Strength in Bonds: The Impact of LMX Congruence on Employee Resilience and Organizational Citizenship Behavior
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.22555/pbr.v27i4.1517Keywords:
LMX congruence, citizenship behavior, employee resilience, polynomial regressionAbstract
This study aims to investigate how congruence or incongruence in leader–member exchange (LMX) quality influences employee resilience as an immediate outcome and organizational citizenship behavior (OCB) as a distant outcome. We focus on OCBO rather than OCBI because behaviors that benefit the organization are more directly influenced by role clarity and cognitive evaluations, which are central to leader-member dyadic congruence. This allows us to examine how aligned perceptions of LMX quality shape broader organizational outcomes through employee resilience. Additionally, this study extends LMX research by examining how both the quality of LMX and the congruence between leaders’ and members’ perceptions of this relationship influence employee developable outcomes, particularly resilience. Data were collected from N = 180 matched leader-member dyads in field settings and were analyzed using polynomial regression and response surface methodology. The findings revealed that incongruence in leader-member exchange (LMX) quality was less effective in promoting employee resilience compared to LMX congruence. Both high and low levels of LMX congruence positively influenced employee resilience and organizational citizenship behavior (OCBO), whereas varying degrees of incongruence had negative effects on these outcomes. Additionally, resilience partially mediated the relationship between LMX (in)congruence and OCBO. By integrating and comparing different dyadic relationship configurations, including high–high and low–low congruence, this study highlights the nuanced effects of leader–member perceptual alignment on employee outcomes such as resilience and OCBO. A key practical insight is that congruence in LMX quality, whether at high or low levels, strengthens resilience and OCBO, but the most favorable outcomes occur when both leaders and members perceive high-quality LMX.
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