Leadership Development: Exploring Leader-Member Exchange Theory

This essay delves into leadership development, focusing on the Leader-Member Exchange (LMX) theory. It examines how leaders build relationships with subordinates and how these relationships impact employee motivation, job satisfaction, and organizational performance. The essay discusses the practical implications of LMX theory, including the development of in-group employees, increased trust, and enhanced communication within organizations. It also explores how leaders can leverage LMX principles to foster employee self-efficacy, reduce turnover intentions, and create a more productive work environment. The analysis highlights the benefits of high-quality leader-member relationships, emphasizing the importance of trust, respect, and effective communication for achieving organizational goals. The author provides a personal perspective, reflecting on their experience and knowledge gained through the application of LMX theory, and how it can be used to improve interactions between employees and leaders, ultimately increasing productivity.

RUNNING HEAD: LEADERSHIP DEVELOPMENT 0
Leadership Development
Student’s Details
9/26/2019

LEADERSHIP DEVELOPMENT 1
Leadership Development
Leadership development is concerned with enhancing the skills and abilities of the
leaders for the development of the long term goal. It seeks to increase the caliber of the leaders in
order to perform effective leadership into the organization (Komives, 2016). However, the theory
of leadership development called Leader-Member exchange theory is used for the strengthening
the relationship between the leader and the follower (Herman & Dasborough, 2016). This theory
works majorly on two components. First is the role taking where the leader assumes his/her
position in the place of another person and another role is role making where the members are
expected to take new roles by taking the full responsibility of that position.
On the basis of understanding of this leadership theory, it can be implicated on the
employee working into the organization. As the theory specifically increases the employee
involvement, it is able to motivate the employees more and has increased the job satisfaction of
the employees. I have experienced that the knowledge which is acquired by LMX can be helpful
for the employee working into the organization as it can give rise to the development of in-group
employees by proving them an opportunity to grow and achieve the organizational objectives
(Graen, Canedo, & Grace, 2018). LMX theory can be applied to the leader into the organization.
A leader can leverage the leadership skills and enhance the relationship with the subordinates.
The theory can be implied to the leader in the sense that the leader can motivate their members
more and can encourage the employees more. Also, it can be noted LMX theory focuses on each
follower rather than using single leaderships for all the members. Thus, I have experienced that
the knowledge gained can be used for fostering the relationship with each member into the
organization and increases the level of trust and make the followers more productive. A leader
can use the acquired knowledge to increase the self-efficacy of employees. The knowledge can
also be used to reduce the turnover intentions and increases the job satisfaction.
In-group employees are more trustworthy and loyal persons getting more opportunities
for personal development. Also, it can be noted that there are benefits for being ‘in-group’ for the
employees as it provides more career opportunities and gets more support and guidance from the
leader which ultimately helps in the achievement of the personal goals (Martin, Guillaume,
Thomas, Lee, & Epitropaki, 2016). Apart from this, LMX theory creates high quality leader-

LEADERSHIP DEVELOPMENT 2
members relationship that benefits the organization in various ways. The theory enhances the
communication of organizational members and also leverages the trust and respect between the
involving parties. It ultimately leads to an effective organization through the quality relationships
and reducing the conflicts that can arise due to the dissatisfaction of employees.
To conclude, it can be said that the leader-member exchange theory facilitates the
improved interaction of the employees and the leader. It can give huge benefits to the
organization and also encourages the relationship between the leader and employees for creating
high level of trust and also leads to higher productivity of the company.

LEADERSHIP DEVELOPMENT 3
References
Graen, G., Canedo, J., & Grace, M. (2018). Adapting LMX theory to forthcoming changes: two
different frameworks. Industrial and Organizational Psychology, 11(3), 531-535.
Herman, H., & Dasborough, M. (2016). Leadership and leader–member exchange (LMX). In
Encyclopedia of Human Resource Management (p. 552). Edward Elgar Publishing
Limited.
Komives, S. (2016). Leadership for a better world: Understanding the social change model of
leadership development. John Wiley & Sons.
Martin, R., Guillaume, Y., Thomas, G., Lee, A., & Epitropaki, O. (2016). Leader–member
exchange (LMX) and performance: A meta‐analytic review. Personnel Psychology,
69(1), 67-121.