Beyond Exchange

Revisiting Leadership as a Relationship

Edited by:
Olga Epitropaki, Durham University Business School, Durham University, UK
Robin Martin, Alliance Manchester Business School, University of Manchester, UK

A volume in the series: Contemporary Perspectives on Relationship-Based Leadership. Editor(s): Olga Epitropaki, Durham University Business School, Durham University, UK. Robin Martin, Alliance Manchester Business School, University of Manchester, UK.

Published 2025

Beyond Exchange: Revisiting Leadership as a Relationship emerged in response to scholarly calls to steer away from the 'exchange' rhetoric and ‘give-and-take’ conceptualizations in the study of leader-follower interactions and instead shift the focus to the fundamental element of 'relationship'. The book delves into the very essence of leader-follower relationship dynamics, revisits fundamental assumptions of popular relationship-based leadership theories such as Leader-Member Exchange, takes stock of progress made in this research strand, and proposes exciting avenues for future research.

This book frames leader-follower interactions as a complex and dynamic relational phenomenon that evolves over time and encompasses a multiplicity of relationship types. Relationships are not static, and one size does not fit all. The book cross-pollinates ideas from other research domains, such as relationship science, and highlights the role of the follower and the importance of affective processes, ethics, and fairness on different levels of analysis. It further extends the notion of leader-follower relationship beyond the dyad to more complex network interactions. We hope readers will find ideas that resonate, and the book helps rekindle scholarly passion for relational phenomena in organizational settings.

CONTENTS
SECTION I: INTRODUCTION. Beyond Exchange: An Introduction, Olga Epitropaki and Robin Martin. SECTION II: TYPES AND DEVELOPMENT OVER TIME. Dynamic Approaches to Leader–Follower Relationships: The Road Less Taken? Olga Epitropaki and Kiki Chalkiadaki. Beyond LMX Quality: Towards a Broader Typology of Leader–Follower Relationships, Allan Lee and Geoff Thomas. Attachment in Leader–Follower Interaction: In More Than One Way and on More Than One Level, Konstantinos Kafetsios and Dritjon Gruda. SECTION III: EXCHANGES AND RELATIONSHIPS. Developing Followers as “Sidekicks” Using Leader Member Exchange Theory, George B. Graen, Dianna L. Stone, and Dianna Contreras Krueger. Can We Agree on Morals? How Moral Agreement and Moral Tolerance Affect Leader–Member Exchange, Alexander L. Effinger and Robert C. Liden. Exploring the Role of Emotional Regulation in Leader–Member Exchange (LMX) Relationships, Herman H. M. Tse, Ashlea C. Troth, and Neal M. Ashkanasy. Fairness in Leader–Follower Relationships, Fadel K. Matta and Emma L. Frank. SECTION IV: BEYOND THE DYAD. Beyond the Leadership Dyad: Applications of Social Network Analysis to Study Leadership Networks Emergence and Effectiveness, Cécile Emery, Alexandra Gerbasi, Kristin Cullen-Lester, Pol Solanelles, and Dorothy Carter. SECTION V: SUMMARY AND CONCLUSIONS. Beyond Exchange: Summary of Book Contributions and Final Observations, Robin Martin and Olga Epitropaki. About the Contributors.