Rethinking the benefits and pitfalls of leader–member exchange: A reciprocity versus self-protection perspective
挑战了领导-成员交换理论中高质量关系总是有利的假设，提出环境条件会限制其普适性，并整合社会交换与自我调节理论定义了四种环境条件，帮助研究者预测何时高质量关系的益处和低质量关系的陷阱会被环境削弱。
Existing literature assumes employees sharing high-quality relationships with supervisors hold advantageous positions over their peers under the leader–member exchange model. We propose environmental conditions limit the generalizability of this logic. Our framework is based on the idea that certain environments threaten the cycle of resource exchange and reciprocity, a foundational assumption in existing leader–member exchange models. To demonstrate this effect, we integrate social exchange and self-regulation theories to define four generalized environmental conditions we label appetitive alignment, appetitive misalignment, aversive misalignment and aversive alignment. We discuss accompanying propositions including both theoretical and practical implications of a contextualized leader-member exchange model to help future researchers anticipate when the benefits associated with high-quality leader–member relations and the pitfalls of low-quality relationships are attenuated by the environment.