The interactive effect of leader-member exchange and perceived organizational support on employee adaptive performance

Examining the role of intra-organizational social exchanges in influencing adaptive performance, the authors hypothesized that leader-member exchange (LMX) quality and organizational support have an interactive effect on employee adaptive performance. We surveyed 175 private sector workers and found that subordinate perceptions of LMX were positively related to supervisor-rated adaptive performance among workers reporting average and high but not low levels of organizational support. Results add to the LMX literature by showing that the LMX-outcome relationship may depend on context, provide support for the divergent validity of POS and LMX, and raise important questions for future social exchange research.