Leader Member Exchanges: Distinction Between Two Factors

Abstract

The dimensionality of Graen's Leader Member Exchange concept was examined in a cross-sectional questionnaire study among 1147 Dutch nurses. The total sample was divided into two subgroups by means of stratified random selection (n1 = 574; n2 = 573) and analyses were performed in each subgroup separately. The factorial structure of a 12-item self-report Leader Member Exchange questionnaire was examined. Exploratory factor analysis on the data of subgroup 1 yielded two factors, which were labelled “consideration/coaching by the leader” and “filling an assistant position”. Confirmatory factor analyses with LISREL showed that a two-factor oblique model had the best fit in both subgroups. Equality of factor structures in both subgroups was clearly demonstrated. Differential validity of the two Leader Member Exchange factors was studied by correlating each factor with measures of job-related affect. In both subgroups, the consideration/coaching factor had a significantly stronger, positive relationship with job satisfaction and a significantly stronger, negative relationship with propensity to quit the job, whereas the assistant position factor had a significantly stronger, positive relationship with job-responsibility. Results concerning the relationships with effectiveness ratings were inconclusive. The results of this study indicate that the Leader Member Exchange concept is two-dimensional rather than unidimensional.     

Acquisition of spatial knowledge in different urban areas: evidence from a survey analysis of adolescents

We herein explore the perception of the geographic environment and analyse the mechanisms that constrain the cognitive processing of spatial information in general. Our guiding theoretical background assumption is that the structure of the spatial environment is a cognitively robust and mutually constrained threefold system relating (1) cognitive topology (comprised of a path and place structure of spatial information and constrained by reference frame-based factors), (2) experience-based functional knowledge (including the effects of socio-economic factors, frequency and familiarity) and (3) linguistic representations (primarily encoded in the prepositional system of a natural language). Here, we focus on (2), i.e. the effect of functional knowledge on the process of acquiring spatial knowledge. We empirically tested adolescents aged 12–17 years to explore the interaction between frequency, familiarity and functional knowledge from a developmental point of view. The social factors we explore are precisely defined and parameterized in our results (exposure to a particular urban area, place of residence, gender, age and factors relating to the environmental and social quality of the local area). Our research shows that there are divergences between the so-called objective topology and the cognitive typology of the urban environment that are significantly constrained by intensity of interactions with environment, number of functionally significant places within particular area and age from a developmental perspective in terms of spatial knowledge acquisition.