Leader-Member Exchange Fosters Beneficial and Prevents Detrimental Workplace Behavior: Organizational Identification as the Linking Pin.
Front Psychol. 2020; 11:1788.FP

Abstract

Discretionary behaviors, such as counterproductive work behavior (CWB) and organizational citizenship behavior (OCB), directly refer to an organization's normative expectations. As such, employees engaging in these behaviors violate or exceed organizational norms, respectively. An employee's relationship quality with his or her supervisor [i.e., leader-member exchange (LMX)] has been found to be a prominent antecedent of employees' workplace behavior. However, the actual mechanisms that link LMX and discretionary behaviors (i.e., CWB and OCB) are not yet well understood. Integrating social exchange as well as the social identity theory, we present an employee's organizational identification (OI) as a mechanism that sheds light on why LMX leads to employees' subsequent discretionary behavior. Across four empirical studies employing complementary study designs, we demonstrate that LMX is positively associated with OI, which, in turn, curbs CWB and fosters OCB. Specifically, this pattern of findings is consistent across (1) a cross-sectional study with 188 Swiss employees, (2) a time-lagged study with 502 Swiss employees, (3) an online recall experiment with 131 US participants, and (4) an online vignette experiment with 139 US participants. In sum, we present an integrative theoretical model and respective empirical support to shed light on OI as a pivotal mechanism that can explain why the relationship quality with one's supervisor can simultaneously serve as a deterrent for CWB and foster OCB.

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Authors+Show Affiliations

Götz M

Department of Psychology, University of Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland.

Donzallaz M

Department of Psychology, University of Amsterdam, Amsterdam, Netherlands.

Jonas K

Department of Psychology, University of Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland.

Pub Type(s)

Journal Article

Language

eng

PubMed ID

33013499

Citation

Götz, Martin, et al. "Leader-Member Exchange Fosters Beneficial and Prevents Detrimental Workplace Behavior: Organizational Identification as the Linking Pin." Frontiers in Psychology, vol. 11, 2020, p. 1788.

Götz M, Donzallaz M, Jonas K. Leader-Member Exchange Fosters Beneficial and Prevents Detrimental Workplace Behavior: Organizational Identification as the Linking Pin. Front Psychol. 2020;11:1788.

Götz, M., Donzallaz, M., & Jonas, K. (2020). Leader-Member Exchange Fosters Beneficial and Prevents Detrimental Workplace Behavior: Organizational Identification as the Linking Pin. Frontiers in Psychology, 11, 1788. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2020.01788

Götz M, Donzallaz M, Jonas K. Leader-Member Exchange Fosters Beneficial and Prevents Detrimental Workplace Behavior: Organizational Identification as the Linking Pin. Front Psychol. 2020;11:1788. PubMed PMID: 33013499.

* Article titles in AMA citation format should be in sentence-case

TY - JOUR T1 - Leader-Member Exchange Fosters Beneficial and Prevents Detrimental Workplace Behavior: Organizational Identification as the Linking Pin. AU - Götz,Martin, AU - Donzallaz,Michelle, AU - Jonas,Klaus, Y1 - 2020/08/18/ PY - 2020/2/19/received PY - 2020/6/29/accepted PY - 2020/10/5/entrez PY - 2020/10/6/pubmed PY - 2020/10/6/medline KW - counterproductive work behavior (CWB) KW - leader–member exchange KW - multi-methods research KW - norms KW - organizational citizenship behavior (OCB) KW - organizational identification KW - workplace deviance SP - 1788 EP - 1788 JF - Frontiers in psychology JO - Front Psychol VL - 11 N2 - Discretionary behaviors, such as counterproductive work behavior (CWB) and organizational citizenship behavior (OCB), directly refer to an organization's normative expectations. As such, employees engaging in these behaviors violate or exceed organizational norms, respectively. An employee's relationship quality with his or her supervisor [i.e., leader-member exchange (LMX)] has been found to be a prominent antecedent of employees' workplace behavior. However, the actual mechanisms that link LMX and discretionary behaviors (i.e., CWB and OCB) are not yet well understood. Integrating social exchange as well as the social identity theory, we present an employee's organizational identification (OI) as a mechanism that sheds light on why LMX leads to employees' subsequent discretionary behavior. Across four empirical studies employing complementary study designs, we demonstrate that LMX is positively associated with OI, which, in turn, curbs CWB and fosters OCB. Specifically, this pattern of findings is consistent across (1) a cross-sectional study with 188 Swiss employees, (2) a time-lagged study with 502 Swiss employees, (3) an online recall experiment with 131 US participants, and (4) an online vignette experiment with 139 US participants. In sum, we present an integrative theoretical model and respective empirical support to shed light on OI as a pivotal mechanism that can explain why the relationship quality with one's supervisor can simultaneously serve as a deterrent for CWB and foster OCB. SN - 1664-1078 UR - https://www.unboundmedicine.com/medline/citation/33013499/Leader_Member_Exchange_Fosters_Beneficial_and_Prevents_Detrimental_Workplace_Behavior:_Organizational_Identification_as_the_Linking_Pin_ DB - PRIME DP - Unbound Medicine ER -

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Leader-Member Exchange Fosters Beneficial and Prevents Detrimental Workplace Behavior: Organizational Identification as the Linking Pin.Front Psychol. 2020; 11:1788.FP