Managers form relationships of different quality with different subordinates, so there is no single leadership style operating within a team.
LMX inverted the assumption that a leader has a style applied uniformly. Instead, differentiated relationships develop, with an in-group receiving trust, information and discretion, and an out-group receiving formal supervision. Both sides experience a different manager, and measures of leadership that average across the team describe neither.
In practice
- A staff survey rating one manager both best and worst in the department is not inconsistent.
- Two people with the same job title receive different information about the same decision, routinely and without malice.