LMX, Coaching Attributions, and Employee Performance

We examined the relationship between leader-member exchange (LMX) quality and the attributions subordinates make about their supervisors' coaching of them. Data were collected from 270 supervisor-subordinate dyads. Subordinates reported that LMX was positively related to attributions that their supervisor's coaching was for the benefit of subordinates (other-focused interests), and negatively related to attributions that their supervisors' coaching was for the benefit of themselves (self-focused interests). Moreover, attributions partially mediated the relationship between LMX quality and both objective and subjective performance with subordinate-attributed supervisors' other-focused interests positively related to performance but subordinate-attributed supervisors' self-focused interests negatively related to performance.