Leader-Member Exchanges as a Mediator of the Effect of Job Satisfaction on Affective Organizational Commitment: An Empirical Test

Abstract

The purpose of this study is to examine the relationship between leader-member exchange (LMX) and its relationship with job satisfaction and affective organizational commitment and to test empirically whether relationship between job satisfaction and affective organizational commitment is mediated by LMX. LMX abo acted as a mediator of the relation between employee job satisfaction and affective organizational commitment. This study tested the relationship between LMX and work outcomes (job satisfaction and affective organizational commitment). It further examined the potential for LMX to mediate the associations between job satisfaction and affective organizational commitment and job satisfaction between LMX and affective organizational commitment. A direct survey is conducted by using questionnaires from the previous research. The questionnaires are sent to 450 employees from manufacturing industries in Indonesia, especially Yogyakarta city. Validity and reliability tests are used to evaluate the questionnaire contents. The Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) is employed to test the relationship among the variables. Result from 392 respondents from manufacturing industries and found support for the majority of our predictions. Introduction Leader-member exchange theory (LMX) represents a theoretical approach to understanding leadership at work (Liden, Sparrowe, & Wayne, 1997). Research on LMX has tended to either examine antecedents factors predicting the LMX relationship or the relationship between LMX and outcome factors. LMX theory suggests that exchanges take place between supervisors and subordinates. From these exchanges, supervisors form relationships of varying quality with their subordinates. Employees in high-quality relationships receive a number of advantages, more freedom, better job assignment, greater access, and increased opportunities to work with their leaders. The nature of LMX relationship has a remarkable impact on the subordinate outcomes, like satisfaction with work, commitment, in-role performance, and organizational citizenship behavior (Bhal, Gulati, & Ansari, 2009). High-quality relationships are characterized by higher levels of supervisor support and guidance, higher levels of supervisor support and guidance, higher levels of subordinate satisfaction and performance, and lower levels of subordinate turnover. The number one reason people leave organization is that they are being treated poorly by their bosses (Mardanov, Sterrett, & Baker, 2007). According to Tepper (2000), the other reason are lower job and life satisfaction, lower commitment, higher conflict between work and family, and psychological distress. LMX research has primarily focused on the outcomes of LMX relationship (Gerstner & Day, 1997). Much less attention has been paid to antecedents. Furthermore, there are very few instances where both antecedents and outcomes have been examined in the same study. In this article, we focus on the three relationship model. The first model is relationship between job satisfaction in two dimension, work satisfaction and career satisfaction and how LMX might mediate the relationship between this an affective organizational commitment as the outcome factors. The second model is relationship between LMX and affective organizational commitment is mediated by job satisfaction. The third model is relationship between LMX and job satisfaction is mediated by affective organizational commitment. As such, the purpose of this study is fourfold. First, we want to examine the relationships between work satisfaction and career satisfaction and LMX quality, and look at the associations between the job satisfaction variables and affective organizational commitment. Second purpose is to determine whether LMX mediates the relationships between job satisfaction and affective organizational commitment. Third purpose in to determine whether job satisfaction mediates the relationships between LMX and affective organizational commitment. …

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