The empirical relationship between the level of job satisfaction and the quality of leader-member exchange in engineers and scientists at a government aerospace facility

The vitality of the American economy, especially the high technology sector, forms the foundation of the country's quality of life, its national security, and greater economic opportunities for future generations. Managers must strive to find methods to improve the performance of their subordinates and their unit in order to maintain their competitive edge. Job satisfaction, and the ability of mangers to influence it through the development of high quality interpersonal relationships, is one possible method to accomplish this. Leader-Member Exchange is one theoretical construct that examines the relationship between a leader and member. There has been no research completed that demonstrates a connection between the job satisfaction and the quality of Leader-Member Exchange in engineers and scientists.;A group of 184 scientists and engineers at a government aerospace facility in the southeastern U.S. was studied. Each participant completed an electronically based survey designed to measure satisfaction, Leader-Member Exchange and selected demographic characteristics of interest.;The main findings show that in a population of engineers and scientists the level of job satisfaction (general, intrinsic, extrinsic, relational) is related to the quality of Leader-Member Exchange (overall and with its components). This result extends the theory of this relationship to the subject population. The data were examined along demographic categories in order to compare the rate of response difference. In the category of gender, males were found to demonstrate a greater increase in their level of extrinsic satisfaction from an equal increase in the quality of Leader-Member Exchange than females. Also, doctoral holders demonstrated the same ability when compared to other education levels. Employees that are fifty to less than sixty in age showed a marked decline, when compared to other age categories, in the ability for an increase in Leader-Member Exchange to increase their level of either intrinsic or extrinsic satisfaction.