followers, research exploring the role of emotions in the formation and maintenance of leader–member exchange (LMX) relationships remains underdeveloped. In this essay, the authors begin by establishing the background and importance of this line of research. The essay then proceeds in three stages. In the first, they review the underlying theories used in the literature to study the implications of emotions-related constructs for LMX development. Second, they address three key areas important for improving understanding the nexus of LMX and emotion: (1) LMX and emotional intelligence, (2) LMX and discrete emotions, and (3) LMX and emotional labor. Finally, they discuss the challenges of the extant research and identify avenues for future research.

This chapter provides a critical and integrative review of leader–member exchange (LMX) as a predictor of four similar but different performance outcomes: task performance, affiliative extra-role behavior, change-oriented extra-role behavior, and adaptive performance. Looking to the past, the authors review this existing literature with a particular emphasis on identifying both mechanisms and boundaries to these relationships. This review suggests that high-quality LMX relationships are generally beneficial to performance whereas low-quality LMX relationships are generally detrimental to performance. Looking to the future, the authors propose that researchers can contribute to the LMX-to-performance literature by focusing on the boundaries of this relationship. Specifically, the authors recommend examining both the conditions under which high LMX may harm performance, as well as the conditions under which low LMX may not harm performance. The authors further consider the topics of supervisor-employee LMX congruence, time, and individual differences in altering the LMX-to-performance relationship.