BIRDS OF A FEATHER FLOCK TOGETHER: THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN LEADER-FOLLOWER SELF REGULATION CONGRUENCY, LMX, AND ORGANIZATIONAL COMMITMENT

Recently, there has been growing interest in understanding the influence of leaders on followers as a process related to followers' identity and self-concept (e.g., Kark and Shamir, 2002; Kark and Van Dijk, 2007; Lord and Brown, 2004; Lord, Brown, and Freiberg, 1999). Substantial research on leader-member exchange (LMX) has contributed to the understanding of leader-follower (or supervisor-subordinate) relationships (Gerstner and Day, 1997; Graen, 2006). Though substantial research has indicated that building high quality LMX has beneficial effects on the well-being of the dyad and on work and organizational outcomes, limited attention has been devoted to understanding how such relationships develop (House and Aditya, 1997; Wang, Law, Hackett, Wang, and Chen, 2005). Kark and Van Dijk (2007) have linked the theory of leadership with the theory of self-regulatory focus (SRF; Higgins, 1997), and recently they have focused on the relationships between the theory of LMX with the theory of SRF (Kark and Van Dijk, 2008).