Leadership Styles, Employee Performance, and Turnover Intention: A Two-Model Empirical Analysis

Abstract

This study explores the effects of leadership styles (autocratic, transactional, democratic, and transformational) on employee performance, and in turn, the impact of employee performance on turnover intention within organizations operating in Uzbekistan. Adopting a quantitative, cross-sectional research design, data were collected from 200 employees across government, manufacturing, banking, and service sectors using structured questionnaires. Descriptive statistics, Pearson’s correlation, and multiple regression analyses were conducted to examine the relationships among the variables. The findings reveal that autocratic and transactional leadership styles are the most prevalent within the surveyed organizations. Among all leadership styles, only transformational leadership exhibited a significant positive effect on employee performance. Autocratic, transactional, and democratic leadership styles did not demonstrate statistically significant impacts. Furthermore, employee performance was found to be a strong negative predictor of turnover intention. The study highlights the dominance of autocratic leadership and transactional leadership in Uzbekistan and underscores the need for organizations to foster transformational leadership to enhance performance and retain high-performing employees. Implications for theory, practice, and future research are discussed.