The purpose of this study is to examine the mediating effects of social exchange theory on the relationship among leadership style and business performance, talking the Taiwan manufacturing industry as research subjects. Data collection in the stage of final survey was implemented totally through paper questionnaire from May 5, 2008 to July 5, 2008. A total of 187 of the returned questionnaires were usable. The questionnaire retrieve rate is 36.20%. This study applies SPSS 12.0 and Amos 5.0 as the data analysis tool, descriptive statistics analysis, factor analysis, reliability analysis, validity analysis, independent sample t-Test, one-way ANOVA and structure equation model (SEM) to test the hypotheses.
The major findings of this study were summarized as followed: (1) The difference in gender would have significant difference on social exchange (perceived organizational support); (2) The difference in age would have significant difference on business performance; (3) The leadership style has significant influence on business performance; (4) The leadership style has significant influence on social exchange; (5) The social exchange has significant influence on business performance; and (6) The mediating effects of social exchange towards the relationship leadership style can positive effect on business performance.

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