MHRM 6801 Week 5 LMX Leadership Assessment Example

"Every Crew Gets Its Share of the Good Jobs": Testing Two Depot Managers' Claim Against a Quarter of Dispatch Sheets, Overtime Records and Early-Morning Changes, Read Through Leader-Member Exchange Theory

Student Name

Walden University

MHRM 6801: Organizational Effectiveness and Leadership

Instructor Name

Month Day, Year

"Every Crew Gets Its Share of the Good Jobs": Testing Two Depot Managers' Claim Against a Quarter of Dispatch Sheets, Overtime Records and Early-Morning Changes, Read Through Leader-Member Exchange Theory

The Claim

The managers of Bellamy's two newer depots, Aurora and Fort Collins, each told me in interviews that every crew gets a fair share of the good jobs. By good jobs, crews and managers alike mean local moves with accurate estimates that finish by mid-afternoon. Both managers believe their claim, and both described rotating assignments deliberately. This assessment tests the claim against the fourth quarter of 2025: 1,140 moves dispatched from the two depots, with crew assignments, overtime hours and the log of changes made between 5 and 7 a.m. on the day of each move.

What the Records Show

The claim holds in one respect: total volume and overtime are spread roughly evenly. It fails in another: the kind of work is not. Newer crews receive far fewer of the easy local jobs and far more of the jobs where the load runs well past the estimate, which are the jobs that generate claims.

Table 1

Job Assignment by Crew Tenure, Aurora and Fort Collins, Fourth Quarter 2025

Composite organization. Crews led by chiefs with one to three years account for the remaining moves.

How It Happens

The pattern is not created when the dispatcher builds the schedule two days ahead. It is created between 5 and 7 a.m., when the depot manager adjusts assignments for absences, truck problems and late customer changes. Experienced crew chiefs call the manager early to ask about the day, and sometimes ask to swap a job they have heard is difficult. Newer chiefs rarely call. Jobs booked late or estimated by video, which run over estimate more often, tend to be the ones still unassigned or swapped at 6 a.m., and they go to whoever has not asked.

Leader-Member Exchange

Leader-member exchange theory describes how a leader's tie with each member settles into its own quality: high-quality exchanges marked by trust, mutual obligation and informal influence, and lower-quality exchanges limited to the formal job (Graen & Uhl-Bien, 1995). The experienced crew chiefs have high-quality exchanges with their managers, built over years; their early calls and requested swaps are an expression of that relationship. Dulebohn et al. (2012), combining many studies, found that higher-quality exchanges are associated with better performance ratings, satisfaction and commitment, which can make a manager's trust self-reinforcing.

Henderson et al. (2009) reviewed research on differentiation, the extent to which a leader's exchanges vary across a group, and noted that perceived unfairness in differentiation can harm group outcomes. The managers do not intend to favor anyone. But because difficult jobs are allocated through informal requests, the crews with weaker exchanges absorb them.

What the Managers Said When Shown the Records

Both managers were shown the table before this assessment was written. The Aurora manager was surprised and said the early-morning changes felt like solving problems, not assigning work, because each change was made to fill a gap. The Fort Collins manager recognized the pattern at once and said the experienced chiefs "make my mornings easier," which is why their requests are usually granted. Neither had looked at the early-morning log as a whole before. Their reactions matter for the diagnosis: the unequal allocation is not a policy anyone chose, and the managers are open to changing it once it is visible. They also show why the managers' original claim was sincere. Looking at the two-day schedule, which is what they review each week, assignments do look balanced; the imbalance appears only in the morning changes, which no one reviews.

What This Means for the Diagnosis

This finding helps explain the Week 3 pattern that crews led by newer chiefs have higher claims. Some of that difference may reflect skill. Some reflects the jobs they are given. The next step is to compare the same crews on accurate-estimate jobs, which would separate the two.

Limits

One quarter at two depots, in a season with fewer moves than summer. The older depots may show a different pattern.

References

Dulebohn, J. H., Bommer, W. H., Liden, R. C., Brouer, R. L., & Ferris, G. R. (2012). A meta-analysis of antecedents and consequences of leader-member exchange: Integrating the past with an eye toward the future. Journal of Management, 38(6), 1715-1759. https://doi.org/10.1177/0149206311415280

Graen, G. B., & Uhl-Bien, M. (1995). Relationship-based approach to leadership: Development of leader-member exchange (LMX) theory of leadership over 25 years: Applying a multi-level multi-domain perspective. Leadership Quarterly, 6(2), 219-247. https://doi.org/10.1016/1048-9843(95)90036-5

Henderson, D. J., Liden, R. C., Glibkowski, B. C., & Chaudhry, A. (2009). LMX differentiation: A multilevel review and examination of its antecedents and outcomes. Leadership Quarterly, 20(4), 517-534. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.leaqua.2009.04.003