Leader member exchange as a moderating variable in the relationship between job security and well-being.

Abstract

The present research investigates the moderating effect of Leader-Member Exchange (LMX) between the well-established relationship between job security and well-being. Participants were e-mailed a web link to an online survey host in which a compilation of questionnaires was presented. The questionnaires included a self constructed demographical questionnaire, the LMX-MDM (Liden & Maslyn, 1998), a job security questionnaire (Isaksson, Hellgren & Pettersson, 1998), as well as the General Health Questionnaire (Goldberg, 1992). The final sample (n=119) consisted of data from employees from two organisations. The statistical analysis indicated an association between job security and LMX (r= .44, p< 0.0001), job security and well-being (r= .45, p< 0.0001) as well as between LMX and well-being (r= .35, p< 0.0001). Furthermore, there was evidence suggesting that LMX moderates the relationship between job security and employee well-being (R-Squared = 0.3999). These findings are expected to contribute to a scope of research that is under-represented (with specific relation to job security and LMX) as well as to a scope of research adding to the fraternity of industrial psychology.