The relationships among inner and outer circle membership in nurse managers and leader-member exchange, self-esteem, and mutuality

The purpose of this study was to examine the relationships among inner and outer circle membership in nurse managers and leader-member exchange, self-esteem, and mutuality. The transactional model of leadership (Jacobs, 1970) provided the theoretical rationale for the study.; Leadership studies have focused on the leader's behavior, have assumed that leaders behave the same way toward all followers, and have not considered individual differences among the members of the group. However, some studies view leadership as an exchange relationship between leader and follower and differentiate between in-group and out-group exchanges based on the degree of negotiating latitude between the leader and the follower (Graen, 1976). The designation of followers as in-group and out-group members has not been extensively studied and has implications for managers and leaders within organizations.; It was hypothesized that nurses identified as inner circle managers would have higher leader-member exchange scores, higher self-esteem scores, and higher mutuality scores than nurses identified as outer circle managers.; The Leader-Member Exchange Scale (LMX-6) (Schreisheim, Neider, Scandura & Tepper, 1992), the Self-Esteem Inventory (SEI) Adult Form published by Coopersmith (1967) and the Mutual Psychological Development Questionnaire (Genero, Miller, Surrey & Baldwin, 1992) were administered to a convenience sample of 195 nurse managers. The sample was obtained from acute care hospitals across the United States. The nurse executive in each of the hospitals was asked to designate as either inner or outer circle those members of her management team who had volunteered for the study. One hundred and twenty-nine nurse managers were identified as inner circle managers and 66 were identified as outer circle managers by their nurse executives.; The data were analyzed using the analysis of variance (ANOVA). This study supported the first two hypotheses, that designation as inner circle manager is related to higher leader-member exchange and self-esteem in a sample of nurse managers. It did not, however, demonstrate a significant relationship between the designation as inner circle manager and mutuality. Implications for nursing management and nursing research are discussed.