The Role of Perspective Taking in Leader-Member Exchange

Abstract

A two-part model is proposed to investigate the relationship between dyad-specific perspective taking and leader-member exchange (LMX). In addition, a series of dispositional and situational antecedents of dyad-specific perspective taking are investigated. Vertical dyads (supervisor/subordinate pairs) from a healthcare organization form the sample, and hierarchical linear modeling (HLM) is used for the analysis. Supervisor dyad-specific perspective taking was positively related to both supervisor and subordinate assessments of LMX, and two variables assessing experiential overlap were found to correlate with both supervisor and subordinate dyad-specific perspective taking. Both limitations of the current study and directions for future research are discussed.