Perceived disability severity and employee outcomes : the role of leader-member exchange and leader empathy

Abstract

This research investigates the extent to which the relationships between perceived disability severity and employee outcomes are moderated by leader empathy and mediated by the quality of leader-member exchange (LMX). The proposed model is built on the premise that a high level of leader empathy can serve as a source of social support thereby mitigating the negative effect of perceived disability. We conduct two independent studies to examine the conditional indirect effect of perceived disability severity on resilience, job accommodation, job satisfaction, performance, and presenteeism through LMX relationships. Data are obtained from employees with musculoskeletal injuries (Study 1, N = 264) and leaders who have supervised employees with musculoskeletal injuries in the past two years (Study 2, N = 224). The results of conditional process analyses partially support the hypothesized moderated mediation model. This research highlights similarities and differences in employees’ and supervisors’ perspectives.