It is hard to overstate the importance of the leader-member exchange relationship. Employees who share a high-quality relationship with their leader are more likely to earn a higher salary, climb the ranks more quickly, and report higher life satisfaction levels than their peers who have a less copasetic leader-member relationship. While Leader-Member Exchange Theory (LMX) research addresses the impact that the leader-member relationship has on the individual employee experience, much of this scholarship overlooks or obscures the vital role that communication plays in the development and maintenance of workgroup relationships. Much of extant literature also glosses over the role that communication plays in workgroup collaboration. Using a communicative lens, this text illustrates the complex theoretical underpinnings of LMX theory, such as the importance of social interaction and relationship building and maintenance necessary to achieve organizational goals. We explore how an employee's relationship with their leader also shapes their peer relationships and their overall standing within their workgroup. Further, the text examines the potential dark side of LMX theory, such as the tendency towards demographic and trait and state similarity. Employing a communicative perspective emphasizes the extent of position and personal power both leaders and members have in engineering the quality of the relationship they desire. Integrating and applying once disparate lines of academic literature, this book offers employees, students, and teacher-scholars pragmatic yet research-based insights into developing and maintaining successful, healthy workplace relationships.

A focus on intentional communication, team building, and relational maintenance.This text is designed to help form and maintain palliative care teams that survive and thrive. Whether you are starting a new team or hoping to help an existing team, this text addresses aspects of team players, leadership, meetings, organizational culture, and self- and team-care through a combination of empirical data and real voices from health care professionals in palliative care practice. By focusing on the individual professional in relation to team health and success, this text shows how to develop high quality, high-performing palliative care teams. Perfect for both students and the working professional, this text is useful at any time in your career or your team's development. It explores the types of providers involved in palliative care, their roles, possible conflicts, and the opportunity to amplify their work as a team while overcoming the stigma that may be attached to palliative care. This book focuses on the foundational role of communication in leadership, team building, and the delivery of patient care. Designed to provide workable solutions to challenges such as poor team design, siloing, and faulty communication, it provides suggestions that can be implemented immediately by your palliative care team. This focus allows health care professionals who are passionate about palliative care to grow into high functioning teams with a focus on excellent patient care. Key Features: Satisfactory and Unsatisfactory Palliative Care Experiences Stories from nurses, social workers, chaplains, physicians, pharmacists, executives, patients, and families Pearls from the Field: Provider and team takeaways Best practices of team leaders Tips for individuals and teams to communicate with other providers, departments, and senior leadership Discusses how to improve short-term and long-term functionality Outlines the predictors of burnout for palliative care professionals and teams Self-care and team-care suggestions Combines up-to-date research and theory in an accessible writing style