The unbearable lightness of being close to a leader: Exploring the relationships between leader member exchange, task performance, tenure and promotability

The present study aimed to investigate 1) the effects of leader member exchange (LMX) on subordinates' task performance and promotability rating and 2) whether task performance has a mediating and tenure has a moderating role on relationship between LMX and promotability rating. The data was collected from 195 employees and their 32 leaders in security sector using time-lagged design. The research hypotheses were tested with structural equation model and moderated regression analyses. As a result of this study, it was found that LMX had a positive impact on task performance and promotability rating. Moreover, the results showed that in-group subordinates, who had high quality relationship with their leader, had higher performance appraisal score and promotability rating than out-group subordinates. In addition, task performance had a partial mediating role and job tenure had a moderating role on the relationship between LMX and promotability rating. Relationship quality was more strongly and positively related to promotability ratings among employees who had longer job tenure than among those with shorter job tenure.