Beyond Perceived Leader’s Competence: Unpacking How and When Leader-Member Exchange Drives Job Satisfaction

Drawing on Leader-Member Exchange (LMX) theory and social cognitive theory, this study examines how high-quality leader-member relationships influence employees’ job satisfaction through cognitive processes. We argue that LMX enhances job satisfaction by strengthening employees’ self-efficacy, a central mechanism in social cognitive theory. We also identify leader competence as a key boundary condition and propose that the efficacy-related benefits of LMX vary with employees’ perceptions of leader competence, reflecting a resource-substitution pattern. To test the framework, we collected survey data from Chinese employees and analyzed the model using structural equation modeling. The results show that LMX increases job satisfaction through self-efficacy, supporting the mediation. Leader competence moderated the LMX-self-efficacy link, with the effect of LMX weaker under high competence and stronger under low competence. Consequently, the indirect effect on job satisfaction differed by leader competence level, providing evidence for a moderated mediation process. Overall, the findings clarify how relational leadership shapes job attitudes and show that the cognitive pathway emphasized by social cognitive theory operates differently depending on the competence context surrounding the leader-follower relationship.