Leader–member exchange as a moderator of the relationship between employee–organization exchange and affective commitment

Abstract

While there is some evidence on the outcomes of employee–organization exchange relationships and leader–member exchange (LMX) relationships, less is known about their combined role as predictors of employee outcomes. Relying on a recent conceptualization of social leader–member exchange (SLMX) and economic leader–member exchange (ELMX) as two separate dimensions of LMX, the present study explored whether SLMX and ELMX moderate the associations between organizational social and economic exchange and affective commitment. The main finding was that the association between organizational economic exchange and affective commitment is attenuated by SLMX. In addition, a positive association between intrinsic motivation and affective commitment was also unveiled, suggesting that affective commitment is not only determined by the prosocial motivation emanating from social exchange relationships, but also from the intrinsic motivation inherent in the work itself.

Keywords::

• affective commitment
• economic leader–member exchange
• employee–organization relationship
• intrinsic motivation
• social exchange
• social leader–member exchange

Acknowledgements

The author would like to thank Bård Kuvaas and Anders Dysvik for their helpful comments and review of earlier versions of this paper.