Benevolent leadership and follower performance: The mediating role of leader–member exchange (LMX) Simon C. H. Chan & Wai-ming Mak Published online: 25 November 2011 # Springer Science+Business Media, LLC 2011 Abstract This study examines leader–member exchange (LMX) as a mediator of the relationship between benevolent leadership and follower task performance and extra-role performance. Using a sample of 223 leader–member dyads in a nonprofit organization in the People’ s Republic of China, results indicate that benevolent leadership and LMX are positively related to follower task performance and organizational citizenship behavior towards the organization (OCBO). Findings also support that LMX partially mediates the relationship between benevolent leadership and follower task performance as well as fully mediates the relationship between benevolent leadership and OCBO. Implications for the theory and practice of leadership in Asia are discussed. Keywords Benevolent leadership . Leader–member exchange (LMX) . Nonprofit organizations . Task performance . Extra-role performance Under the umbrella of leadership literature, there are two main contrasting perspectives of leadership research. The first stream of leadership research is based on the leader-focused approach. Existing studies have examined how leadership behaviors influence follower performance (Podsakoff, MacKenzie, Moorman, & Fetter, 1990). For example, Jung and Avolio (2000) examined the impact of transformational leadership on follower performance through trust in leader. The second leadership stream is based on the relationship-based approach. Previous works have explicitly explained leader-to-follower reciprocal social exchange relationships (Janssen & Van Yperen, 2004; Lam, Huang, & Snape, 2007; Tangirala, Green, & Ramanujam, 2007; Wang, Law, Hackett, Wang, & Chen, 2005). The Asia Pac J Manag (2012) 29:285–301 DOI 10.1007/s10490-011-9275-3 S. C. H. Chan (*) : W.-m. Mak Department of Management and Marketing, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Hung Hom, Kowloon, Hong Kong e-mail: mssimon@polyu.edu.hk W.-m. Mak e-mail: mswmmak@polyu.edu.hk