How Leaders Affect Followers’ Work Engagement and Performance: Integrating Leader−Member Exchange and Crossover Theory
| Published date | 01 April 2017 |
| Author | Sven C. Voelpel,Daniela Gutermann,Diana Boer,Nale Lehmann‐Willenbrock,Marise Born |
| Date | 01 April 2017 |
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1111/1467-8551.12214 |
British Journal of Management, Vol. 28, 299–314 (2017)
DOI: 10.1111/1467-8551.12214
How Leaders Aect Followers’ Work
Engagement and Performance: Integrating
Leader−Member Exchange and Crossover
Theory
Daniela Gutermann, Nale Lehmann-Willenbrock,1Diana Boer,2
Marise Born3and Sven C. Voelpel
Jacobs University Bremen (and Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam), Campus Ring 1, 28759 Bremen, Germany, 1Vrije
Universiteit Amsterdam, Van der Boechorstraat 1, 1081 BT Amsterdam, The Netherlands, 2Universit¨
at
Koblenz-Landau, Campus Koblenz, Universit¨
atsstraße 1, 56070 Koblenz, Germany, and 3Erasmus University
Rotterdam, BurgemeesterOudlaan 50, T-gebouw, PO Box 1738, 3000 DR, Rotterdam, The Netherlands
Corresponding author email: d.gutermann@jacobs-university.de
Drawing on leader−member exchange and crossover theory, this study examines
how leaders’ work engagement can spread to followers, highlighting the role of
leader−member exchange as an underlying explanatoryprocess. Specifically, we investi-
gate if leaders who are highly engaged in their work have better relationships with their
followers, which in turn can explain elevated employee engagement. For this purpose,
we surveyed 511 employees nested in 88 teams and their team leaders in a large service
organization. Employees and supervisors provided data in this multi-sourcedesign. Fur-
thermore, we asked the employees to report their annual performance assessment. We
tested our model using multilevel path analyses in Mplus. As hypothesized, leaders’ work
engagement enhanced leader−member exchange quality, which in turn boosted employee
engagement (mediation model). Moreover, employee engagement was positively linked
to performance and negatively linked to turnoverintentions. As such, our multilevel field
study connects the dots between work engagement research and the leadership litera-
ture. We identify leaders’ work engagement as a key to positive leader−follower rela-
tionships and a means for promoting employeeengagement and performance. Promoting
work engagement at the managerial level may be a fruitful starting point forfostering an
organizational culture of engagement.
Engaged employees are involved in and energized
by their work (e.g. Salanova and Schaufeli, 2008;
Schaufeli and Bakker, 2010). Work engagement
means that employees are willing to go the extra
mile, while feeling well, being able to detach from
their work, and maintaining a healthy work−life
balance (Sonnentag, Binnewies and Mojza, 2010).
These positive attributes make work engagement
a desirable quality for individual employees and
organizations.
In terms of antecedents of work engagement,
previous research has predominantly focused
on job resources (e.g. Demerouti et al., 2001;
Hakanen, Schaufeli and Ahola, 2008; Mauno,
Kinnunen and Ruokolainen, 2007; Simbula,
2010). Some previous studies have also examined
the role of leadership for promoting engagement,
primarily with a focus on transformational lead-
ership (Breevaart et al., 2014; Hoon Song et al.,
2012; Salanova et al., 2011; Tims, Bakker and
Xanthopoulou, 2011).
However, the link between leaders’ own engage-
ment and their followers’ engagement is less clear,
which is an important oversight. One of the main
© 2017 British Academy of Management. Published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd, 9600 Garsington Road, Oxford OX4
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300 D. Gutermann et al.
tasks for most leaders is interacting with their
followers. During these interactions, employees
probably notice and observe the motivational and
aective states of their leader. As such, leaders’
engagement could provide a salient example and
role model which shapes employee engagement.
To explore this idea of leader−follower engage-
ment linkages, we draw from crossovertheory (e.g.
Westman, 2001), which posits that psychological
states can transfer from one person to another,
and from social learning theory (Bandura, 1977),
which explains these processes in terms of learning
by observing a salient role model. In the context of
work engagement, previous research suggests that
the extent to which the colleaguesin a leader’s team
are engaged aects the level of individual work
engagement in that team (e.g. Bakker, LeBlanc
and Schaufeli, 2005; Bakker, Van Emmerik and
Euwema, 2006; Bakker et al., 2001; Westman and
Etzion, 1999). Building on the idea that leaders
can function as role models for their followers
(Bandura, 1977; Yukl, 2013) and drawing from
previous research on mood crossover between
leaders and followers (Gooty et al., 2010; Sy, Cˆ
ot´
e
and Saavedra,2005), we argue that a similar trans-
ference of work engagement can occur fromsuper-
visors to subordinates,or from leaders to followers.
Moreover, to understand the underlying
processes that can explain engagement crossover
between leaders and followers, we focus on the role
of leader−member exchange (LMX). Although
there might be other possible mediating variables,
the quality of the dyadic relationship between
leaders and followers is one important reason
why work engagement may transfer from leaders
to followers. Earlier findings by Westman and
Vinokur (1998) highlight interpersonal exchange
as a mediator of crossover processes.
LMX theory remains one of the most popular
streams in the leadership literature (Epitropaki
and Martin, 2015). Several studies and meta-
analyses have highlighted the importance of LMX
for several positive follower outcomes such as job
performance, commitment and job satisfaction
(Dulebohn et al., 2012; Gerstner and Day, 1997;
Ilies, Nahrgang and Morgeson, 2007; Martin
et al., 2015; Restubog et al., 2010). However, to
the best of our knowledge, there are onlya limited
number of studies on LMX and work engagement
to date (e.g. Breevaart et al., 2015). In a sample of
police ocers in the Netherlands, Breevaart and
colleagues (2015) found that LMX was positively
related to job resources, which in turn facilitated
employees’ work engagement and performance.
Building and expanding on these earlier findings,
we aim to examine how LMX may serve as an un-
derlying mechanism that can explain engagement
crossover between leaders and followers. Specif-
ically, we argue that highly engaged leaders have
better relationships with their followers, which
in turn benefits followers’ work engagement. In
other words, we investigate LMX as a mediator
in the leader engagement−follower engagement
link.
Generally, high-quality interpersonal rela-
tionships are based on mutual obligations, trust
and reciprocity, and therefore on a longer-term
social relationship instead of a simple economic
exchange (Dulebohn et al., 2012; Liden and
Graen, 1980). We argue that engaged leaders
are likely to aim for positive social relationships
with their followers; positive LMX indicates such
high-quality relationships, which, in turn, have
important implications for employee engage-
ment. Because humans are social in nature, good
leader−follower relationships should (a) build on
leaders’ engagement and (b) facilitate followers’
willingness to put energy and eort into their
work. In other words, high-quality LMX acts as a
mediating variable between the positive crossover
from leaders’ work engagement to followers’
engagement.
In sum, this study oers the following contri-
butions. First, our investigation of the linkages
between leaders’ and followers’ work engage-
ment applies crossover theory to the context
of workplace engagement. Research to date
has focused on engagement crossover between
team members or within couples (Bakker, Van
Emmerik and Euwema, 2006; Demerouti, Bakker
and Schaufeli, 2005; Lehmann-Willenbrock et al.,
2011), whereas the possibility of leader-to-follower
crossover remains to be explored. Second, we aim
to answer the question why work engagement
crosses over from leader to follower. We begin
to pinpoint the underlying social processes that
drive leader−follower engagement crossover by
highlighting the role of LMX as a mediating
variable. Finally, by establishing links to desirable
outcomes of individual work engagement (i.e.
objective performance and reduced turnover
intentions), our study underscores the relevance of
LMX and leader−follower engagement crossover
for organizational eectiveness.
© 2017 British Academy of Management.
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