3 research outputs found
How leaders stimulate employee learning: A leader–member exchange approach
This study investigated how leader–member exchange (LMX), goal setting, and
feedback are related to employee engagement in learning activities. Two different
mechanisms were proposed: a mediating mechanism holding that LMX elicits specific
leader behaviours (i.e., goal setting and feedback) which would mediate the LMXlearning
relationship, and a moderating mechanism, holding that LMX would strengthen
the effect of these leader behaviours. A sample of 1,112 employees from 7 organizations
completed questionnaires that measured LMX, goal specificity, feedback, and selfreports
of employee engagement in learning activities. The 233 direct leaders of these
employees completed questionnaires that measured goal difficulty and leader ratings of
employee engagement in learning activities. Multi-level analysis showed that goal
difficulty and goal specificity mediated the relationship between LMX and employee
engagement in learning activities, and that LMX moderated the relationship of goal
difficulty with employee engagement in learning activities. With these findings, the
present study contributes to the literatures on LMX, goal setting, and employee
development