Going the distance? A meta-analysis of leadership styles, social distance, turnover intention, and organizational commitment
Abstract
Retention of healthcare personnel is a global challenge with severe implications for securing stable, high-quality healthcare services. The common saying that 'people do not leave a bad job, but they leave a bad boss' stresses the influence a formal leader has on employees' turnover intentions (TI) and organizational commitment (OC). Understanding what makes an effective leader is essential for understanding managers' agency in dealing with employee retention; yet, few systematic reviews compare the effectiveness of leaders. This study conducts a systematic review and identifies 54 studies that include 147 correlation effect sizes from public hospitals worldwide. Conducting a multi-level meta-analysis, we find that leadership is significantly associated with employee's TI (r = -0.158, [-0.213; -0.102]) and OC (r = 0.266, [0.194; 0.336]); however, the meta-regression reveals that the correlation effect sizes of leadership styles vary significantly across studies where leader-member exchange (LMX) (OC: r = 0.32; TI: r = -0.37), servant (OC: r = 0.40), supportive (OC: r = 0.35; TI: r = -0.36), and ethical (OC: r = 0.43) leadership styles are most strongly associated with the employee outcomes. A deeper dive into the leadership styles reveals that social distance moderates the relationship between leadership styles and OC and TI as correlation effect sizes decrease when social distance increase (TI: r = 0.161, std error = 0.046, p = 0.032; OC: r = -0.298, std. error = 0.072, p =…
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