Leadership style is recognized to influence employee performance. Leadership is described as a process of encouraging subordinates to change to attain corporate goals. When engaging with subordinates, such leaders prefer to employ two types of communication: task and relational. When a supervisor/manager leads by establishing a network of collaborative connections with followers and encouraging a variety of perspectives, they will lead in a style that followers recognize and describe as authentic. An authentic leadership style will characterize a confident and motivated leader who can allow leaders and employees to work together, and the performance of both can be optimally intertwined. Authentic leaders can draw from their positive psychological resources to contribute and supplement their followers’ psychological capital to improve their performance. That way, employees can improve their performance and at the same time, they will feel psychological well-being.
The quality of the relationship between employees and leaders or commonly referred to as leader-member exchange is important for a company, and is known to also affect employee performance. Leader-member exchanges require aspects related to the extent to which leaders and followers develop relationships of mutual trust, self-direction, and mutually beneficial relationships. Leader-member exchanges are developed based on the fact that leaders are not tied to the average leadership style with subordinates, but are related to the differences between subordinates in forming and directing a relationship that will be established. It can be concluded that for the leader-member exchange relationship to be well-established, a leader and employees must understand each other and how to build good relationships.
The effectiveness and efficiency of leaders in dealing with various problems in the company, of course, are also influenced by the quality of the relationship between leaders and employees. Because employee behavior towards the company plays an important role in organizational success. Treating employees well will motivate them to feel willing and able to make sacrifices for the company. In addition, through positive special treatment, employees can increase their contribution to the company they work for. In general, through the points put forward, it can be stated that there are indications that leader-member exchanges can mediate authentic leadership relationships and employee performance within the company.
Based on the formulation of the problems that have been determined in this study, the research approach used is quantitative. This approach begins with creating an analytical model which is then followed by making hypotheses, identifying variables, collecting the necessary data, and conducting an analysis. To conduct research on authentic leadership variables, employee performance, and leader-member exchange, an agreement scale was used with a determination of 1-5 points through Strongly disagree / satisfied (STS) = score 1, Disagree / satisfied (TS) = score 2, Neutral/doubtful (N) = score 3, Agree / satisfied (S) = score 4, and strongly agree / satisfied (SS) = score 5.
The population in this study was the middle managers of a transportation company. Considering that the number of middle managers is not too many, the sample used is 50 middle managers who are willing to fill out the questionnaire. In addition, the analytical technique used in this study is SEM-PLS with SmartPLS 3.0 software. The PLS method is considered appropriate in this study because it is very flexible for research that does not require a large sample. The use of PLS requires passing two evaluations in the form of an Outer Model and an Inner Model. In the outer model, validity and reliability tests are carried out, while the Structural/inner model is measured by looking at the R-Square model value which shows how much influence between variables in the model.
Based on the results of research and discussion in this study, it can be concluded that Authentic Leadership has a significant positive effect on middle manager performance and leader-member exchange, and leader-member exchange partially mediates the influence of Authentic Leadership on employee performance. Effective leadership is the most important pillar of an organization, where employees can be motivated towards high-level performance that leads to the success of the organization. In this study, it is known that to get to a high level of performance that leads to organizational success, it takes the influence of authentic leadership with leader-member exchange mediation. It is also recognized that LMX may affect behavior by explaining positive psychological talents and a favorable moral climate in the development of internal moral beliefs, self-awareness, balanced information processing, and transparency of communication with followers. Based on the average results on the employee performance variable, the smallest is 3.40 in terms of the opinion of employees who work according to the number of jobs given in a month, it is suggested that these employees need to properly produce or create jobs according to the organization’s direction. It can also be influenced by authentic leadership factors when the employee is working. That way, it will motivate employees to improve their performance and trust their superiors.
Author: Anis Eliyana
Details of the research can be viewed here:
https://www.webology.org/abstract.php?id=2324
(Leader-Member Exchange As An Intervening Variable For Authentic Leadership And Performance)
