Ethical leadership, leader member exchange and turnover intention among employees of Century bottling company, Namanve.

Abstract

This research examined the effect of ethical leadership on leader member exchange and turnover intentions among employees of Century Bottling Company guided by four key objectives which were; to establish the relationship between ethical leadership and leader member exchange, to find out whether leader member exchange and turnover intentions are related, to establish the relationship between ethical leadership and turnover intentions; and to find out whether leader member exchange mediates the relationship between ethical leadership and turnover intentions. A quantitative approach involving a correlational study design were employed using a sample of 242 respondents from Century Bottling Company, Namanve. Data was analyzed using Pearson correlation and linear regression. The results showed that there is a significant positive relationship between ethical leadership and leader member exchange (r=.20**, p<0.01) implying that subordinates will have good quality relationships with leaders they recognize as ethical. The results continued to show that there is a significant negative relationship between leader member exchange and turnover intentions (r= -.63**, p<0.01) implying that subordinates with a good quality leader member exchange with their leaders will have lower desires to quit their jobs. Also, the results showed that there is a significant negative relationship between ethical leadership and turnover intentions (r= -.30**, p<0.01) implying that when subordinates perceive their leaders as not caring, untrustworthy, dishonest, unfair, their conscious desire to leave the organization increases. It was also found that leader member exchange partially mediated the relationship between ethical leadership and turnover intentions (B= -.16, p=.000), direct effect (B= -.10, SE= .03, t= -3.61, p= .000) and indirect effect (B= -.06, SE= .02) implying that a good leader member exchange between subordinates and their leaders reduces their desire to quit the organization if the leaders are ethical.