Transformational leadership and employee turnover intention : a study in a manufacturing based company in Malaysia

Abstract

Employee turnover intention has always been essential issue to the ongoing success of organizations. The purpose of this study is to examine the relationship between transformational leadership styles and employee turnover intention. Besides, the study also intended to identify the most appropriate dimension of transformational leadership style that contributes to employee turnover intention. The research was conducted at one of the manufacturing based organization in Malaysia. About 152 employees participated in th is research. A set of research instruments were used to obtain the data. The multifactor leadership questionnaire (MLQ) developed by Bass (1985) is used to measure transformational leadership style practiced by the heads of department within the organization. Whereas, the employee turnover intention measured through the questionnaires developed by Suguna (2012) and Hafizudin (2012) respectively. The data collected, were analyzed using the descriptive statistics which are the mean, percentage and inferential statistic like pearson correlation coefficient and the multiple regressions. The results showed that, transformational leadership styles have negative and significant relationship with employee turnover intention, which means the more the leaders practice transformational leadership styles, the less of employee turnover intention will take place in the organization. The results further explained that the leaders, in fact practice more Idealized Influence dimension of transformational leadership as compared to other dimensions. In addition, the study has proven that the transformational leadership style contributed towards employee turnover intention. Based on the results obtained, the researcher has made some recommendations to the organization concerned and also for future researchers who might be interested to further their study in either in transformational leadership style or employee turnover intention.