A variable that is often researched is many fields is gender. It seems fruitful to understand the role of gender in these aspects. It would extend the literature and knowledge on the topic and contribute to the development of a more conceptualized model of leadership. Looking into the role of OCB and the effect of gender seems relevant for similar reasons. The main research question that will be addressed in this paper is the following: What role does gender play in LMX relationships? In order to answer this question in enough detail, the following sub-questions will be included: How do leader and subordinate gender influence LMX relationships? and Do leader and subordinate gender act as a moderator in the relationship between leadership and organisational citizenship behaviour?

The aim of this paper is to provide a clear overview of the currently available literature on LMX relationships and the role of gender and OCB. Both subordinate and leader gender will be addressed. With the help of this literature review, the research questions will be answered as thoroughly and clearly as possible. First, the method will be discussed, providing all the relevant information as to how the literature was found and analysed. This method section will be followed by a review of the literature on LMX relationships, the role of gender in these relationships, and gender as a moderator for the relationship between LMX and OCB. In the discussion, the findings of the studies will be summarised and the research questions will be answered. Following this section, implications, limitations, and future research suggestions will be discussed. This paper will end with a brief conclusion.

Method

A systematic literature search was done in Google Scholar. The terms used in the search machine were “leadership”, “LMX”, “gender”, and “OCB”. The results were sorted by relevance and not filtered by publication date. The first step of analysis was simply reading the title. If the title seemed relevant to this review, the second step was to read the abstract. If this indicated the article would be of significance to the paper, the article was read in its entirety. Some papers referenced other papers, and these were not always read completely. However, some referenced information is included in the review. Apart from apparent (ir)relevance, no other inclusion or exclusion criteria were considered. Overall, 35 pieces of literature were included of which 19 were completely read.

Literature review