Leader-member exchange (LMX), job autonomy,
and creative work involvement
Volmer, J., Spurk, D., & Niessen, C. (2012)
● Global companies are rapidly changing, needing employees who search for new
opportunities and who continuously improve their work environment.
● Creativity has been considered to be a key driver for organisational effectiveness and
survival.
○ Creativity = the generation of novel and useful ideas
● Leaders are believed to be one of the most influential predictors of creativity at work.
○ Leaders need to know how to provide a context for employees' creativity
● Multiple streams of research looking into the impact of leaders on creativity:
○ Leader and follower traits
○ Transformational leadership
○ Benevolent leadership
○ Empowering leadership
○ Association between a relational concept of leadership, namely leader-member
exchange (LMX) and creativity - LMX is also the focus of this research.
● LMX theory:
○ Explicit focus on unique, dyadic relationships
○ The notion that leaders and followers negotiate their relationship over time
○ Research on the LMX-creativity association revealed heterogeneous findings,
pointing to inconsistencies in this relationship and suggesting an influence of a
third variable.
● Purpose of this research: extend existing research that connects LMX with creativity
by focusing on job autonomy as a moderator.
● Previous research focuses on employees’ creative work involvement as an important
component of creativity, together with creative performance. This research focuses
on creative work involvement:
○ Creative work involvement = the extent to which an employee engages his or
her time and effort resources in creative processes associated with work
■ Focuses on individuals' subjective assessment of their involvement in
creative tasks at work
■ Creative work involvement is regarded as an important precursor of
creative outcomes because it is strongly related to creative performance
and innovation.
○ Creative performance = supervisors' evaluation of employees' creative
problem-solving at work, or objectively (through the use of external judges)
assesses numbers and quality of suggestions or ideas.
■ Focus on outcomes of creativity: i.e. the actual idea or solution
● Reason for this research: research on how job characteristics can foster creative
work involvement is still missing
● This research examines the moderating role of job autonomy in the relationship
between LMX and creative work involvement. Job autonomy as a moderator because:
○ It is one component of the Job Characteristics Model (JCM) that has received a
lot of research attention in the job design literature.
1
, ○ It has been considered to be of special importance among job characteristics
for numerous outcomes (e.g., performance, turnover intentions, satisfaction,
role conflict, anxiety), since job autonomy enables self-determination and
meaning
● Assumptions: opportunities provided within high-quality LMX relationships are best
used in conjunction with job design features (i.e. job autonomy) which allows
employees to determine the pace, sequence, and methods when accomplishing tasks.
● Job autonomy is important for creative work involvement as it provides employees –
beyond the trust and support provided by a high-quality LMX relationship – with a
sense of responsibility for their jobs.
● Contributions to literature:
○ Examines the important role of leaders in fostering employees' creative work
involvement as an important antecedent of creative outcomes, which has yet to
be adequately examined.
○ No research was previously done that focuses on the interplay between a
relational concept of leadership (i.e. LMX) and job autonomy for creative work
involvement.
■ Identifying job autonomy as one potential moderator: job design
features influence the type or content of the social exchange process
between supervisor and subordinate.
○ The study extends earlier research by theoretically integrating the important job
design variable of job autonomy into LMX theory.
● Practical contributions: results provide important information for practitioners because
identifying job conditions that amplify leadership effects are relevant for designing
intervention tools in leadership training programs.
Theory and hypothesis
Leader-member-exchange (LMX) and creative work environment
LMX theory builds on social exchange theory and assumes that:
● A supervisor has a unique relationship with each employee
● The relationship is negotiated over time as a result of role expectations and fulfillments
between leaders and members.
A high-quality relationship = favourable reciprocal exchanges between and has numerous
positive outcomes: better performance, more commitment, job satisfaction and a higher
degree of mutual liking.
Possible reasons for positive LMX-creativity relationship include:
● Employees in high-quality relationships are more creative because they have a more
focused approach to challenging and difficult tasks, they have greater risk-taking and
receive more task-related recognition, interpersonal support and appreciation.
● A good LMX relationship is accompanied by encouraging climate perceptions.
● Employees who enjoy a high-quality LMX relationship feel obligated to reciprocate to
their supervisors by engaging in discretionary processes at work,
On average, research showed there is a positive relationship between LMX and creativity, but
there are studies that found no relationship as well. Therefore, this study is looking to examine
2
and creative work involvement
Volmer, J., Spurk, D., & Niessen, C. (2012)
● Global companies are rapidly changing, needing employees who search for new
opportunities and who continuously improve their work environment.
● Creativity has been considered to be a key driver for organisational effectiveness and
survival.
○ Creativity = the generation of novel and useful ideas
● Leaders are believed to be one of the most influential predictors of creativity at work.
○ Leaders need to know how to provide a context for employees' creativity
● Multiple streams of research looking into the impact of leaders on creativity:
○ Leader and follower traits
○ Transformational leadership
○ Benevolent leadership
○ Empowering leadership
○ Association between a relational concept of leadership, namely leader-member
exchange (LMX) and creativity - LMX is also the focus of this research.
● LMX theory:
○ Explicit focus on unique, dyadic relationships
○ The notion that leaders and followers negotiate their relationship over time
○ Research on the LMX-creativity association revealed heterogeneous findings,
pointing to inconsistencies in this relationship and suggesting an influence of a
third variable.
● Purpose of this research: extend existing research that connects LMX with creativity
by focusing on job autonomy as a moderator.
● Previous research focuses on employees’ creative work involvement as an important
component of creativity, together with creative performance. This research focuses
on creative work involvement:
○ Creative work involvement = the extent to which an employee engages his or
her time and effort resources in creative processes associated with work
■ Focuses on individuals' subjective assessment of their involvement in
creative tasks at work
■ Creative work involvement is regarded as an important precursor of
creative outcomes because it is strongly related to creative performance
and innovation.
○ Creative performance = supervisors' evaluation of employees' creative
problem-solving at work, or objectively (through the use of external judges)
assesses numbers and quality of suggestions or ideas.
■ Focus on outcomes of creativity: i.e. the actual idea or solution
● Reason for this research: research on how job characteristics can foster creative
work involvement is still missing
● This research examines the moderating role of job autonomy in the relationship
between LMX and creative work involvement. Job autonomy as a moderator because:
○ It is one component of the Job Characteristics Model (JCM) that has received a
lot of research attention in the job design literature.
1
, ○ It has been considered to be of special importance among job characteristics
for numerous outcomes (e.g., performance, turnover intentions, satisfaction,
role conflict, anxiety), since job autonomy enables self-determination and
meaning
● Assumptions: opportunities provided within high-quality LMX relationships are best
used in conjunction with job design features (i.e. job autonomy) which allows
employees to determine the pace, sequence, and methods when accomplishing tasks.
● Job autonomy is important for creative work involvement as it provides employees –
beyond the trust and support provided by a high-quality LMX relationship – with a
sense of responsibility for their jobs.
● Contributions to literature:
○ Examines the important role of leaders in fostering employees' creative work
involvement as an important antecedent of creative outcomes, which has yet to
be adequately examined.
○ No research was previously done that focuses on the interplay between a
relational concept of leadership (i.e. LMX) and job autonomy for creative work
involvement.
■ Identifying job autonomy as one potential moderator: job design
features influence the type or content of the social exchange process
between supervisor and subordinate.
○ The study extends earlier research by theoretically integrating the important job
design variable of job autonomy into LMX theory.
● Practical contributions: results provide important information for practitioners because
identifying job conditions that amplify leadership effects are relevant for designing
intervention tools in leadership training programs.
Theory and hypothesis
Leader-member-exchange (LMX) and creative work environment
LMX theory builds on social exchange theory and assumes that:
● A supervisor has a unique relationship with each employee
● The relationship is negotiated over time as a result of role expectations and fulfillments
between leaders and members.
A high-quality relationship = favourable reciprocal exchanges between and has numerous
positive outcomes: better performance, more commitment, job satisfaction and a higher
degree of mutual liking.
Possible reasons for positive LMX-creativity relationship include:
● Employees in high-quality relationships are more creative because they have a more
focused approach to challenging and difficult tasks, they have greater risk-taking and
receive more task-related recognition, interpersonal support and appreciation.
● A good LMX relationship is accompanied by encouraging climate perceptions.
● Employees who enjoy a high-quality LMX relationship feel obligated to reciprocate to
their supervisors by engaging in discretionary processes at work,
On average, research showed there is a positive relationship between LMX and creativity, but
there are studies that found no relationship as well. Therefore, this study is looking to examine
2
