Research Article
A Multi-Level Approach to the Relationship between Leader-Member Exchange and Team Member Job Stress
1 Korea Naval Academy, 2 Pukyong National University
Published: January 2016 · Vol. 45, No. 2 · pp. 687-710
DOI: https://doi.org/10.17287/kmr.2016.45.2.687
Full Text
Abstract
Leader-member exchange(LMX) quality has been found to provide members with precious resources and social support, which, in turn, reduce their job stress in earlier studies. Early LMX literature tended to concentrate on the differentiated dyad-level process, but the focus of some recent research moves beyond the dyad-level LMX to the team-level LMX process. Studies on team-level LMX yield important insights for LMX theory because it suggests more in-depth explanations for both individual and group effectiveness. According to previous studies, team-level contextual variables influence members' job stress. However, we currently know very little about how team-level LMX variables affect members' job stress beyond the effects of dyad-level LMX quality because no research has investigated the effects of team-level LMX on individual job stress. In the current study, we theorized and examined the main effects of team mean LMX and team LMX differentiation, the interaction effect of team mean LMX and team LMX differentiation, and the multilevel interaction effect of team-level LMX and dyad-level LMX on team members' job stress. The results from companies in South Korea indicated that team LMX differentiation significantly increased team members' job stress, and that team mean LMX significantly reduced their job stress. We also found that team mean LMX attenuated the positive relationship between team LMX differentiation and team members' job stress, and that team LMX differentiation strengthened the negative relationship between dyad-level LMX and team members' job stress. The findings of this study suggest that team-level LMX plays a pivotal role in determining levels of team member job stress, and that leaders should consider team-level LMX as well as dyad-level LMX. We discussed theoretical and managerial implications of multilevel LMX processes in teams.
