Telecommuter Intent to Leave

An increase in the number of telecommuters in the workplace has created new challenges for organizational leaders. A single leader often faces geographic, time, and cultural differences among team members resulting in structural, evaluation, developmental, and inspirational challenges. An additional challenge faced by managers of telecommuters is the retention of these employees.  Intent to stay or leave an organization is the strongest predictor of actual voluntary turnover. The purpose of the study was to examine the relationship between perceived leadership styles and telecommuter intent to leave an organization. Linear regression results indicated a significant relationship between perceived transformational and telecommuter intent to leave an organization (F(1, 111) = 34.36, p < .001) suggesting the more a leader demonstrates a transformational leadership style, the more a telecommuter wants to leave the organization. Linear regression results indicated a significant negative relationship between perceived laissez-faire leadership style and intent to leave an organization (F(1, 111) = 20.01, p < .001) suggesting the more a leader demonstrates a laissez-faire leadership style, the less a telecommuter wants to leave the organization. No relationship existed between perceived transactional leadership style and telecommuter intent to leave an organization. The findings in this study were unexpected for all three leadership styles, as decades of research suggest transactional and laissez-faire leadership styles have a positive effect on employee turnover intentions and transformational leadership style has a negative effect on employee turnover intentions.