Leader-member Exchange Differentiation and Team Performance: The Role of Affective Climate and Team-member Exchange

Abstract

In this study, we propose a team-level moderated-mediation model examining how team-member exchange (TMX) and team affective climate serve as an important psychological mechanism and boundary condition to simultaneously influence the relationship between leader-member exchange (LMX) differentiation and team performance. We tested this model using data collected from a sample of 627 employees and their immediate managers working in 99 branches of a large bank in the People's Republic of China (PRC). Our findings provided support for the model showing that TMX mediated the relationship between LMX differentiation and team performance, and the mediation effect only occurred when team affective climate was strong but not when team affective climate was weak.