REVIEW article
Front. Psychol.
Sec. Organizational Psychology
Revisiting Leader–Member Exchange: A Review through the Lens of the "Too Much of a Good Thing" Effect
Provisionally accepted
- 1Ritsumeikan Daigaku - Biwako Kusatsu Campus, Kusatsu, Japan
- 2Ritsumeikan Daigaku - Osaka Ibaraki Campus, Ibaraki, Japan
- 3Osaka Daigaku Daigakuin Kiso Kogaku Kenkyuka Kino Sosei Senko, Toyonaka, Japan
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Objective: This review reexamines the widely accepted belief that high-quality leader-member exchange (LMX) relationships are uniformly beneficial. Methods: Based on the "too much of a good thing" framework, this study systematically reviews new empirical evidence suggesting that excessively high LMX may yield diminishing returns and negative outcomes. Results: This review examines the unique and important contributions that high LMX relationships bring to LMX research. It highlights the emotional costs underlying nonlinear patterns and presents an integrated Resource-Emotion-Motivation (REM) theoretical framework. Additionally, it discusses methodological aspects to better capture the dynamic relational process. Conclusion: Finally, based on the reviewed papers, we present the academic and practical implications for future research. This review contributes to broadening the understanding of LMX dynamics.
Keywords: curvilinear relatinoship, emotion, intrinsic motivation, Leader-member Exchange (LMX), Psychophysiological indicators, Resource loss, too much of a good thing (TMGT)
Received: 11 Oct 2025; Accepted: 11 Feb 2026.
Copyright: © 2026 Yamaura, Okada, Nishihara, Shiozawa, Mukai and Sakaue. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Kazuho Yamaura
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