Theories in Action: LMX Theory and my Office

The Relationship-Based Approach to Leadership: Development of Leader-Member Exchange (LMX) Theory of Leadership over 25 Years by George Graen and Mary Uhl-Bien provides a focused empirical examination of leader-member exchange as a relationship-based approach to leadership.  Unlike other schools of thought which posit that leaders purposefully utilize transactional or transformational leadership in order to influence, LMX theory suggests that the leadership styles that leaders employ result from the type of relationship that exists between the leader and the follower.  This study claims that high-quality relationships between leaders and followers result in transformational leadership styles while lower-quality relationships rely on transactional or contractually-based leadership. However, high-quality relationships require resource investment by a leader who already has  limited time and social resources. Thus, Graen & Uhl-Bien suggest that the number of high-quality relationships that a leader can maintain is limited by these constraints.

Based on my experience, I could understand how this model may accurately portray a portion of contemporary leadership.  The Virginia Beach Office of Senator Kaine employs only two staff members. Thus, my supervisor can spare time to develop a higher-quality relationship between myself and her staff assistant.  Material incentives are characteristic of transactional leadership and consequently lower-quality relationships. Subsequently, I have not been offered material incentives by my supervisor to perform duties outside my originally described role.  Instead, the higher-quality leader-follower relationship that has been cultivated between my supervisor and I has offered other benefits such as schedule flexibility, professional advice, career strategizing, and a boss that I can reliably say is now a portion of my professional support network.  This type of high-quality leader-follower dynamic allowed me to obtain solid references, more responsibility, and the opportunity to make a difference in the efficacy of my workplace which I believe to be much more mutually-beneficial than the contractually based dynamic.