Two Routes to Influence: Integrating Leader-Member Exchange and Social Network Perspectives

Abstract

We develop and test a model of the relational antecedents of members' influence in organizations that is based on an integration of leader-member exchange (LMX) and social network perspectives on individuals in organizations. We focus on how the relationships between LMX and members' centrality in the advice network and influence depend on two factors: the extent to which members share ties with their leaders in the organization's trust network, which we define as sponsorship, and the centrality of their leaders in the advice network. Our model seeks to explain how sponsorship and leaders' centrality shape the influence members gain by virtue of their LMX relationships and their centrality in advice networks. Longitudinal data gathered from two organizations, using survey and network measures, offer strong support for a nuanced model of the relational antecedents of influence. Both LMX and members' advice centrality are related to influence, but those relationships in turn depend on sponsorship and leaders' centrality. When leaders are high in centrality, sharing ties in the trust network is beneficial: the relationship between members' own advice centrality and influence is positive among members who are high in sponsorship. But when leaders are low in centrality, sharing trust ties is detrimental: the relationship between advice centrality and influence is negative among members who are high in sponsorship and positive among members who are low in sponsorship.