MEMBERS, LEADERS AND THE TEAM: EXTENDING LMX TO CO-WORKER RELATIONSHIPS

Leader-Member Exchange (LMX) theory and Team-Member Exchange (TMX) theory provide the foundation for development of a model of the interpersonal relationships among work groups. The model extends the findings of a quarter-century of LMX research to all dyadic relationships within a work group. This cluster of dyadic member-member relationships (MxiMyjX), as well as the Leader-Member relationship (LMX) and Team-Member relationship (TMX), were analyzed for their association with individual job outcomes. Over four hundred (429) individual workers ’ work relationships were tested in a field study of three organizations in two North American countries. The foundation of dyadic organizing can be traced to Chester Barnard (Graen & Scandura, 1987) and his sense that cooperation between individuals in an organization was essentially acts of negotiation in which individuals sought balance between contributions and inducements. Simon (1957) expanded on this process of balance between contributions and inducements by stating that the negotiations take place largely at the dyadic level. Socia