Research On The Effect Of The Sales' Leader-Member Exchange On Job Performance

Developing in the early 1970s", Leader-Member Exchange(LMX) theory investigates the behaviors of leaders from the antithesis relations between leaders and members. It has become a hotpot of the research on the effectiveness of leadership behaviors after the development of more than thirty years. The improvement of organizational competence depends on the cooperation and effort among members. The healthy relationship of members, especially good leader-member relationship has become the basis and the key factor which could improve the efficiency of the organization, lower the turnover of employees and preserve the stability of the organization. Based on the review and the summary about the past LMX research, the author discusses the applicability of the four-dimensional structure of LMX under the Chinese culture background. Putting Psychological Empowerment as the mediator, the paper studies the relationship between organizational sales'LMX and job performance. At last, it provides the suggestions to improve the sales'LMX and job performance.This paper is divided into three parts. In the first part, the author reviews the theories of LMX, Psychological Empowerment and job performance, constructs the models and hypothesis, modifies the questionnaire which explores the relationship between LMX and job performance, and then test the multi-dimensional structure of LMX. The second part analyzes the correlation and regression and the situation of LMX and job performance for the sales, compares the difference of LMX by the demographic characters, analyzes the relationship between LMX and job performance in different dimensions and verifies the intermediary role of Psychological Empowerment in this relation. In the last part, provides the suggestions to improve the sales'LMX and job performance.The main conclusions of this paper are as follows:first, LMX structure for sales includes affect, loyalty, contribution and professional respect; second, different demographic variables have impact on LMX; third, there are significant positive correlations between LMX and job performance; fourth, Psychological Empowerment plays the intermediary role in the relationship between LMX and job performance.The principal innovations of this article are as follows:first, describes the relationship between LMX and job performance of sales; second, verifies that Psychological Empowerment is the mediator in the relation at the first time; third, provides the suggestions to improve the sales'LMX and job performance.