Leader-member exchange as a significant correlate of organizational and occupational sportsmanship behaviors in a health services setting

Purpose - The purpose of this study is to test for the distinctiveness of organizational versus occupational sportsmanship behavior, and then to investigate the relationship of leader-member exchange (LMX) to each.Design methodology approach - A sample of 223 matched nurse-supervisor dyads working for a hospital in Oman was surveyed. Analytic methods included factor analysis and regression.Findings - Organizational sportsmanship behavior was distinguishable from occupational sportsmanship behavior. LMX or the quality of relationship with the supervisor was a significant positive correlate to both types of sportsmanship. Hierarchical regression results showed that LMX significantly contributed to explaining both types of sportsmanship behavior beyond the controlled-for correlates.Research limitations implications - Sportsmanship, or the willingness to tolerate the minor inconveniences of organizational and occupational life without complaint, is important for the effective functioning of any healthcare institution. Only one dimension of citizenship behavior, i.e. sportsmanship, was distinguished, so it remains to be seen whether other citizenship behavior dimensions can show distinct organization versus occupation referents. How well will LMX correlate to these additional citizenship referents? The sample of nurses from an Omani hospital is also unique, so the generalizability of these results to other samples awaits testing.Originality value - To the authors' knowledge, the study is the first to explore different work foci, organization versus occupation, for citizenship behavior, and test for the impact of LMX on both.