A longitudinal study on the early development of leader-member exchanges.

The authors investigated the first 6 months that 166 newly hired employees and their immediate supervisors worked together. Expectations, perceived similarity, liking, demographic similarity, and performance were examined as determinants of leader-member exchanges (LMXs). Leader and member expectations of each other assessed in the first 5 days in the life of the dyad predicted LMXs at 2 weeks and at 6 weeks following the 1st day of the dyads' existence. Member expectations of leaders also predicted LMXs at 6 months. Following nearly the same pattern, perceived similarity and liking from both the leaders'and members' perspectives predicted LMXs at most time periods. Demographic similarity between leaders and members had no significant effects on LMX development, and subordinate performance ratings were relatively less important in predicting LMX than were affective variables