Leader-Member Exchange, Employee Performance and Work Engagement
The leader is one of the dominant factors in shaping the character of
his subordinates. Maslyn & Uhl-Bien (2001) explain that the LMX theory
is unique among other leadership theories in that it does not consider
followers as passive recipients of leadership, but both dyad partners
contribute to the formation and development of relationships. By showing
openness to discuss, negotiate, and support subordinates, leaders show
that they value and trust their subordinates (Anand et al., 2018). The
appreciation and trust given by the leader to his subordinates make
subordinates feel more valued so that they can improve employee
performance. In addition, leaders in a company greatly determine
employee work engagement (Decuypere & Schaufeli, 2020; Lai et al.,
2020; Sheikh et al., 2019; Zheng et al., 2020) by providing solutions to
problems faced by employees (Enwereuzor et al., 2018; Reitan &
Stenberg, 2019). Several previous studies have proven that high LMX can
improve employee performance (Anand et al., 2018; A. Lee et al., 2019;
Singh & Vidyarthi, 2018) and employee work engagement (Agarwal et al.,
2012; Kim & Koo, 2017). For these reasons, the researchers formed the
following hypothesis:
Hypothesis 2 : LMX has a positive effect on employee performance
Hypothesis 3: LMX has a positive effect on employee work
engagement