Relational leadership and team climates: Pitting differentiation versus agreement

There is an increasing interest in within-group agreement in organizations, in response to evidence that agreement is predictive of various organizational outcomes of interest. The model in this study suggests that within-group agreement on climate is predicted by the quality of exchange relationships, specifically team–member exchange (TMX), leader–member exchange (LMX), social interaction and work interdependence. Results suggest that average high quality LMX and TMX relationships are both predictive of within-group agreement on some measures of climate. The results also support the notion that differentiation in TMX relationships within a team is deleterious to within-group agreement on climate. Contrary to existing literature, social interaction and work interdependence were not significantly related to any of the other variables in the model.