I Know How I Feel but Do I Know How You Feel? Investigating Metaperceptions to Advance Relationship-Based Leadership Approaches

Although Leader-Member Exchange (LMX) theory suggests that leaders and followers see their relationship similarly as a function of repeated role exchanges, empirical research has found only modest levels of agreement between leader and follower LMX ratings. This is not only problematic theoretically, it also brings up the question as to whether leader-follower dyad members are even aware of the lack of convergence of their relationship perceptions. To explore this issue, we draw from social psychology research on close relationships to introduce the construct of LMX metaperceptions (i.e., a person's inference of how the other person in the dyad feels about their relationship) and then utilize the dyadic model of metaperceptions to investigate the accuracy (i.e., the extent to which LMX metaperceptions are consistent with the other dyad member's LMX ratings) and bias (i.e., the extent to which LMX metaperceptions are colored by the dyad member's own LMX ratings) of LMX metaperceptions. We find that LMX metaperceptions are not only inaccurate but also biased. To shed light on what can alleviate bias and promote accuracy, we examine power dependence-an inherent feature of leader-follower relationships-and highlight its downside in engendering greater levels of bias for more powerful leaders. Moreover, we revisit LMX agreement through dyadic analyses and find that at the dyadic level it may be even weaker than what previous research has found. Overall, this research offers a more complete picture of leader-follower relationship perceptions and provides an important dyadic perspective for future research aimed at promoting mutual understanding between leaders and followers.