Understanding Why They Don't See Eye to Eye: an Examination of Leader-member Exchange (LMX) Agreement

Although it is an explicitly dyadic approach to leadership, some leader-member exchange (LMX) research has been characterized by relatively low levels of agreement between leader and member judgments of the relationship. Using a combination of meta-analytic methods and primary data collection, the authors sought to explore several theoretically and methodologically meaningful factors that might account for lower levels of agreement. On the basis of data from 64 independent samples (N = 10,884 dyads), the authors found that overall agreement was moderate in nature (? = .37). In addition, they found that longer relationship tenure, affectively oriented relationship dimensions, and ad hoc sampling techniques showed the highest levels of agreement. Empirical results from 98 matched dyads revealed that the extent of LMX agreement increases as the length of relationship tenure and intensity of dyadic interaction increases. Implications for LMX theory and future empirical research are discussed.