The effects of authentic leadership on turnover intention

Abstract

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to examine the relationship between employees’ perception of authentic leadership and their turnover intention as mediated by employees’ work-group identification (WID) and work engagement. Design/methodology/approach – Structural equation modeling was used to analyze the data from 623 Spanish employees. Findings – Results show that authentic leadership has a negative effect on turnover intention and positive effects on work engagement and WID. The direct relationship between authentic leadership and turnover intention was found to be partially mediated by employees’ work engagement. Practical implications – One of the strongest implications that may be drawn from this study is that authentic leaders can influence employees’ turnover intentions by positively enhancing their engagement. Thus, the study highlights authentic leadership as a key element for retaining valuable employees through the promotion of employees’ work engagement. Originality/value – To the authors’ knowledge, this study is the first to analyze the association between authentic leadership and turnover intention and the meditational effect of work engagement and WID.

Relationship between authentic leadership and nurses' intent to leave: The mediating role of work environment and burnout

“…Head nurses‧ leadership styles influenced nurses‧ thoughts, attitudes, and perceptions of their work as well as their decisions to leave their jobs (Azanza et al, ). This study's results show that the nurses considered their head nurses to be frequently applying authentic leadership.…”

“…Authentic leaders are aware of their thinking and behaviour and respect others‧ moral perspectives, knowledge, and strengths (Clapp‐Smith, Vogelgesang, & Avey, ). Authentic leadership can retain employees by creating trust and authentic relationships among members of the work group (Azanza, Moriano, Molero, & Mangin, ). The American Association of Critical‐Care Nurses () noted that authentic leadership was the key element in creating a good work environment in nursing practice.…”

“…Effective leadership could decrease turnover rates (Heinen et al, ); authentic leadership could improve psychological capital positively, and there may be an indirect effect of psychological capital on employees‧ intentions to leave (Amunkete & Rothmann, ). Azanza et al () examined the effects of authentic leadership on intent to leave and found a low and negative correlation between them ( r = −0.29), indicating that some other factors might mediate the relationship. The purpose of this study was to understand the mediating effects of work environment and burnout on the relationship between authentic leadership and intent to leave.…”

Transformational Leadership, Job Satisfaction, Organizational Commitment, and Turnover Intentions: The Direct Effects among Bank Representatives

“…Some studies concentrate on the partnership in between transformational leadership to organizational commitment, job satisfaction, and organizational trust [17]; and moreover turnover intention [18]. This design of leadership emerges with multiple leadership behaviors.…”

Entrepreneurial Leadership and Turnover Intention in Startups: Mediating Roles of Employees’ Job Embeddedness, Job Satisfaction and Affective Commitment

“…Turnover intention is considered an antecedent of the actual behavior of leaving the organization, and many studies prove a strong correlation between turnover intentions and actual turnover behavior [23]. There has been a lot of research on the relationship between turnover intentions and various styles of leadership (e.g., [24][25][26]). For example, empirical findings by Gyensare et al [24] showed a positive association between transformational leadership and turnover intentions.…”