Leadership styles and employee turnover – A study with reference to selected IT organisations

Employee turnover has become a prevalent issue that the organizations are facing and the need to address it is very important. As the economy stabilizes, it's a problem that will only become more widespread. There are a number of reasons an employee will decide to leave a company. And leadership style of the superior is one among them. The way a superior handles the employees is one of the most critical factors in creating a work environment that encourages productivity and dedication to a company and its mission. The aim of the study is to identify the root cause of issues between superior and employees which in turn has an effect on turnover. The leadership styles taken for the study are Transactional and Transformational leadership styles. A structured questionnaire was designed for this purpose and was issued to the employees of selected IT firms and their responses were recorded. Statistical tools were applied on the collected data. It was found that feeble understanding of the individual is the main reason for issue between the superior and the employee. Also there are certain other reasons like weak outcome, inability to meet deadlines and ineffectiveness of the superior which add up to the employee's turnover. Results show that transformational leadership style is preferred by the employees in the organization. It is necessary to exhibit both transactional and transformational leadership styles based on the attitude of employees towards work so that the organization can reduce turnover and bring successful outcome.