The Effect of Leader-member Exchange on Organizational Envy (Case of Study: A Survey on Iran's Melli Bank's Staff)

Objective: The survival of today's organizations in the competitive business environment requires recognizing factors affecting productivity. On one hand, improving the relationship between the leader and his followers has a significant role in improving the efficiency of the organization; on the other hand, the existence of envy at the workplace is one of the intangible factors affecting labor productivity and the productivity of the organization in general. This study aims at investigating the effect of the Leader-follower exchange on organizational envy, therefore, it is practical in nature, and based on the research question, the present study is considered exploratory in the first stage and hypothesis-deductive in the second stage. Methods: This study will be conducted based on mixed approach. The first stage of this study is to identify the dimensions of organizational envy and the impact of the leader-follower exchange on such envy, as well as to identify the factors for improving the relationship between the leader and the follower through the means of interviewing and collecting qualitative data. The second step is to verify the data collected in the first stage using a questionnaire. Statistical population of the research is the staff of the Iran's Melli bank. Required data will be gathered through interviews and then will be analyzed through theme analysis and factor analysis using SPSS software. Results: Qualitative research findings identified components of organizational envy and two reasons for eliminating the reasons for improving the relationship between leader and member such as omitting organizational envy reasons and reforming the reasons of forming the inner-group itself. Moreover, the quantitative findings approved the proposed hypothesis in the qualitative section. Conclusion: The results of this study showed that the leader-member exchange of some people with their supervisor, affects the organizational envy of others. Also, leaders can improve their relationship with their followers by eliminating the reasons for organizational envy and modifying the reasons of forming the inner-group.