Leader-Member Exchange and Organizational Communication

It is hard to overstate the importance of the leader-member exchange relationship. Employees who share a high-quality relationship with their leader are more likely to earn a higher salary, climb the ranks more quickly, and report higher life satisfaction levels than their peers who have a less copasetic leader-member relationship. While Leader-Member Exchange Theory (LMX) research addresses the impact that the leader-member relationship has on the individual employee experience, much of this scholarship overlooks or obscures the vital role that communication plays in the development and maintenance of workgroup relationships. Much of extant literature also glosses over the role that communication plays in workgroup collaboration. Using a communicative lens, this text illustrates the complex theoretical underpinnings of LMX theory, such as the importance of social interaction and relationship building and maintenance necessary to achieve organizationalgoals. We explore how an employee's relationship with their leader also shapes their peer relationships and their overall standing within their workgroup. Further, the text examines the potential dark side of LMX theory, such as the tendency towards demographic and trait and state similarity. Employing a communicative perspective emphasizes the extent of position and personal power both leaders and members have in engineering the quality of the relationship they desire. Integrating and applying once disparate lines of academic literature, this book offers employees, students, and teacher-scholars pragmatic yet research-based insights into developing and maintaining successful, healthy workplace relationships.

Integrates LMX and communication research and theory to offer empirical-based advice for how to develop and maintain successfully, healthy workplace relationships Considers the implications of differentiated relationships, who stands to benefit, who stands to lose, and what both leaders and members can do to focus on strengthening their workplace relationships Each chapter also includes the following features: Leadership in action leader and organizational profiles, strengthening your communication skills columns, case studies, and practical takeaways

Auteur

Leah M. Omilion-Hodges is Associate Professor in the School of Communication at Western Michigan University, USA. Her research fuses organizational communication with health communication, allowing her to explore questions that are relevant to academics and practitioners within applied communication contexts.

Jennifer K. Ptacek is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Communication at the University of Dayton, USA. Her research examines intersections of health and organizational communication, specifically in contexts of relationships in healthcare workplaces, stress and social support, leadership, and organizational identification.

Résumé
"Omilion-Hodges and Ptacek offer a unique take on LMX through their communication framework. Their book teaches the value of LMX relationships and trains readers in effective communication. I recommend it for a general applied audience who would like to expand their leadership repertoire. So often we get comfortable with a particular approach to leadership, be it transactional, transformational, path-goal, and so forth. If practitioners want to expand their leadership skills with LMX, then this book is an approachable start." (Reed Priest, Personnel Psychology, Vol. 74 (4), 2022)

Contenu

Part 1: Setting the Foundation: Understanding the Role of Communication in Leader-Member, Peer, and Team Relationships.- What is Leader-Member Exchange (LMX) Theory?.- Leadership and Communication: Demystifying the Steps to Success.- Coworkers: Sources of Support or Relationships Gone Sour.- Fitting into the Workgroup: Relationships within the Team.- Part 2: Exploring the Various Intersections of Communication and Leadership.- Leadership in Different Organizations and Sectors.- Diversity and Ethics in LMX.- Leadership and Context: Reading the Room.- When Good People are Bad Leaders: When and Why Leadership Fails.- Self-Reflection: Identifying the Leader in You.- Closing Thoughts and Additional Resources.