An empirical assessment of the relationship between leader -member exchange and organizational commitment and organizational citizenship behavior

The Leader-Member Exchange (LMX) theory (Danserau, Graen, & Haga, 1975; Graen and Scandura, 1987) is a well-researched leadership construct in organizational behavior and business management studies. The notion is, LMX is a two-way relationship (dyad) between the Leader (supervisor) and the Member (subordinate). Supervisors exchange the following personal and positional resources in return for subordinates' performance: inside information, influence in decision-making, task assignment, job latitude, support, and attention (Gram and Cashman, 1975). Numerous research has identified various antecedents and consequences of LMX. This study focuses on two outcomes of LMX: organizational commitment and organizational citizenship behavior.;The research sample is 63 dyads of a high-technology information solutions company in the Midwest. The dyads are administered three widely used and established instruments, namely the Leader-Member Exchange (LMX-7) Scale (Scandura and Graen, 1984); Organizational Commitment Questionnaire (Mowday et al ., 1982); and Organizational Citizenship Behavior Scale (Smith et al., 1983).;Data are analyzed to answer the research questions and test the hypotheses by using correlation analysis, Analysis of Variance, and F test for correlated means at the p < .05 significance level. The findings support the hypothesis that a positive relationship exists between Leader-Member Exchange and organizational commitment (Kinicki and Vecchio, 1994; Nystrom, 1990). The results also support a statistically significant correlation between Leader-Member Exchange and citizenship behavior and the altruism subscale, but not compliance. This is consistent with the Wayne and Green (1993) study of examining the relationship as reported by the member rather than the leader.;Implications for policy change and limitations of the study are discussed as well as recommendations for future research.