Repositioning leadership in organizational structure: The relationship between institutionalization level and leader-member exchange in the context of role empowerment

The structure-agency duality, one of the fundamental issues in the social sciences, occupies a central position in efforts to understand social reality. In leadership theories, the leader is generally conceptualized at the micro-interactional level and viewed as an actor shaping the structure, while theoretical explanations concerning the determinative power of structure remain relatively weak. Existing studies often derive conclusions based on the leader's personal traits and interactions with the environment, focusing on subjective values and relational factors. This limits the establishment of stable and lasting causal relationships. It is thought that this issue underlies the lack of a unifying framework among leadership theories. The aim of this study, grounded in structural realism, is to evaluate methodological individualist leadership theories on a structural basis, thereby elevating the analysis of leadership to a meso-level perspective. The concept of institutionalization is introduced as a structural factor characterized by objectivity and independence from the actor. It is proposed that leadership behaviors can be causally interpreted within the framework of institutionalization. In the national literature, institutionalization is often approached through formalization and defined as the presence of specified, written, and transparent processes and practices within organizations. However, the degree to which this is reflected in actual practice and employee behavior remains unexplored. Thus, in order to explain the interaction between leaders and followers based on the level of institutionalization, it is necessary to determine how institutionalization is manifested in employee behaviors. This gap is thought to be addressable through a deeper understanding of the structure of organizational roles. In organizational contexts, roles are defined as potential behaviors appropriate to a given position and task. Together with the degree of formalization, institutionalization can be fully grasped by considering both leaders' and followers' institutional role behaviors. The purpose of this study is to explore the nature of the relationship between institutionalization level and leader-member exchange (LMX), offering insights into the causal link between structural determinism and individual autonomy. Within this relationship, the mediating mechanism of role empowerment is introduced as a novel concept referring to the extent to which roles are defined by structural standards. A scale was developed to measure role empowerment in organizations, and this scale was tested through the research model. Expert opinions were gathered in two stages to generate the item pool and evaluate content validity. In the pilot study, data from 147 participants were analyzed using a 30-item questionnaire. Following exploratory factor analysis and item refinement, a final role empowerment scale comprising 12 items under 3 dimensions was established. Subsequently, a structural equation model was developed to investigate the mediating effect of role empowerment in the relationship between institutionalization level and leader-member exchange. This model was tested using data from 370 participants. The findings revealed a full mediation effect of role authority in the relationship between institutionalization level and LMX. This result underscores the determinative influence of structure on leadership dynamics within organizations.