A Cross-Cultural Study of Leader-Member Exchange Quality and Job Satisfaction as Correlates of Intra-Dyadic Work-Value Similarity

A CROSS-CULTURAL STUDY OF
LEADER-MEMBER EXCHANGE QUALITY AND JOB SATISFACTION
AS CORRELATES OF INTRA-DYADIC WORK-VALUE SIMILARITY

by

CONRADO A. MARION-LANDAIS

A thesis submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of
Master of Arts
Department of Psychology
University of South Florida

April 1993

Major Professor: Carnot E. Nelson, Ph.D.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

I wish to express my gratitude for the friendly and enthusiastic assistance provided to me in the data collection phase of this study by Nurys de Rojas, Lucia Rodriguez, Laura Rametta, Tom Quayle, and Bob Goodlet. Also, I would like to thank Beth Buckingham, Cecilia Objío, Alba Rodriguez, Anna Maria Marion-Landais, and Eric Marion-Landais for their invaluable help in the translation process.
TABLE OF CONTENTS

LIST OF TABLES 5

INTRODUCTION 8
The Leader-Member Exchange Model 11
Work Value Similarity 13
Issues in the Measurement of Similarity 15
Cross-Cultural Differences in Leader-Subordinate Exchanges 16
Focus of this Study 18
Hypotheses 18

METHOD 20
Subjects and Sampling Procedures 20
Dominican Sample 20
American Sample 21
Instrumentation 22
Procedure 22

RESULTS 24
Calculation of Similarity Indices 24
Development of the Communication Quality Scale 24
Internal Consistency of Measures 25
Scale Means 26
Correlations of Similarity Indices with Dependent Measures and Job Facet Satisfaction Subscales. 27
Intercorrelation of Similarity Indices 30
Hypothesis 1: Value Similarity and Exchange Quality 30
Hypothesis 2: Value Similarity and Job Satisfaction 33
Hypothesis 3: Value Similarity and Role Ambiguity 34
Hypothesis 4: Comparisons between Perceived and Actual Similarity Indices 34
Hypothesis 5: The Effect of Value Similarity Across Samples 36

DISCUSSION 37
Support for Hypotheses 37
Value Similarity and LMX 37
The Meaning of the Perceptual Congruence Index 38
Differences in Mean Protestant Work Ethic Across

References: INTRODUCTION Despite many years of research in the area, less is perhaps known about leadership than other areas which have received comparable attention (Dansereau, Graen, & Haga, 1975; Muchinsky, 1987, p.527) Work-Related Values At a general level, personal value systems can be described as abstract standards which are independent of any specific object or context and represent an individual 's beliefs about desired conduct and outcomes (Ronen, 1978) In a field study, Poulton & Ng (1988) found that students who scored higher on a PWE scale reported having expended more hours in their studies and having spent less time on leisure activities during a work week than students who scored lower in PWE.