Supervisors' Upward Exchange Relationships and Subordinate Outcomes: Testing the Multilevel Mediation Role of Empowerment

• 成果类型: Article
• 署名作者: Zhou, Le; Wang, Mo; Chen, Gilad; Shi, Junqi
• 署名单位: Peking University; State University System of Florida; University of Florida; University System of Maryland; University of Maryland College Park
• 刊物名称: JOURNAL OF APPLIED PSYCHOLOGY
• ISSN/ISSBN: 0021-9010
• DOI: 10.1037/a0026305
• 发表日期: 2012
• 页码: 668-680
• 关键词: LMX; empowerment; LLX

摘要

This study empirically examined the proposition that supervisors' exchange relationships with their own supervisors (i.e., leader leader exchange, or LLX) are related to their subordinates' work-related outcomes through 3 mechanisms: (a) leaders modeling their LLX to develop and maintain their exchange relationships with their subordinates (i.e., leader member exchange, or LMX), (b) motivating the team and its members, captured by team and individual empowerment, and (c) facilitating the relationships between LMX and individual outcomes. Analyses of multisource and lagged data from 104 team supervisors and 577 subordinates showed that LMX mediated the positive relationship of LLX on subordinates' individual empowerment. Furthermore, team empowerment and individual empowerment sequentially mediated the positive relationships between LLX and subordinates' job satisfaction and job performance. The authors also found that the indirect relationships of LMX with job satisfaction and job performance via individual empowerment were stronger when LLX was higher. Theoretical and practical implications of these findings are discussed.