The influence of leadership on turnover: Analysis of the mediating role of organizational engagement, job satisfaction, and work environment in the context of an international transportation services company operating in Morocco

Ayoub Katfi; Oumaima El Mnouer; Sabrina  Ghallal; Thierry Come

doi:10.31893/multirev.2025190

Keywords:

structural equations model

Abstract

This study examines the relationship between leadership and employee turnover rates, focusing on job satisfaction, organizational engagement, and the work environment. The findings suggest that leadership has a direct impact on employees' intentions to leave the company. The study population consists of employees from an international transportation services company operating in Morocco, with diversity in terms of gender, age, marital status, and profession. The total population comprises 1000 individuals. After the data purification phase, the sample size for data collection was reduced to 400 individuals. The collected data were analyzed using SPSS 28 and Smart PLS 4.0 software. The Partial Least Squares Structural Equation Modeling (PLS-SEM) method was used to validate the research model and test the hypotheses. The results demonstrate that leadership indirectly influences employee turnover through job satisfaction and organizational engagement. However, the work environment did not show a significant influence on this relationship. This study contributes to understanding the complex relationship between leadership and turnover rates, highlighting that while leadership is a crucial factor, it is not the only determinant. Job satisfaction and organizational engagement also play a significant role in employee retention. This work provides valuable insights for HR managers on the importance of leadership strategies in reducing employee turnover.
References
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51. Yukl, G. (2013). Leadership in Organizations (8th ed.). Pearson.

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.

How to cite

Katfi, A., Mnouer, O. E., Ghallal, S., & Come, T. (2025). The influence of leadership on turnover: Analysis of the mediating role of organizational engagement, job satisfaction, and work environment in the context of an international transportation services company operating in Morocco. Multidisciplinary Reviews, 8(6), 2025190. https://doi.org/10.31893/multirev.2025190

[1] Abbasi, S., & Hollman, W. (2012). Turnover: The real bottom line. Public Personnel Management. https://doi.org/10.1177/009102600002900303

[2] Aburzaid, A. N. (2018). Employee’s empowerment and its role in achieving strategic success: A practical study on Jordanian insurance companies. Jordan Journal of Business Administration, 14(4).

[3] Abuzaid, N. (2018). The relationship between ethical leadership and organizational commitment in the banking sector of Jordan. Journal of Economic and Administrative Sciences, Emerald Group Publishing Limited, 34(3). https://doi.org/10.1108/JEAS-01-2018-0006

[4] Allen, J., & Meyer, P. (1990). The measurement and antecedents of affective, continuance, and normative commitment to the organization. Journal of Occupational Psychology, 63(1). https://doi.org/10.1111/j.2044-8325.1990.tb00506.x

[5] Allen, J., & Meyer, P. (1991). A three-component conceptualization of organizational commitment. Human Resource Management Review, 1(1). https://doi.org/10.1016/1053-4822(91)90011-Z

[6] Arnetz, B. (1999). Staff perceptions of the impact of health care transformation on quality of care. International Journal of Quality in Health Care, 11(4). https://doi.org/10.1093/intqhc/11.4.345

[7] Avolio, B. J., Walumbwa, F. O., & Weber, T. J. (2009). Leadership: Current Theories, Research, and Future Directions. Annual Review of Psychology, 60, 421-449. https://10.1146/annurev.psych.60.110707.163621

[8] Bailey, D. (1982). Methods of social research. Free Press, New York. https://archive.org/details/methodsofsocialr0000bail_e8m0/mode/2up

[9] Bass, B. M. (1990). From transactional to transformational leadership: Learning to share the vision. Organizational Dynamics, 18(1). https://doi.org/10.1016/0090-2616(90)90061-S

[10] Bass, B. M., & Avolio, J. (1994). Improving organizational effectiveness through transformational leadership. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications. https://books.google.com/books/about/Improving_Organizational_Effectiveness_T.html?id=_z3_BOVYK-IC

[11] Bass, B. M., & Riggio, R. E. (2006). Transformational Leadership (2nd ed.). Psychology Press. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781410617095

[12] Bryman, A. (1988). Quantity and quality in social research. London: Unwin Hyman.

[13] Byrne, M. (2006). Structural equation modeling with EQS and EQS/Windows: Basic concepts, application and programming. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.

[14] Churchill, G. (1979). A paradigm for developing better measures of marketing constructs. Journal of Marketing Research, 16(1), 64–73. https://doi.org/10.2307/3150876

[15] Deschênes, A., Laflamme, F., & Durif, F. (2015). La responsabilité sociétale et l’éthique comme vecteurs de l’engagement organisationnel. Revue de l’organisation responsable, 10(2), 43–57. https://doi.org/10.3917/ror.102.0043

[16] Dirks, K. T., & Ferrin, D. L. (2002). Trust in Leadership: Meta-Analytic Findings and Implications for Research and Practice. Journal of Applied Psychology, 87(4), 611-628. https://doi.org/10.1037/0021-9010.87.4.611

[17] Furnham, A., Eracleous, A., & Chamorro-Premuzic, T. (2009). Personality, motivation and job satisfaction: Hertzberg meets the Big Five. Journal of Managerial Psychology, 24(8), 765–779.

[18] Gazioglu, S., & Tansel, A. (2006). Job satisfaction in Britain: Individual and job-related factors. Applied Economics, 38(10), 1163–1171. https://doi.org/10.1080/00036840500392987

[19] Harhara, S., Singh, K., & Hussain, M. (2015). Correlates of employee turnover intentions in oil and gas industry in the UAE. International Journal of Organizational Analysis, 23(3), 493–504. https://doi.org/10.1108/IJOA-11-2014-0821

[20] Harter, K., Schmidt, L., & Hayes, L. (2002). Business-unit-level relationship between employee satisfaction, employee engagement, and business outcomes: A meta-analysis. Journal of Applied Psychology, 87(2), 268–279. https://doi.org/10.1037/0021-9010.87.2.268

[21] Hom, W., & Griffeth, W. (1991). Structural equations modeling test of a turnover theory: Cross-sectional and longitudinal analyses. Journal of Applied Psychology, 76, 350–366. https://doi.org/10.1037/0021-9010.76.3.350

[22] Judge, T. A., & Piccolo, R. F. (2004). Transformational and Transactional Leadership: A Meta-Analytic Test of Their Relative Validity. Journal of Applied Psychology, 89(5), 755-768. https://doi.org/10.1037/0021-9010.89.5.755

[23] Kalkavan, S., & Katrinli, A. (2014). The effects of managerial coaching behaviors on employees’ perception of job satisfaction, organizational commitment, and job performance: Case study on the insurance industry in Turkey. Procedia - Social and Behavioral Sciences, 150, 1137–1147. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.sbspro.2014.09.129

[24] Kouzes, M., & Posner, Z. (2007). The leadership challenge. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass.

[25] Lane, K., Esser, J., Holte, B., & Cusker, A. (2010). A study of nurse faculty job satisfaction in community colleges in Florida. Teaching and Learning in Nursing, 5(1), 16–26.

[26] Locke, A. (1976). The nature and causes of job satisfaction. In Dunnette, M. D. (Ed.), Handbook of Industrial and Organizational Psychology (Vol. 1, pp. 1297–1343). Chicago, IL: Rand McNally.

[27] Locke, E. A., & Latham, G. P. (2002). Building a Practically Useful Theory of Goal Setting and Task Motivation: A 35-Year Odyssey. American Psychologist, 57(9), 705-717. https://doi.org/10.1037/0003-066X.57.9.705

[28] Mathieu, E., & Zajac, M. (1990). A review and meta-analysis of the antecedents, correlates, and consequences of organizational commitment. Psychological Bulletin, 108(2), 171–194. https://doi.org/10.1037/0033-2909.108.2.171

[29] Meyer, J. P., & Allen, N. J. (1991). A Three-Component Conceptualization of Organizational Commitment. Human Resource Management Review, 1(1), 61-89. https://doi.org/10.1016/1053-4822(91)90011-Z

[30] Meyer, P., & Allen, J. (1984). Testing the side-bet theory of organizational commitment: Some methodological considerations. Journal of Applied Psychology, 69(3), 372–378. https://doi.org/10.1037/0021-9010.69.3.372

[31] Meyer, P., & Allen, J. (1989). Organizational commitment and job performance: It’s the nature of the commitment that counts. Journal of Applied Psychology, 74(1), 152–156. https://doi.org/10.1037/0021-9010.74.1.152

[32] Meyer, P., Stanley, D., Herscovitch, L., & Topolnytsky, L. (2022). Affective, continuance, and normative commitment to the organization: A meta-analysis of antecedents, correlates, and consequences. Journal of Vocational Behavior, 61(1), 20–52. https://doi.org/10.1006/jvbe.2001.1842

[33] Mobley, H. (1982). Employee turnover: Causes, consequences, and control. Addison-Wesley Publishing Company, New York.

[34] Mobley, W., Horner, O., & Hollingsworth, T. (1978). An evaluation of precursors of hospital employee turnover. Journal of Applied Psychology, 63(4), 408–414. https://doi.org/10.1037//0021-9010.63.4.408

[35] Northouse, G. (2013). Leadership: Theory and practice. Sage Publications.

[36] Obalola, M., Aduloju, K., & Olowokudejo, F. (2012). Organizational commitment and corporate ethical values: Exploring the nexus between employees’ psychological contract and firms’ ethical behaviour in the Nigerian insurance industry. Journal of Management and Sustainability, 2(1), 43–56. 10.5539/jms.v2n1p43

[37] Peachey, W., Burton, J., & Wells, E. (2014). Examining the influence of transformational leadership, organizational commitment, job embeddedness, and job search behaviors on turnover intentions in intercollegiate athletics. Leadership and Organization Development Journal, 35(6), 740–755. https://doi.org/10.1108/LODJ-10-2021-0128

[38] Peterson, J. (1998). Principles of management of impacted teeth. In Contemporary Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery (pp. 215–248). Maryland Heights, MO: Mosby.

[39] Preacher, J., & Hayes, F. (2008). Asymptotic and resampling strategies for assessing and comparing indirect effects in multiple mediator models. Behavior Research Methods, 40(3), 879–891. https://doi.org/10.3758/BRM.40.3.879

[40] Prucker, P. (1954). The practice of management. Wall Street Journal.

[41] Rahman, W., & Nas, Z. (2013). Employee development and turnover intention: Theory validation. European Journal of Training and Development, 37(6), 564–579. https://doi.org/10.1108/EJTD-May-2012-0015

[42] Rao, S. (2000). Human resource management: Text and cases. New Delhi, India: Excel Books, 548–550.

[43] Riaz, A., & Haider, H. (2010). Role of transformational and transactional leadership on job satisfaction and career satisfaction. Business and Economic Horizons, 1(1), 29–38. https://doi.org/10.15208/beh.2010.05

[44] Setyo, R., Endri, E., & Herlisha, N. (2021). Effect of work motivation and job satisfaction on employee performance: Mediating role of employee engagement. Problems and Perspectives in Management, 19(3), 162–174. https://doi.org/10.21511/ppm.19(3).2021.14

[45] Shang, K., & Marlow, P. (2005). The effects of logistics competency on performance. Journal of International Logistics. https://doi.org/10.24006/jilt.2007.5.2.003

[46] Shurbagi, A. M. A. (2014). The relationship between transformational leadership style, job satisfaction, and the effect of organizational commitment. International Business Research, 7(11), 126–139. https://doi.org/10.5539/ibr.v7n11p126

[47] Skalli, A., Theodossiou, I., & Vasileiou, E. (2008). Jobs as Lancaster goods: Facets of job satisfaction and overall job satisfaction. Journal of Socio-Economics, 37(5), 1906–1920. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.socec.2008.04.003

[48] Sousa-Poza, A., & Sousa-Poza, A. A. (2000). Well-being at work: A cross-national analysis of the levels and determinants of job satisfaction. The Journal of Socio-Economics, 29(6), 517–538. https://doi.org/10.1016/S1053-5357(00)00085-8

[49] Spector, P. E. (1997). Job satisfaction: Application, assessment, causes, and consequences. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications.

[50] Yücel, I. (2012). Examining the relationships among job satisfaction, organizational commitment, and turnover intention: An empirical study. International Journal of Business and Management, 7(20), 44–58. https://doi.org/10.5539/ijbm.v7n20p44

[51] Yukl, G. (2013). Leadership in Organizations (8th ed.). Pearson.

Abstract

References

How to cite