A half century of leader-member exchange research suggests that leaders share high- or low-quality relationships with members. However, these binary shortcuts dissolve the complexity of what is actually exchanged between leader and member. Therefore, a communicative view of these special dyadic relationships is forwarded, suggesting that leader-member relationships are a byproduct of, and produced through, concrete and continuous communicative exchanges. This scholarship answers long-standing calls for enhanced theoretical precision in parceling out the literal exchanges that take place between leader and member. Based on the results of focus groups and two self-report surveys, scales are developed to measure various dimensions of leader communicative behavior that may facilitate or hinder relationship development and maintenance. Group-level implications are discussed.
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