Is turnover contagious? The impact of transformational leadership and collective turnover on employee turnover decisions

Purpose This study addresses three research questions related to employee turnover: (1) does transformational leadership act as a pull-to-stay factor for employees? (2) How well does turnover intention predict actual turnover behavior? (3) Does collective turnover moderate the link between turnover intentions and turnover behaviors? Design/methodology/approach Latent moderated structural equation modeling was employed with longitudinal and multi-source data from car dealerships located in the Seoul Capital Area, South Korea. Findings The results indicate a negative relationship between transformational leadership and turnover intentions and a positive relationship between turnover intentions and turnover behavior. Furthermore, the results provide empirical support for turnover contagion as a mechanism triggering turnover intentions into turnover behavior in the workplace. Originality/value This study provides a timely and novel contribution to the areas of leadership and employee turnover due to the underexplored research area of transformational leadership, the growing body of literature that questions the fixed assumption in employee turnover studies and the increasing interest in collective turnover. Importantly, existing research has examined the concept of collective turnover from a quantity perspective, aggregating individual turnover to group levels. This study provides a more nuanced, comprehensive evaluation of the quality of turnover, by considering the impact of performance contribution aspects of turnover at the business unit level.