It is hard to overstate the importance of the leader-member exchange relationship. Employees who share a high-quality relationship with their leader are more likely to earn a higher salary, climb the ranks more quickly, and report higher life satisfaction levels than their peers who have a less copasetic leader-member relationship. While Leader-Member Exchange Theory (LMX) research addresses the impact that the leader-member relationship has on the individual employee experience, much of this scholarship overlooks or obscures the vital role that communication plays in the development and maintenance of workgroup relationships. Much of extant literature also glosses over the role that communication plays in workgroup collaboration. Using a communicative lens, this text illustrates the complex theoretical underpinnings of LMX theory, such as the importance of social interaction and relationship building and maintenance necessary to achieve organizational goals. We explore how an employee’s relationship with their leader also shapes their peer relationships and their overall standing within their workgroup. Further, the text examines the potential dark side of LMX theory, such as the tendency towards demographic and trait and state similarity. Employing a communicative perspective emphasizes the extent of position and personal power both leaders and members have in engineering the quality of the relationship they desire. Integrating and applying once disparate lines of academic literature, this book offers employees, students, and teacher-scholars pragmatic yet research-based insights into developing and maintaining successful, healthy workplace relationships.

As the leadership field continues to evolve, there are many reasons to be optimistic about the various theoretical and empirical contributions in better understanding leadership from a scholarly and scientific perspective. The Oxford Handbook of Leadership and Organizations brings together a collection of comprehensive, state-of-the-science reviews and perspectives on the most pressing historical and contemporary leadership issues - with a particular focus on theory and research - and looks to the future of the field. It provides a broad picture of the leadership field as well as detailed reviews and perspectives within the respective areas. Each chapter, authored by leading international authorities in the various leadership sub-disciplines, explores the history and background of leadership in organizations, examines important research issues in leadership from both quantitative and qualitative perspectives, and forges new directions in leadership research, practice, and education.

Explores all aspects of interpersonal communication at work, from face-to-face meetings to new forms of computer mediated communication such as social media. Will help the reader achieve skilled interpersonal communication at work through the understanding of relevant theory and latest research, made clear in non-technical language with examples.

This book provides the most thorough view available on this new and intriguing dimension of workplace psychology, which is the basis of fulfilling, productive work. The book begins by defining work engagement, which has been described as ‘an opposite to burnout,’ following its development into a more complex concept with far reaching implications for work-life. The chapters discuss the sources of work engagement, emphasizing the importance of leadership, organizational structures, and human resource management as factors that may operate to either enhance or inhibit employee’s experience of work. The book considers the implications of work engagement for both the individual employee and the organization as a whole. To address readers’ practical questions, the book provides in-depth coverage of interventions that can enhance employees’ work engagement and improve management techniques. Based upon the most up-to-date research by the foremost experts in the world, this volume brings together the best knowledge available on work engagement, and will be of great use to academic researchers, upper level students of work and organizational psychology as well as management consultants.

Leader-member exchange (LMX) is the foremost dyadic theory in the leadership literature. Whereas contemporary leadership theories such as transformational, servant, or authentic leadership theories focus on the effects of leader behaviors on employee attitudes, motivation, and team outcomes, relational leadership theory views the dyadic relationship quality between leaders and members as the key to understanding leader effects on members, teams, and organizations. This approach views trust- and respect-based relationships as the cornerstone of leadership. LMX has grown from a new theory in the 1970s to a mature area of research in 2015. Interest in this theory has increased rapidly over the past four decades, and the pace of research in this area continues to accelerate dramatically. The Oxford Handbook of Leader-Member Exchange takes stock of the literature to examine its roots, what is currently known, what research gaps may exist, and what areas are in need of the most urgent research.

Rooted in real-world research and insights, this book envisions a world of work where all employees feel valued for their authentic selves and are able to experience the encouragement and comradery of office connection from the comfort of their homes.