Are Leaders and Followers Receiving What They Give? A Long-Term Examination of the Reciprocal Relationship Between Relative LMX and Relative OCB-Helping

Abstract

Relying on social comparison theory and the norm of reciprocity perspective, the present study aims to longitudinally investigate the specific relationships between relative leader–member exchange (RLMX) and relative organizational citizenship behavior (ROCB). We examined the potentially bidirectional relationship between these two constructs using data consisting of 1,420 time-lagged observations from 725 employees surveyed at multiple time points. Our results indicate that performing more helping behaviors than the group average (ROCB) leads to a subsequent higher quality of relationship with the leader compared to the group average (RLMX), above and beyond the effect of organizational citizenship behavior on RLMX. This effect is stronger than the reverse relationship (i.e., the effect of RLMX on ROCB, above and beyond the leader–member exchange). Implications for theory and practice are discussed.

Impact of perceived supervisor support and leader-member exchange on employees’ intention to leave in public sector museums: A parallel mediation approach

“…Secondly, our study results demonstrated that OCB significantly mediated the direct association between PSS and IL (β = −0.193; S.E. = 0.058; (Tremblay and Gibson, 2016;Tremblay et al, 2022), supporting the hypothesis that employees develop strong affiliations and exhibit positive attitudes toward their immediate supervisors, which are quite different from their specific attitudes toward the organization. In other words, supervisors perform a duty of a change agent between employees and the organization by providing adequate support to their immediate subordinates.…”

“…Prior research has explored the significant association between LMX and OCB (Teng et al, 2019;Sa'adah and Rijanti, 2022;Tremblay et al, 2022). LMX theory provides a strong base for leaders to develop exchange in agreements with their subordinates and appreciate and reward those who achieve the expected goals (Tremblay et al, 2022).…”

“…Prior research has explored the significant association between LMX and OCB (Teng et al, 2019;Sa'adah and Rijanti, 2022;Tremblay et al, 2022). LMX theory provides a strong base for leaders to develop exchange in agreements with their subordinates and appreciate and reward those who achieve the expected goals (Tremblay et al, 2022). Several empirical studies have shown that LMX significantly impacts employee work outcome attitudes, including job satisfaction, organizational justice, autonomy, affective commitment, role clarity, competency, and performance (Eisenberger et al, 2014;Martin et al, 2016;Teng et al, 2019).…”

An analysis of the trickle-down effect of supervisor knowledge hiding on subordinate knowledge hiding based on displaced aggression theory

“…Knowledge hiding is subtly presented and cannot be judged by the subordinate in a short period of time ( Connelly et al, 2012 ). However, due to the long-term relationship between supervisors and subordinates, subordinates have basic judgments about their supervisor’s work ability and primary work arrangements, and thus have an overall perception of the supervisor’s capacity and availability to fulfill their knowledge needs ( Arain et al, 2020a , b ; Tremblay et al, 2022 ). Therefore, the malicious knowledge hiding behavior of supervisors can be perceived by subordinates.…”

Influence of distributive justice on organizational citizenship behaviors: The mediating role of gratitude

“…However, the fundamental difference between the two is that while OCB is affiliative and promotive (Bergeron and Thompson, 2020), extra-role behaviors can be both promotive and prohibitive. Stated differently, OCB-O is always beneficial to the organization (Tremblay et al, 2022) but extra-role behavior ("challenging" dimension) may put the organization at risk (Organ, 1997).…”