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0:00
My name is Professor
Christopher Achua.
I teach at the University of
Virginia's College at Wise.
I teach marketing,
strategy and leadership.
Leadership is one of those courses
that I enjoy teaching very much.
The topic of my
presentation today
is Leader-Member
Exchange Theory,
commonly known as LMX theory.
0:24
Prior to LMX theory,
there was an implied assumption
that leader behavior
towards all followers is
uniform and non-specific.
Followers were viewed and
treated as a collective unit.
The leader's approach
towards followers was
described as an average
leadership style, ALS.
The first problem
with this approach
is that there was little or no
value placed on the quality
of the interpersonal relationship
between a leader and a follower.
The second problem
with this approach
was that there was little or no
recognition that follower behavior
was impacted by the nature of the
leader-follower relationship.
1:06
The early developments of LMX started from what
we call vertical dyadic linkage theory, VDL.
Vertical dyadic linkage theory represents a
paradigm shift from average leadership style,
which I mentioned
a few minutes ago.
Remember average leadership style held
that all followers were treated equally.
However, vertical
dyadic linkage theory
believes that leadership consists
of a series of vertical dyadics,
that's pairs, between each
leader and each follower.
The dyadic relationship is described
as the individualized relationship
that develops between a leader
and each follower in a work unit.
Vertical dyadic linkage theory focuses on
the heterogeneity of dyadic relationships,
arguing that a single leader would form different
relationships with different followers.
The resulting effect is a creation of in-groups
and out-groups within the same work unit.
