When I first read about the Leader-Member Exchange Theory I wasn’t too sure that I liked or agreed with it. But now that I have had some time to think about it a little more and relate it to my own work experience, it really has started to make a lot of sense.
“LMX says that leadership is a process that is centered on the interactions between leaders and followers “(PSU World Campus, 2013). In LMX there are two groups an in-group and an out-group. The in-group is the group of individuals that go above and beyond their job description and make it known to the leader that they are willing to take on more responsibilities. The out-group are the individuals that go to work do their jobs exactly as their job description proclaims, no more no less. Bing in the in-group has many advantages; leaders give the individuals in the in-group more responsibility, more opportunities, and more of their time and support (Northouse, 2013. P. 168).
At first glance this may seem unfair to the out-group, because the out-group doesn’t receive the same advantages that the in-group receives. Let’s look at a real world example before we come to a conclusion though. Employee A comes in early stays late when asked takes on additional roles without extra pay in the department such as education coordinator and lets it been known that they want to help out any way possible. Employee B comes in on time leaves on time, and only does what is in his job description, and never volunteers for additional assignments. Employee A has more of a relationship with the department manager than does employee B. Employee A is in the in-group and employee B is in the out-group.
Looking at this example from the point of view as a leader, it really does make sense that employee A should receive most of the manager’s attention and should be promoted before employee B. The manager didn’t choose who was going to be in the in-group and out-group the employees choose that by their actions and work ethic.
This example is a real life situation that was in the department that I work. Employee A become the supervisor of the department and employee B is still there just at the same position that they have always been at. No one in the department thought that this was unfair that employee A got the promotion over employee B everyone understood that the employee was in the in-group because of the extra work they did and that lead to the promotion.
In our department it was understood by all how to get into the in-group and that was to go above and beyond the duties of your job such as volunteering for extra assignments. No one in the department sees this as an unfair way for our manager to act. A manager/leader only has so much time to spend on employees so why wouldn’t a manager/leader spend more time and energy on employee A then employee B. If employee B wants more attention than they should put in more effort and they will receive the same benefits of employee A.
References:
Nothouse, P.G. (2013). Leadership: Theory and Practice. (Sixth Edition). Thousand Oaks, California: Sage Publications.
PSU World Campus. (2013). L.08: Leader-Member Exchange Theory. Retrieved from https://courses.worldcampus.psu.edu/fa13/psych485/001/content/08_lesson/printlesson.html