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Research 2026-10-03 Building an Effective Relationship with Your Manager Bern

Building an Effective Relationship with Your Manager training in Bern · canton of BerneWorking with your manager: quality exchange without compliance

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Working with your manager: quality exchange without compliance — SHR, Bern
Working with your manager: quality exchange without compliance — SHR, Bern

Does working better with a manager mean winning favour? Leader–member exchange research supports a more demanding answer.

What the relationship captures

George Graen and Mary Uhl-Bien (1995, Leadership Quarterly) frame leader–member exchange as a relationship built through trust, respect and reciprocal obligations. Their review organises a field; it does not itself establish causality.

Consistent associations

James Dulebohn and colleagues (2012, Journal of Management) meta-analytically link higher-quality exchange with satisfaction, commitment and performance. Much evidence is correlational: good results may also improve the relationship.

Working with your manager: quality exchange without compliance — SHR, Bern — Berne
Working with your manager: quality exchange without compliance — SHR, Bern — Berne

The compliance risk

Turning this evidence into advice to seek personal closeness confuses a working relationship with favour. A robust relationship permits disagreement, clarifies expectations and makes contributions visible without private affinity. (our executive and employee training programmes)

What can be practised

Three observable practices are restating priorities, flagging obstacles early and requesting an explicit trade-off when expectations conflict. They reduce ambiguity without promising a perfect relationship.

A practical check in Bern

After the next three exchanges, separately write down the understood priority and expected decision, then compare them with the manager. Repeated gaps indicate a working-contract issue rather than personality. To go further: explore the Building an Effective Relationship with Your Manager training in Bern in the canton of Bern, or browse our executive and employee training programmes in Switzerland.

In pictures: Building an Effective Relationship with Your Manager in Bern

Building an Effective Relationship with Your Manager training in Bern — in practice
Building an Effective Relationship with Your Manager training in Bern — in practice
Building an Effective Relationship with Your Manager training in Bern — hands-on workshop
Building an Effective Relationship with Your Manager training in Bern — hands-on workshop
Building an Effective Relationship with Your Manager training in Bern — on the ground
Building an Effective Relationship with Your Manager training in Bern — on the ground

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