Poor Leader-Member Exchange and Citizenship Behaviors: The Moderating Role of Member Spirituality

Abstract

We examine the role of spirituality in workplace outcomes. Our focus is on poor quality exchange relationships between leaders and their subordinates, characterized by leader-member exchange (LMX), and how these exchanges influence the employee’s performance of citizenship behaviors. We find empirical support for the idea that spirituality (an employee’s sense of connectedness to others and transcendence through work) is an important moderating force between employees having a poor quality relationship with their boss and their performance of organizational citizenship behaviors (OCB)—behaviors which are necessary for the functioning of the organization. We collected a multi-source sample (N=244) and found strong evidence, as we have predicted, that spirituality is an important construct in organizational behavior. Our results suggest that spirituality provides the impetus for subordinates in poor exchange relationships to continue to perform duties the organization needs in order to be successful. Practi...