Unbalanced Leader-Member Exchange Relationship —Construct Creation And Scale Development

Leader-Member Exchange Theory (LMX), which is based on the relationship between superiors and subordinates, is one of the most important themes that widely focused on by scholars. A large number of theoretical and empirical researches are done around it. This theory argues that leaders don’t treat all subordinates the same. They treat part of the subordinate as "insiders", and maintain a high quality relationship with them. This relationship is characterized by higher degree of mutual trust, respect and responsibility. But they see another part of the subordinates as "outsiders", and maintain a low quality relationship with them. Of course, that relationship is characterized by lower degree of mutual trust, respect and responsibility. One of the implicit assumptions in this theory is that in two kinds of these exchange relationships, the interests of superiors and subordinates are balanced. In reality, however, that’s not true. The emergence of servant leadership and abusive supervision also prove that the implicit assumption of LMX theory is insufficient to summarize all the kinds of exchange relationships between leaders and subordinates. So we propose a new construct, "Unbalanced Leader-Member Exchange Relationship (ULMX)", to challenge the view that the interests of superiors and subordinates are balanced. As the leaders’behaviors are different, the Unbalanced Leader-Member Exchange Relationship can be divided into three types:first, leaders emphasize their own interests while ignore the interests of subordinates, so he will not consider the subordinates’needs or they may use their own power to demand subordinates to do something that they don’t want to do, just like coercive exchange; second, leaders think that subordinates and themselves are equal, so they will consider their own requirements and also respect subordinates at the same time, and try their best to maintain the balance of the interests of both sides; third, leaders treat the subordinates as more important than themselves, so they will sacrifice their own interests and make subordinates get more interests. In order to complete the development of the new construct, we develop the measurement of Unbalanced Leader-Member Exchange Relationship. Data of preliminary research and formal research both come from MBA students in Nanjing University. The researches contain 60 and 124 samples respectively. Through strict data analysis, we identify a 3-score and 5-item scale, and try to use the scale to verify the relationships between ULMX and in-role behavior, job stress, perceived organizational justice, job satisfaction, affective commitment and turnover intention. The test results of criterion related validity show that the relationship between ULMX and job satisfaction, and the relationship between ULMX and affective commitment are positive, which are consistent with the theoretical predictions. But what is unexpected is that the relationship between ULMX and job stress is also positive. In addition, we examine the increased influence of ULMX above LMX on perceived organizational justice, job satisfaction, affective commitment and turnover intention. Unfortunately, assumptions are not supported. However, we can’t say that this new construct is meaningless. We at least point out a new development direction, and enrich the theory which is based on the relationship between superiors and subordinates. And the whole research process is also very rigorous and credible. In the future, we should examine the concept of the new construct and the applicability of its scale to further illustrate the significance of this construct.