How perceptions of others’ work and impression management motives affect leader–member exchange development: a six-wave latent change score model

Grounded on attribution theory, we propose a dynamic development model to examine the influence of subordinates’ and leaders’ perceptions of one another’s work and impression management (IM) motives on leader–member exchange (LMX) over time in newly formed teams. We test our hypotheses using a two-level bivariate latent change score model to investigate how changes in the quality of LMX from t − 1 to t relate to perceptions of the subordinate’s work motives at t − 1 while controlling for unobserved individual differences. The implications of our findings for research, method, and practice are discussed.

Practitioner points
•For individual subordinates, strong perceptions of work motives help to build good leader–follower relationships, which in turn should enhance such motives.
•‘You never get a second chance to make a first impression’; employees and managers at all organizational levels should recognize the importance of how their behaviour is perceived at the beginning of their interaction. However, if subordinates are continuously perceived as having high IM motives, this may negatively influence LMX.