The mediating role of transformational leadership style on relationship between personality type and turnover intention in Saudi Arabian banking context

Abstract

The purpose of this paper is to study the mediation effect of leadership style on the relationship between employees’ personality types and turnover intention in the banks of Saudi Arabia. Data were collected using online questionnaires from 343 branch employees from two Saudi commercial banks operating in Riyadh City in Saudi Arabia. The obtained data was analyzed using structural equation modeling (AMOS) to test the hypotheses. It was found that high conscientiousness has an influence on decreasing turnover intention. Moreover, bank employees with high conscientiousness are less likely to perceive their leaders as transformational or transactional ones. Regarding to openness to experience, Saudi bank employees are less likely to perceive their leaders as passive or avoidant styles of leadership. The results of the study demonstrated that Saudi Arabian employees who score high in Neuroticism are more likely to perceive their banks leaders as either transformational or transactional ones. This research contributes to organizational behavior and leadership theory; it is considered as one of the first empirical studies within the Saudi context to investigate the mediating role of perceptions between leadership styles between personality traits and employees’ turnover intentions. It is also one of the first studies to examine the relationship between personality traits, leadership styles, and turnover intention in banking contexts. The findings have several important implications. For instance, this study documents both the direct and mediation effects of perceived leadership styles on employees’ personality and their turnover intentions which will be helpful for the development of new studies on human resource management and cross-cultural management.