221 / 2016-07-03 08:28:50

Paternalistic Leadership and Subordinates’ Turnover Intention: The Mediating Role of Emotional Exhaustion

In the face of fierce competition, recruiting and retaining valuable employees is one of the most important means to improve organizational effectiveness. In Chinese hospital context, doctors and nurses increasingly move frequently, which makes hospitals incur time, financial losses. On the one hand, in order to improve organizational effectiveness, low turnover rate becomes requisite. One the other hand, as an indigenous construct, Paternalistic leadership has gained significant momentum in scholarship and practice. In this article, we examine the relationship between PL and subordinates’ turnover intention, including direct and indirect relationships.
Data were collected from four private hospitals, including 188 medical staff. Empirical results revealed that moral leadership negatively affects subordinates’ turnover intention, and authoritarian leadership has a positive effect on subordinate’s turnover intention. In addition, emotional exhaustion partly mediates the relationship between moral and authoritarian leadership and subordinates’ turnover intention. Theoretical and managerial implications are discussed in the final part.