The perceived impact of leadership styles on employee turnover in a pharmaceutical company in South Africa

Abstract

Leadership is crucial for effective functioning of an organisation, though many conflicting and varying definitions and theories. Leadership styles can depend on the leader’s personality and the situation at hand. The rate at which an employer gains and losses its staff is called employee turnover. Employee turnover has always been a concern for all types of organisations and poor leadership is a common marker for high employee turnover and cost the organisation time and money. This is especially relevant to the pharmaceutical industry, where employees are highly educated, undergo extensive training and the skills required to fill the positions are scarce. The purpose of this qualitative study was to examine the perceived impact of leadership styles on employee turnover in a pharmaceutical company in South Africa. A qualitative questionnaire was conducted with four participants (all working in the human resource department). Responses were analysed using content analysis and both demographic characteristics and themes emerged. The study determined the relationship between leadership styles and employee turnover at Kahma Pharmaceutical Group. The responses indicated that most employees had a very basic understanding of what leadership actually is and a passing knowledge of the various leadership styles. From what the respondents did understand, it was clear that most consider transformational leadership style applicable to them and influence their stay at the company. The respondents had a relatively accurate understanding of what employee turnover is and reported employee turnover in their company to be low. It was clear that the respondents all considered employee turnover and leadership styles to be interconnected though they did not seem able to firmly grasp each concept.