An Empirical Study on the Antecedents and Outcomes of Leader-Member Exchange Quality in the Korean Army Platoons

상하간 교환관계의 질의 영향요인과 결과에 관한 실증연구 : 육군 소대장과 소대원을 대상으로

This study examined the antecedents and outcomes of leader-member exchange (LMX) quality in the Korean Army platoons. Although a number of studies have devoted substantial attention to the application of the LMX theory in various organizational settings, there has been no effort to verify or to apply the model to a military situation. In this paper, we tried to build an integrative LMX model to apply to the Korean army. We developed, on the basis of literature review, an integrative framework describing the factors affecting the LMX quality, LMX quality outcomes and the moderators of LMX quality-outcomes. Then we collected data from the 404 lieutenant-soldier dyads. The analysis of the data showed that 1) interpersonal variables (perceived similarity and liking of soldier) and LMX quality were significantly related, 2) LMX quality and outcome variables(soldier's performance, job satisfaction, and morale) were significantly related, and 3) the relationship between LMX quality and soldier's performance were strongly significant when task challenge is high but nonsignificant when task challenge is low, while there were nonsignificant or weekly significant relationships between LMX quality and soldier's performance when task challenge is moderate. The results are basically coinciding with the previous research, except that, with the low challenge tasks, the LMX quality did not affect soldier's performance, which seems to be due to the directive leadership style of the lieutenants. The theoretical and practical implications and future research directions are discussed.