Abstract
The results of the present longitudinal study demonstrate the importance of implicit leadership theories (ILTs) for the quality of leader-member exchanges (LMX) and employees' organizational commitment, job satisfaction, and well-being. Results based on a sample of 439 employees who completed the study questionnaires at 2 time points showed that the closer employees perceived their actual manager's profile to be to the ILTs they endorsed, the better the quality of LMX. Results also indicated that the implicit-explicit leadership traits difference had indirect effects on employee attitudes and well-being. These findings were consistent across employee groups that differed in terms of job demand and the duration of manager-employee relation, but not in terms of motivation. Furthermore, crossed-lagged modeling analyses of the longitudinal data explored the possibility of reciprocal effects between implicit-explicit leadership traits difference and LMX and provided support for the initially hypothesized direction of causal effects.
Original language | English |
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Pages (from-to) | 659-676 |
Number of pages | 18 |
Journal | Journal of Applied Psychology |
Volume | 90 |
Issue number | 4 |
DOIs | |
Publication status | Published - Jul 2005 |
Keywords
- implicit leadership theories
- ILTs
- quality of leader-member exchanges
- LMX
- employees' organizational commitment
- job satisfaction
- well-being