A Longitudinal Investigation of the Effects of Lmx Agreement on Newcomers’ Subsequent Perceptions of Person-Organization Fit and Career Future

Abstract

Relying on a sample of 347 newly-formed dyads, we developed and tested a model linking newcomers'’ and leaders’ initial LMX agreement to subsequent newcomer perceptions of person-organization fit and career future at the organization. While agreement did not result in differences in outcomes relative to disagreement, initial high/high LMX agreement was associated with higher subsequent perceptions of P-O fit and career future at the employer than initial low/low agreement. In cases of disagreement, subordinates who overestimated LMX relative to supervisors perceived greater P-O fit and career future than those who underestimated LMX. Moreover, P-O fit partially mediated the relationship between LMX agreement and perceived career future at the organization. Consistent with the notion that both supervisors and coworkers play important roles in facilitating newcomers’ identities as organizational insiders, we hypothesized that the relationship between LMX agreement and fit would be stronger among newcomers who reported low investiture socialization from their coworkers than among those who reported high investiture. Consistent with this, we detected a strong initial LMX agreement effect (i.e., P-O fit was higher when leaders and members agreed than when they differed in their LMX ratings) for low investiture newcomers but not for high investiture newcomers.

Keywords: : LMX, LMX agreement, socialization, polynomial regression, response surface