Supportive Supervisor Communication as a Mediator of the Leader-member Exchange and Subordinate Performance Relationship

The focus of this research is on the relationships between leader-member exchange (LMX), supportive supervisor communication (SSC), and subordinate job performance. It was predicted that the relationship between subordinate ratings of LMX quality and supervisor ratings of subordinate performance would be mediated by subordinate ratings of SSC. Specifically, it was hypothesized that LMX would directly influence SSC, and SSC would directly influence two facets of contextual performance: interpersonal facilitation and job dedication. It was also hypothesized that job dedication would directly influence task performance, thus mediating the relationship between SSC and task performance. Thus, SSC was expected to mediate the relationship between LMX and contextual and task performance. Structural equation modeling results based on 243 supervisor-subordinate dyads from the banking industry provided substantial support for the proposed model.