Week 3: Leader-Member Exchange Theory in Action

For my reflection about my third week as an intern in the GMCIP with CVS Health|Aetna, I will detail the leader-member exchange (LMX) theory relative to my team and manager. The LMX theory conceptualizes leadership as a process centered around interactions between a leader and their followers. I learned about this theory during my Theories and Models class with Dr. Harwell during my junior year in Jepson. This theory developed first through investigating the relationships that exist between a leader and each individual follower in what’s known as a vertical dyad linkage. Following that, LMX theory began to analyze organizational effectiveness, namely the quality of the leader and the exchanges between them and their followers. The better the exchanges are, the more positive the outcomes are for the leadership, followers, groups, and organizations. The anecdotal evidence that I would like to reference highlighting the LMX theory in action happened earlier this week in a meeting I was in with a member of my team, Jennifer. Jennifer is the liaison between Aetna, the payer, and our value-based contract providers (VBPs) in Kentucky. Value-based care is a shift away from fee-for-service care where insurance companies contract doctors to provide good quality care to members in return for monetary and contractual benefits/incentives. This specific meeting was between Jennifer and one of Aetna Better Health of Kentucky’s VBP and involved an analysis on the provider’s care quality for the duration of 2021. I am grateful for the opportunity to have sat in on the meeting because I was able to experience LMX theory in action regarding Jennifer’s behavior and actions toward the provider. Jennifer was explaining how the team had not been meeting the quality metrics their contract outlined in terms of basic preventative care standards determined by Aetna. As she presented data outlining their metrics on the different standards of care, she had to handle very delicately how to explain to this provider that they were not satisfying their contractual obligations. Jennifer very apparently had a strong relationship with this provider, so much so where the provider took time to point out at the end of the conversation how much they appreciated the feedback and the way the discussion was handled, especially in comparison to similar conversations with other insurance payers they are in contract with. The LMX theory best describes this encounter because the quality of the relationship between the leader (Jennifer) and the follower (the healthcare provider) was strong, making a constructive critique easier to digest and respond to.