Leader empathy, ethical leadership, and relations-oriented behaviors as antecedents of leader-member exchange quality

摘要

Purpose - Leader empathy, ethical values, and relations-oriented behavior all appear to be relevant rnfor effective leadership, but nobody has examined how all three variables are jointly related to rnleader-member exchange quality (LMX). The purpose of this study is to examine these relationships rnand test a proposed model describing them.rnDesign/methodology/approach - Data were collected with a questionnaire from subordinates of rnleaders in several organizations, and SEM path analysis was used to test alternative models.rnFindings - The results indicated that a leader's relations-oriented behavior fully mediated the rnrelationship between leader empathy on LMX and partially mediated the relationship between ethical rnleadership and LMX. Recommendations for future research to verify and extend the results were rnprovided.rnOriginality/value - This is the first empirical study to simultaneously examine the complex rnrelationships among these four different aspects of leadership (I.e. a skill, values, behaviors, and rnexchange relationship). The authors' measure of ethical leadership minimizes confounding with other rnconstructs, which is a problem in earlier studies. The practical implication is that leader empathy and rnethical leadership should be included in leadership selection and development programs.