Unity of command: Impacts of multiple supervisors in cross-functional working environments

The focus of this study was to research employee job performance, job satisfaction, and organizational commitment as it related to leader-member exchange (LMX) relationships when multiple reporting relationships existed in an organization. It was further refined to investigate the effects of role ambiguity on the LMX relationship. Role theory suggests that employees may be impacted by confusing or differing directions and expectations when more than one supervisor exists. This has the potential of affecting elements of employee behavior, the impact of which was investigated in this research study. Seven hypotheses were developed relating employee behavior within an organization to differing levels of LMX supervisory relationships which were then further researched to gauge the impact of role ambiguity. To explore significant relationships between variables, combinations of one-way ANOVAs and multiple regression analyses were conducted. With initial results, employees reported greater role ambiguity in multiple-reporting relationships than in single-reporting-relationships. Supervisors reported an opposite perspective. Within multiple-reporting relationships, employee job performance, satisfaction, and organizational commitment were significantly influenced by LMX relationships and role ambiguity. It was also discovered that there was a significant interactive effect between LMX and role ambiguity on the dependent variables. Mixed results were reported for two hypotheses examining mixed LMX and role ambiguity on employee performance and organizational commitment.