Relationship between Transformational Leadership and Employee Retention among Healthcare Professionals in the United States

Abstract

With the endemic health care professional shortage seen both in the United States as well as globally, retaining staff is a high priority. Much like other organizations who rely on human capital, health care professionals are the most important resource for improving patient outcomes, and for achieving organizational performance. Leaders must effectively manage their employees in order to retain top talent and meet organizational goals. One reason for high turnover rates among healthcare professionals is the lack of recognition they are given by their leaders. With this in mind, the purpose of this study was to examine the relationship between transformational leadership components and turnover intentions of health care professionals. One hundred and twenty-seven healthcare professionals from the United States participated in the survey. Participants were recruited through a LinkedIn group of healthcare professionals. More than 100 healthcare professionals from the United States responded to an online survey that contained the Global Transformational Leadership Scale, The Turnover Intention Scale, and demographic questions to describe the sample. A correlational analysis was conducted to determine the type of relationship between the health care professional’s perceptions of their supervisors’ transformational leadership and their intent to turnover.

The results of this study support the theory of transformational leadership. The health care professionals’ turnover intentions were negatively correlated with the transformational leadership components, which indicate that as their turnover intentions increased their positive rating of their supervisors’ transformational leadership behaviors decreased.