The Relationship Between Leader-Member Exchange and Organizational Citizenship Behavior in a Federal Government Organization

This applied dissertation was a study of the relationship between leader-member exchange (LMX) and organizational citizenship behavior (OCB) in a federal government organization in Washington, DC. As a result of the organization’s business and leadership challenges, understanding the relationship between a leader and a follower and extra-role behaviors may help to understand how high-quality relationships are developed with staff members that are productive and motivate staff to extend their efforts beyond normal expectations. Productive high-quality relationships demonstrate loyalty, consideration, and affect towards the organization and its leaders. Understanding the relationship between LMX and OCB in a federal government organization may help to produce greater awareness of the factors that lead to high-quality leader-member relationships. Knowing the characteristics of high-quality relationships may promote extra-role behaviors enabling increased job satisfaction and greater results. Federal organizations find that many employees have low job satisfaction. In addition, only 38% of federal workers believe leaders generate high levels of commitment. The researcher employed an explanatory sequential mixed-methods design that included surveys and interviews. The sample study was composed of 50 paired dyads from 433 employees of the target federal agency selected using convenience sampling. Survey instruments were used for demographics, LMX, and OCB to gather data. The results from the LMX and OCB instruments were used to formulate interview questions for a select group from the core sample represented by the top and bottom 5% of raw survey score totals. The targeted federal organization should benefit from this study. The results showed how differences in the quality of the relationship between a leader and a follower related to OCB, or extra-role behaviors and led to recommendations on leader-subordinate relationships