DESTRUCTIVE LEADERSHIP AND EMPLOYEE TURNOVER INTENTIONS: THE MODERATING ROLE OF ORGANIZATIONAL CITIZENSHIP BEHAVIOUR IN UNIVERSITIES

Abstract

In the current competitive business environment, leadership is a determining factor for organizational success as leaders can lead their organizations towards success, or alternatively, they may lead their organization towards failure. Majority of the literature is skewed towards studying the positive impact of leadership, while ignoring its damaging potential. This study focuses on the negative side of leadership, specifically the concept of Destructive Leadership (DL), which includes the abusive behaviour, arrogance, bullying, and the toxic, tyrannical, and narcissistic nature of leaders, which consequently contributes to their employees’ turnover intentions (ETI). This research takes the heads of the departments of academia and the immediate supervisors of the administration staff of universities as leaders in order to study their destructive tendencies. ETI, DL, and organizational citizenship behaviour (OCB) have been widely studied in the academic literature. Different research studies show the relationship between DL and ETI while this research study explores the moderating effect of OCB on the relationship between DL and ETI in the education sector especially in the universities. Through survey design and regression analysis, this research provides empirical evidence of the relationship between the three concepts in university employees. Data is collected from the teaching faculty of universities (n=257). The findings indicate that DL behaviour has a significant positive relationship with ETI. The second indication of the finding is that OCB moderates the relationship between DL and ETI. Finally, the research provides some suggestions for future researchers to improve the understanding of OCB and the effects of DL on ETI.