Leader-member exchange influence on organizational commitment among serbian hospital workers

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to discover the relations between the quality of subordinates and leader-member exchanges and their organizational commitment level in a large Serbian hospital. Two questionnaires, LMX-7 and OCQ were used with a total of 359 returned questionnaires. For the OCQ, two subscales were created, one for measuring value commitment and another for measuring commitment to stay. Correlations were determined between LMX and OCQ with the subscales. Employees who assessed their LMX as high also had high organizational commitment and value commitment levels, and a lower commitment to stay. Further, LMX and value commitment have a much stronger relationship than the relationship between LMX and commitment to stay. This study revealed that LMX and organizational commitment have positive connectivity in a non-western environment. Critical employee categories were also detected. Measures for improving their LMX and commitment are needed primarily for males, older employees, employees with longer tenure and employees with secondary education, bachelors and master's degrees. Leaders have strong influence on the commitment of their employees, so these findings could have significant implications in the process of leadership modernization in Serbian hospitals. This is the first study measuring the influence of LMX on organizational commitment in a Serbian organization, and one among a few studies in a nonwestern environment. Further, the study investigates the relationship between these two organizationally important variables without incorporating other variables, as in a number of similar studies, which sometimes overly complicate the research and the findings.