Leader-Member Exchange and Agreeableness as Determinants of Facade of Conformity: A Moderated-Mediation Model involving Emotional Exhaustion, Trust in Management, Emotional Stability and Outcomes

Abstract

The aim of the study is to explore that whether quality of Leader-Member Exchange (LMX) relationship and agreeableness lead an employee to create facade of conformity (FOC) and how creation of facade of conformity e ects employee's emotional exhaustion considering moderating e ects of trust in management and employee's emotional stability. E ects of emotional exhaustion on individual level outcomes including organizational citizenship behavior towards organization (OCBO), organizational citizenship behavior towards individuals (OCBI) and one's ability of creativity have also been examined in the current study. The data were collected from four service sector organizations of Rawalpindi and Islamabad, Pakistan. Data Analysis of 303 employees using Structural Equation Modelling (SEM) to examine the serial multiple mediation model with analysis of moment structures (AMOS-20) found that quality of leader-member exchange relationship is negatively and signi cantly related to facade of conformity while agreeableness is positively and signi cantly related to facade of conformity. E ects of quality of leader-member exchange relationship on facade of conformity is moderated by employee's trust in management. Moderated-Mediation results of the study reveal that employees low in quality of leader-member exchange relationship but having higher levels of trust in management experience less degree of facade creation as compared to the employees who have lower level of trust in management or independent of the e ects of trust in management. Facade of conformity leads to emotional exhaustion such that increase in facade of conformity increases employee's level of emotional exhaustion. Moreover, e ects of facade of conformity on emotional exhaustion is moderated by employee's emotional stability. Findings suggest that employees who create higher degree of facade of conformity but have higher levels of emotional stability experience less emotional exhaustion as compared to the employees who have lower level of emotional stability or independent of the e ects of emotional stability. In current study, no evidence was found that quality of leader-member exchange relationship and agreeableness directly e ects emotional exhaustion without their e ect on facade of conformity. The results show that facade of conformity fully mediates the association between leader-member exchange relationship/agreeableness and emotional exhaustion. Results of the study also reveal that employee's emotional exhaustion has signi - cant negative e ects on employee's organizational citizenship behavior towards organization, organizational citizenship behavior towards individuals and creativity. Moreover, facade of conformity has direct negative e ects on employee's organizational citizenship behavior towards organization and organizational citizenship behavior towards individuals while no evidence has found pertaining to direct effects of facade of conformity on employee's ability of creativity. However, facade of conformity has indirect negative and signi cant e ects on organizational citizenship behavior towards organization, organizational citizenship behavior towards individuals and also on employee's ability of creativity through its e ect on emotional exhaustion. The result reveals that emotional exhaustion partially mediates the association between facade of conformity and organizational citizenship behavior towards organization/organizational citizenship behavior towards individuals and fully mediates the relationship between facade of conformity and one's ability of creativity. Based on these ndings, we have discussed theoretical and practical implications for managers along with limitations of the study and future directions. Keywords: LMX as Leader-Member Exchange Relationship, Agreeable- ness, Trust in Management, FOC as Facades of Conformity, Emotional Exhaustion, Emotional Stability, OCBO as Organizational Citizenship Behaviors towards Organization, OCBI as Organizational Citizenship Behaviors towards Individuals, Employee's Creativity.