Although most prior LMX research has focused solely on the influence of LMX relationships on employees and supervisors within the leader-member dyad, it is important to consider how this dyadic phenomenon influences the broader network of dyadic coworker thoughts, emotions, and behaviors. In this dissertation, I draw on social comparison theory to suggest that LMX relationships have important implications for not only how employees view themselves and their leaders but also how they view, feel toward, and ultimately behave with their coworkers. This dissertation posits that, regardless of whether a particular employee has a relatively high LMX relationship or a relatively low LMX relationship with their supervisor, LMX social comparisons can produce beneficial and detrimental effects for dyadic coworker interactions depending upon whether an employee experiences self-other overlap with that referent coworker. To test my social comparison theory arguments, my dissertation utilizes dyadic social network data from three large coworker workgroups to demonstrate how these LMX social comparison processes influence the social comparison emotions that employees feel toward their referent coworkers and how these social comparison emotions influence interpersonal discretionary behaviors amongst coworkers. Interestingly, the results of my dissertation provide novel examples in which relatively lower LMX quality (under certain conditions) had beneficial workplace outcomes (in terms of inspiration and OCBI), challenging the implicit assumption in the literature that higher LMX quality always results in superior outcomes.
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