The Impact of Leader-Member Exchange Relationship on Teamwork

It is suggested that knowledge sharing is more likely to occur in supportive conditions when individuals have high-quality relationships at workplace. The purpose of the present study is to examine the association between the workplace relationships in teams and knowledge sharing, and how the pattern of knowledge sharing in teams is associated with team innovation and team performance. After a study of 223 members and 51 leaders from 51 teams, the overall findings indicate that both Leader-Member Exchange and Team-Member Exchange have a unique influence on knowledge sharing, and our understanding of how supportive social relationships influence wok outcomes should be expanded from looking at the vertical leader-follower relationship and the horizontal relationship with a team in isolation. Rather, the multi-level interactions of these two types of relationships should be considered together.