Understanding the Link Between Toxic Leadership and Employee Well-being: The Interplay of Employee Turnover, Organizational commitment, Shift timing & Industry Sector

Abstract

<ns5:p>Background This study deals with the issue of toxic leadership and employees’ well-being, its effect on employees’ turnover among various industry sectors in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and to gauge the moderating effect of organizational commitment, shift timing, and industry sector. Toxic leadership was consistently associated with adverse consequences for the employee but few studies have explored the relationship between both in a cross-sector, UAE-based context. Based on Social Exchange Theory, Psychological Contract Theory, and Conservation of Resources Theory, it elaborates an empirical model to make a holistic explanation of the impact of destructive leadership behaviors on employee attitude and the outcomes of the workplace. Furthermore, the study was quantitative, and data were obtained from 300 workers from different industries in the UAE. Statistically, the data were analyzed by simple regression techniques and Structural Equation Modelling (SEM), which is used to find the direct and moderated relationships between variables. Furthermore, our findings indicated that toxic leadership was found to be a significant predictor of employee turnover and a significant determinant of employee well-being; however, the direction of the relationship was an unexpected result and deserves further consideration through the study of procedures and the operationalisations of constructs. Organizational commitment had a significant impact on the prevention of turnover and had limited buffering against toxic leadership. There were limited and negligible moderating influences for shift timing and industry sector. Furthermore, the present study adds new contexts to the previous ones by adding workplace contexts and adds empirical evidence within the context of the UAE. The results also have practical consequences for employee support programmes, measures for employee retention and leadership development programmes in order to create a more sustainable working environment.</ns5:p>