The authors investigated the first 6 months that 166 newly hired employees and their immediate supervisors worked together. Expectations, perceived similarity, liking, demographic similarity, and performance were examined as determinants of leader-member exchanges (LMXs). Leader and member expectations of each other assessed in the first 5 days in the life of the dyad predicted LMXs at 2 weeks and at 6 weeks following the 1st day of the dyads' existence. Member expectations of leaders also predicted LMXs at 6 months. Following nearly the same pattern, perceived similarity and liking from both the leaders' and members' perspectives predicted LMXs at most time periods. Demographic similarity between leaders and members had no significant effects on LMX development, and subordinate performance ratings were relatively less important in predicting LMX than were affective variables.Leader-member exchange (LMX) theory suggests that leaders differentiate among their subordinates within the work unit (

The effects of subordinate and supervisor age on objective and subjective performance ratings were examined in a field study covering the period from 1980 through 1986. Archival data on sales representatives and their supervisors were collected from the southern United States region of a large corporation. Results revealed that older employees performed better according to objective measures as well as on subjective performance ratings. Findings also demonstrated that subordinates of older supervisors achieved higher levels of objective performance than did subordinates of younger supervisors. Recommendations are discussed for theory development and experimental studies to resolve some of the inconsistencies in the literature.

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