| Summary: | Abstract During the past decades, research investigating the concept of distance leadership has gained increased attention. A globally distributed work force makes leaders realize the high potential that collaboration may hold for performance, productivity and work motivation. Specifically, self-determined employees are stated to be a crucial organizational success factor. Hence, the importance of understanding the role of interpersonal relations in organizations is fundamental to our comprehension of work place dynamics. The aim of this study is to obtain a deeper understanding of how physical distance across borders might impact the leader-member exchange relationship quality and how this in turn impacts the employee’s motivation. Research was conducted with a qualitative method, focusing on the employee’s perception of the leader-member relationship and the perceived impacts that it has on the employee’s work motivation. The sample was obtained through 10 semi-structured virtual interviews with employees in various geographical locations internationally. This study exclusively focuses on the employee’s perspective of the leader- member exchange; thus it does not consider the leader's perspective. The study outcomes include a deeper understanding of how physical distance can have a negative influence on the perceived quality of exchange in the leader-member relationship, thus it is challenging to reach a high quality relationship between leaders and followers that are geographically disperse. Consequently, this might decrease the employees extrinsic work motivation, as the managerial elements of an autonomy-supportive climate are not provided to the fullest extent. The presented findings have resulted in theoretical implications of filling the research gap investigating the integration of Leader-Member Exchange (LMX) and Self- Determination Theory (SDT) in the context of physical distance. Our findings accentuate the role of future research examining the employee perspective in LMX in a qualitative manner, as this study present valuable insights suggesting that distance leadership behaviors play a critical role in the process of employee work motivation in the context of physical distance. Keywords: Leader-Member relationship quality, LMX, physical distance, leadership, Self- determination Theory, SDT, work motivation, autonomous motivation
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