The Moderating Effects of Leader-Member Exchange for Technology Acceptance

Abstract

Within the technology acceptance literature, the issue of top management support and commitment has been studied extensively; however, the issue of leadership per se has not been addressed directly. A missing piece of the leadership puzzle as it relates to technology acceptance is an exploration of how top management support gets translated in the organizational hierarchy. This study introduces leader-member exchange (LMX) to better understand this missing piece. Specifically, this research explores the role direct supervisors play in the acceptance process by end users based on the moderated model of LMX and supervisor influence. The empirical test results in the field setting show that LMX is a significant moderator for most of the technology acceptance variables within organizations. The study explores the role of the quality of the relationship between supervisors and employees as end users. It also highlights the role of LMX and supervisor influence as a conduit for the acceptance process among end users in the organization.