Leaders' Enhancement of Leader–Member Exchange (LMX) Relationships: An Examination of Leaders' Cognitive Support and Knowledge Resources in Research Group

The quality of leader-follower relationships has repeatedly been associated with positive individual and organizational outcomes. But how can leaders improve on the quality of the relationships they have with their followers? We examined the effects of the Cognitive Support and Knowledge Resources that leaders provide their followers in a sample of 166 academic and commercial researchers in Sweden. Our goal was to investigate whether these two task-related variables were antecedents of followers’ perceptions of leader-member exchange (LMX) in research settings. Specifically, we investigate the effect of leader-provided Cognitive Support and Knowledge Resources in relation to the four sub-dimensions of LMX (LMX-MDM): Affect, Loyalty, Contribution, and Professional Respect. As we hypothesized, we found that both Cognitive Support and Knowledge Resources, with one exception, related to the four sub-dimensions. The exception was the failed association between Cognitive Support and Loyalty. We conclude that in creative knowledge environments, Cognitive Support and Knowledge Resources are possible means for leaders to influence the quality of their leader-member relationships.