Leadership style and academic staff turnover intentions

The rate of employee turnover within an organisation can significantly influence the overall performance and accomplishments of the organisation. Employer attractiveness is no longer driven primarily by remuneration and social perks; instead, leadership has become a crucial aspect within organisations. Implementing an appropriate leadership style will facilitate the organisation’s growth and enhance staff performance to a high standard. Numerous studies have demonstrated that the issue of turnover intentions maybe addressed through various means. However, despite these efforts, issues continue to exist, indicating that present methods are not sufficiently successful. The aim of this study is to investigate the relationship between turnover intentions and leadership style, with job satisfaction acting as the mediator. Grounded on the path-goal theory (PGT) and social exchange theory (SET), this study proposes a quantitative research approach that involved academic staff from private higher education institutions as respondents. The method of simple random sampling were implemented. Subsequently, this study employed Smart Partial Least Squares (SmartPLS) to scrutinise the data and evaluate the hypothesis development. Discussions suggest that leadership style significantly impacts the turnover intentions of academic staff. This study highlights the importance of promptly undertaking a study on the impact of leadership style on academic staff to decrease the rate of turnover at private higher education institutions.