INFLUENCES ON THE QUALITY OF SUPERVISOR-SUBORDINATE RELATIONS - THE ROLE OF TIME-PRESSURE, ORGANIZATIONAL COMMITMENT, AND LOCUS OF CONTROL

Despite a growing literature devoted to the study of differences in th e quality of leader-member exchange, little empirical evidence is avai lable concerning factors that influence the degree of differentiation among leader-member dyads on the dimension of quality of working relat ionships. As time-pressure has been suggested as one potential influen ce, the impact of time-based stress on leader-member exchange was exam ined with a sample of 138 loan officers representing 24 bank branches. Results indicated that unit-level variability on leader-member exchan ge was inversely related with time-based stress, while unit-level mean on leader-member exchange was positively related with time-based stre ss. Additionally, leader-member exchange acted as a mediator of the re lation between employee locus of control (a suspected antecedent of dy adic quality) and organizational commitment (a suspected outcome), whi le employee locus of control correlated with leader-member exchange, a nd leader-member exchange correlated with employee organizational comm itment. The results suggest the usefulness of considering time-based s tress in conjunction with current models of leadership.