Gender Similarity and Individual Creativity as Moderators of the Relationship between Informal Leadership and Leader-Member-Exchange: A Longitudinal Study

Abstract

This longitudinal study examines the quality relationship building between informal and formal leadership. Multisource data gathering technique was used to collect data from 46 teams with 333 subordinates and 46 supervisors at time 1 and 33 teams with 189 subordinates and 33 supervisors at time 2 of an Insurance company operating in Pakistan. Using threat theory we tested two contingencies: demographic similarity and competency on relationship building between informal and formal leadership. We found that Informal leadership position is positively related with Leader Member Exchange (LMX) quality and provided support to LMX literature that informal leadership precede LMX. We also found support for competency threat to shape relationship between informal leadership and LMX. Implications and future research directions also discussed.

Keywords: Demographic Similarity, Education Similarity, Informal Leadership, Individual Creativity, Leader Member Exchange (LMX), Vertical Relations, Value Threat.