The relationship between employee engagement, transformational leadership, perceived support and intention to quit : an exploratory study

Employee engagement (ENG) is a concern for most organisations as it influences productivity rates and ultimately the financial outcome of an organisation. In order to increase the levels of ENG it is important that organisations identify the antecedents of ENG. There are many antecedents of ENG, for the purposes of this study, the antecedents are: transformational leadership (TFL) and perceived support (PS). It is also important for organisations to gain an understanding of how employee engagement influences employees' intention to quit (ITQ) an organisation. This study is an exploratory attempt to see if firstly, direct relationships exist between the constructs: TFL and ENG; ENG and ITQ; PS and ENG; TFL and PS; TFL and ITQ; PS and ITQ. Secondly, to see if indirect relationships exist between: TFL and ITQ when mediated by ENG and PS and ITQ when mediated by ENG. Pearson's Product Moment correlations, Standard Multiple Regression and partial correlation were used to assess the above propositions. Baron and Kenny's (1986) 3 step process was used to test for mediation. The sample consisted of 43 employees from a financial institution. A significant positive relationship was found between: TFL and ENG; TFL and PS; PS and ENG. A direct negative relationship was found between: ENG and ITQ; TFL and ITQ; PS and ITQ. The TFL-ITQ relationship was found to be completely mediated by ENG. The PS-ITQ relationship was found to be partially mediated by ENG. PS was the only construct that made a unique contribution when predicting ENG and ITQ. Implications include the fact that PS in organisations may be crucial. It not only has a significant contribution to ENG, but to retaining employees as well. If organisations seek to maximise their resources, they need to focus on the implications that PS has on ENG. Includes bibliographical references (pages 54-61).

Grantor dc:publisher.institution

Organisational Psychology

Year dc:date.issued

2010

Author dc:creator

• Henriques, Nicole

Advisor dc:contributor.advisor

• Schlechter, Anton

Language dc:language.iso

eng

Handle dc:identifier.uri

http://hdl.handle.net/11427/19074

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:open.uct.ac.za:11427/19074