Does my leader care about my subgroup? A multilevel model of team faultlines, LMX quality, and employee absenteeism

Abstract

ABSTRACT This article investigates the impact of demographic team faultlines on employee absenteeism by considering the level of leader-member exchange (LMX) that supervisors develop with members from different subgroups in a team. We integrate faultline research with the literature on LMX differentiation to build an integrative multilevel model to explain individual absenteeism behaviour. Drawing from social categorization and social comparison theory, we propose that members of subgroups that receive less favourable LMX treatment than their outgroup are particularly likely to increase their absenteeism behaviour due to faultline-induced social categorization. Our predictions receive empirical support in a study with 164 employees from a German electrical engineering company. We discuss implications for the faultline and LMX literature and executives who lead diverse teams.