The Impact of Shared Leadership on Leader–Member Exchange: The Moderating Role of Paradox Mindset

Abstract

This study investigates how shared leadership influences leader–member exchange (LMX) and examines the moderating role of employees’ paradox mindset. Drawing on social exchange theory and paradox theory, we propose that shared leadership enhances LMX by fostering reciprocal trust, mutual respect, and relational engagement, and that this effect is stronger for employees with a high paradox mindset. Data were collected through a two-wave survey of 318 full-time employees from Chinese organizations across multiple industries. Confirmatory factor analysis and hierarchical regression were used to test the hypotheses. Results indicate that shared leadership has a significant positive effect on LMX, and paradox mindset significantly strengthens this relationship. This study contributes to leadership literature by identifying a relational outcome of shared leadership and by highlighting paradox mindset as an important cognitive boundary condition, offering both theoretical and practical implications for managing distributed leadership in complex organizational environments.