Do Leaders Matter In The Long Run?

I agree with the author that leaders are the most important parties in R&D for followers’ creative performance. From the research carried out by the author, it is evident that leaders have a great influence on followers' creativity and productivity. When a leader considers the leader-member relationship as of high quality, it becomes beneficial to the followers and their creative performance drastically improves (Markham et.al. 2010). Being a leader, you need to see a good process that results to better results and for this reason, leaders are more likely attracted to the most successful followers than the less successful (Nahrgang et.al., 2009). Members’ creative research performances depend more on the support of the leaders to the followers than the esteem of the members of the leaders.

To realize positive results in a workplace, followers need to have positive opinions while interacting with their leaders (Atwater & Carmeli, 2009). Followers and leaders should cultivate a culture of respect, loyalty, and togetherness. This way, LMX is going to be successful and would easily achieve the set goals of the organization (Cogliser et.al 2009). I concur with the author's point of view that leaders and objective judges and are able to influence the creative performance of the members based on their past performance. In addition, leaders can predict future expectations of their followers since they have lived and understood them better (Day & Schyns, 2010).

According to the findings done by the author three years later on the same group, it was evident that leader-rated LMX was the best predictor of creative performance of a member, both for the past and future (Lisa & Olsson, 2017). I believe that followers are more likely to perform better in a high and balanced LMX relationship. Overall, I strongly agree with the author’s assertions.

References

Atwater, L., & Carmeli, A. (2009). Leader-member exchange, feelings of energy, and involvement in creative work. The Leadership Quarterly, 20(3), 264-275. doi: 10.1016/j.leaqua.2007.07.009

Cogliser, C., Schriesheim, C., Scandura, T., & Gardner, W. (2009). Balance in a leader and follower perceptions of leader-member exchange: Relationships with performance and work attitudes. The Leadership Quarterly, 20(3), 452-465. doi: 10.1016/j.leaqua.2009.03.010

Day, D., & Schyns, B. (2010). The importance of agreement and consensus in leadership research: Introduction to the Special Issue. European Journal Of Work And Organizational Psychology, 19(3), 253-258. doi: 10.1080/13594320903448766

Lisa, C., & Olsson, K. (2017). Do leaders matter in the long run? A longitudinal study of the importance of LMX and LMX balance for followers’ creative performance in research groups. Handbook Of Research On Leadership And Creativity, 228-248. doi: 10.4337/9781784715465.00019

Nahrgang, J. D., Morgeson, F. P., & Ilies, R. (2009). The development of leader-member exchanges: Exploring how personality and performance influence leader and member relationships over time. Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes , 108 (2), 256-266. DOI: 10.1016/j.obhdp.2008.09.002

Markham, S., Yammarino, F., Murry, W., & Palanski, M. (2010). Leader-member exchange, shared values, and performance: Agreement and levels of analysis do matter. The Leadership Quarterly, 21(3), 469-480. doi: 10.1016/j.leaqua.2010.03.010