Nonprofit organizations are increasingly becoming more business-like in their approaches to leadership and management across the board. This has a number of effects, but perhaps one of the most important is that it has made business theories more applicable to the nonprofit sector. This is an opportunity to both expand on important business theory and provide insight into how nonprofits can improve leadership and management. Accordingly, the business leadership theory of leader–member exchange (LMX) was applied to the nonprofit context, specifically to human services nonprofits that serve people with disabilities. Through qualitative interviews and document collection, this study examined how LMX could be perceived to affect employee performance and how it could be perceived to affect leader–follower relationships. Three themes emerged for each of these questions: of loyalty, respect, and communication for the first and mutual respect and understanding, positive interactions, and communication for the second. These themes and their implications are discussed.

非营利组织在全盘领导和管理方法上正变得越来越像企业。这产生了许多影响，但也许最重要的影响之一是它使业务理论更适用于非营利部门。这是一个机会，既可以扩展重要的业务理论，也可以提供对非营利组织如何改善领导和管理的见解。因此，领导者－成员交换（LMX）的业务领导理论被应用于非营利组织，特别是为残疾人服务的人类服务非营利组织。通过定性访谈和文件收集，本研究检查了LMX如何被视为影响员工绩效以及如何被视为对领导者与跟随者关系的影响。对于这些问题中的每一个，出现了三个主题：首先是忠诚，尊重和沟通，而首先是相互尊重和理解，积极互动以及第二个沟通。讨论了这些主题及其含义。