Leader‐member exchange and attitudinal outcomes: role of procedural justice climate

Abstract

Purpose Building upon the “fair exchange in leadership” notion (Hollander; Scandura), the purpose of this paper was to hypothesize the mediating impact of procedural justice climate on the relationship between leader‐member exchange (LMX) and two attitudinal outcomes: organizational commitment and turnover intentions. Design/methodology/approach A total of 224 managers voluntarily participated in the study. They represented nine multinational companies located in northern Malaysia. Data were collected by means of a structured questionnaire containing widely used scales to measure LMX (contribution, affect, loyalty, and professional respect), procedural justice climate, organizational commitment (affective, normative, and continuance), and turnover intentions. After establishing the goodness of measures, hypothesized relationships were examined using Structural Equation Modeling (SEM). While commitment and LMX were, respectively, conceptualized as 3‐ and 4‐dimensional constructs, procedural justice climate and turnover intentions were each treated as unidimensional constructs. Findings Whereas hypotheses for direct effects received low‐to‐moderate support, the mediation hypothesis received substantial support only in the case of professional respect dimension of LMX. Research limitations/implications The study has obvious implications for leader‐member exchange and procedural justice in organizations. Though findings are in line with those in the past research, they should be viewed with caution – given the nature of cross‐sectional data. Originality/value Management needs to pay attention to the quality of LMX, as today's employees look for mutual trust.