Supervisor trust building, leader‐member exchange and organizational citizenship behaviour

Abstract

This study employed social exchange and equity theory to investigate the connection among supervisor trust building activity, leader‐member exchange (LMX) quality, and subordinate organizational citizenship behaviours (OCB). Survey data were collected from 86 subordinate‐supervisor dyads employed in a variety of organizations. First, perceived fairness emerged as the supervisor trust building behaviour most closely associated with OCB. Contrary to the prediction, fairness perceptions were not positively associated with LMX quality. Finally, LMX quality was positively related to subordinate OCB. Social exchange and equity theory were used to interpret the findings. Implications and future research directions are outlined.