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There are some subordinates that have a deep understanding of their supervisor’s world. More than others, they understand their supervisor’s work relationships, preferences, demands, and resources. The goal of this thesis was to predict and test how this collection of strategic and sensitive information, or follower political knowledge, develops. Using the active perspective-taking framework, I focused on a subordinate’s motivation, capacity, and opportunity to acquire follower political knowledge. In particular, I hypothesized that key individual, relational, and contextual factors would predict follower political knowledge. Two studies were conducted to test these predictions: a cross-sectional survey of 467 employees and a cross-sectional survey of 174 supervisor-subordinate dyads. Across studies, political skill, leader-member exchange, and supervisors’ trust were the strongest predictors of follower political knowledge. The implications of these findings present a case to be made for the role of follower political knowledge in effective followership. / October 2016

The efficacy of leadership coaching to improve leader and organizational outcomes cannot be overstated. However, a thorough understanding of some of the inputs and process variables involved in coaching has not been empirically established to date. To address this issue in the leader development and coaching literature, I examined the characteristics of the coaches and the coachees and their relationships with two relational variables potentially involved in coaching relationships (i.e., leader-member exchange and trust). The importance of leadership to work outcomes and leader development is highlighted, followed by a discussion of the specific leader development technique of coaching. The discussion then moves to the relational variables of interest involved in coaching, namely leader-member exchange (LMX) and trust, drawing from research on team and leadership phenomena. Specific inputs (e.g., coach and coachee characteristics) and their impacts on the relationships of interest are discussed. This work focuses on hypotheses in three streams of research: characteristics of coaches and coachees, LMX, and trust. The findings from this research indicate that a coach's experience, specifically operationalized as the activities he or she has experience in, positively predicts LMX, and self-efficacy positively predicts LMX and trust in the coaching relationships. The theoretical and practical implications of this project are noted.

The goal of this study is to stimulate dialog in the research community around a model of learning linked to leadership in organizations. It is an attempt to integrate various communities of practice and divergent approaches by placing equal emphasis on developing a model of organizational learning as well as on embedding the development process itself into the context of a scientific dialog. A model of how learning in organizations can be conceptualized as a role negotiated between superiors and their subordinates is developed and investigated. The model postulates that individuals in organizations accomplish learning by specializing in certain learning tasks. This specialization is based on role behaviors and resources that constrain or facilitate learning opportunities negotiated in the workplace between subordinates and their superiors. How this learning may be shared to result in organizational learning and implications for theory development are discussed.

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The purpose of the following study was to investigate the role of interpersonal congruence between leaders' and followers' implicit theories of leadership (ILTs) and followership (IFTs) in both partners' perspectives of the leader-follower relationship. While most literature focuses on assessments of the leader-member exchange (LMX) relationship, this study examined perceived support, identification with one's partner, and contribution to the relationship, in addition to LMX. Congruence between self-views and interpersonal congruence on implicit theories was examined as moderators of these relationships, such that the strength of these relationships was predicted to increase as self-views aligned more highly with implicit theories. Data from 103 independent pairs of full-time working adults (across an organizational sample as well as varied workforce snowball sample) were analyzed using eight manifest path models. Leader ILT -- follower ILT congruence significantly and positive predicted leader-rated LMX and perceived support, but not identification and contribution. Leader IFT -- follower IFT congruence significantly and positive predicted follower-rated LMX and perceived support, but not identification and contribution. The results of this study suggest expectations are meaningful predictors of both partner's assessments of multiple relationship-oriented outcome variables, but only with regard to perceptions of outcomes from the perspective of one's dyadic partner. / Ph. D.

Because cognitive categories associated with the evaluation of a working relationship are stable at times, yet dynamic under specific conditions, understanding leader-member exchange (LMX) and identifying cognitive correlates associated with exchange quality is perplexing (Foti, Knee & Backert, 2008). The purpose of this study was to investigate how congruence between a leader's and follower's leader and follower prototypes affects the quality of the leader-member exchange relationship as assessed by each partner in the dyadic pair. Leaders and followers in 68 dyadic pairs performed a series of tasks in a laboratory setting. Multiple assessments of liking and trust for each other, as well as LMX quality from their perspective were made. Congruence on leader prototypes significantly predicted follower assessed LMX; followers' liking and trust for leaders fully mediated this relationship. In addition, congruence on follower prototypes significantly predicted leader assessed LMX; leaders' liking for followers fully mediated this relationship. These results emphasize the reciprocal nature of LMX relationships. Practical implications of having high quality LMX include, but are not limited to, higher satisfaction and commitment, less conflict, and higher performance ratings. / Master of Science

Tidigare forskning om ledarskap ger en bild av vilken ledarskapsstil som ger bäst resultat för organisationen och mest positiv effekt för följaren. Denna studie undersökte hur några av de vanligaste ledarskapsstilarna, Transformativt, Transaktionellt samt Leader-Member Exchange (LMX), skattades av följarna. Ett formulär med fyra fiktiva chefsbeskrivningar användes för kvantitativ datainsamling, där Transformativt ledarskap och låg nivå av LMX skattades högst. Att låg nivå av LMX skattades högre än hög nivå går mot vad tidigare forskning säger är den bästa approachen sett till prestation för organisationen och följarna. Kulturella skäl till detta motsatta resultat för LMX diskuteras. / The existing research in leadership has explored which style of leadership that generates the best results for the organization and has the most positive effect for the follower. This study looked at some of the most common leadership styles, Transformative, Transactional and Leader-Member Exchange (LMX), and how they were rated by the followers. A form containing four fictitious manager descriptions were used. The result showed that transformative leadership and low level of LMX were rated highest. The fact that low level of LMX was rated higher than high level contradicts existing research claims. Cultural differences are suggested to account for the different rating of LMX in this research.