Leong Kim Siew
Faculty of Business, Raffles University Iskandar
Johor Bahru, Malaysia. Email: adelynleong65@gmail.com
Abstract
Small and Medium Enterprise (SMEs) in Malaysia contribute to economic development by virtue of their sheer numbers and have a large contribution to Gross Domestic Product in Malaysia. However, employee turnover is a key concern not only in SMEs sector but in all type of business. Therefore, the main objective of this study is to investigate the association between leadership styles and turnover intention within SMEs in Malaysia. The theoretical framework discusses the impacts of leadership styles to turnover intention within SMEs in Malaysia. This study was conducted based on the perspectives of leaders and employees in the company. A quantitative research method was employed through the use of survey to collect the data to obtain relevant information from respondents. A total of 100 employees participated in this study. The population of this study are 5 companies in SMEs sector. Finding from this study demonstrated that there is a relationship between transformational and transactional leadership style and turnover intention within SMEs in Malaysia. This study also demonstrated that the transformational leadership style has contributes the most to turnover intention within SMEs in Malaysia if compare with transactional leadership style.
Key word: leadership styles, transformational leadership, transactional leadership, employee turnover intention
1-002LKS-Final