Running head: EMPLOYEE ENGAGEMENT AND RETENTION ISSUES 1

Employee Engagement, Retention Issues, And Leadership Styles

Student’s Name

Institutional Affiliation
EMPLOYEE ENGAGEMENT AND RETENTION ISSUES 2

Employee Engagement, Retention Issues, And Leadership Styles

Introduction

Whether you are managing a large group, an entire organization or perhaps just one or two

other people, the key issue is to ensure that the work is well done. One of the key factors which

influence employee performance is the motivation of your employees. Employees who are never

motivated are more likely to not to pay attention at their work. Again, they will be less likely to

take on any challenging part of the role or simply to go beyond and above what you expect from

them (Carasco-Saul, Kim & Kim, 2015). Therefore, employee engagement as well as motivation

is one of vital factors to consider in any as a leader of any organization. The aim of this paper is to

investigate the relationship between employee engagement, issues affecting employee retention as

well as leadership style.

Management Styles

There are various approaches of leadership style which one can employ in an organization.

However, the kind of leadership one selects may have either positive or negative impacts to the

organization in terms employee retention as well as employees’ performance (Lim, Loo & Lee,

2017). Therefore, this implies that your own approach to management could have a detrimental

effect on the motivation of your employees. For instance, let us consider some approaches of

leadership and discuss how they interfere with performance of the employees.

a) Autocratic Management Approach

This kind of leadership approach is when there is normally one individual who has the final

say on any decisions that are made in the organization. The kind of approach does not give room
EMPLOYEE ENGAGEMENT AND RETENTION ISSUES 3

for arguments when it comes to the matter of decision they have made and as well, they do not

encourage any suggestions from the employees or any other coworker (Carasco-Saul, Kim & Kim,

2015). On adopting this leadership style, one can affect the productivity as well as their motivation

since:

i) It creates a sense of mistrust amid mangers and employees. This is because, autocratic

leadership is actually similar to dictatorship, it gives zero employee engagement as the

leader makes decision without any consultation and accepts no suggestion (Zhang et

al. 2015). Now, you can thing about employee retention under such kind of

environment! Can any one wish to work under such environment? Simply no! meaning

this kind of leadership style is not one of the best to be used in any organization if at

all one wants to keep good customer relationship as well as retaining the employees for

an extended period.

ii) Not the ideal place to foster creative ideas from employees nor motivate them to take

ownership of their role – In short, this form of leadership does not give room for

employees to express their creativity. Again, employees do not have any room to

expand their career. Under such kind of leadership, we cannot talk of employee

retention since they will automatically quit even before end of the contract due to very

poor engagement.

iii) Autocratic management style makes employees feel as if they can be replaced easily

and not very useful to the organization, given that the work they do has already been

laid down step by step for them by the manger.

Each of the above-mentioned factors impact employees’ performance negatively. Should

you find yourself adopting this kind of leadership style you must ask yourself how you can
EMPLOYEE ENGAGEMENT AND RETENTION ISSUES 4

empower the employees, through very close engagement and motivation to set them free to make

their own decisions as well as taking more proactive duty in the day to day running of the business.

b) Democratic Management Style

If autocratic is a “do as I say” approach, then democratic is definitely more geared towards

everybody working in collaboration. This kind of mangers will ever be very happy to hear from

employees about their thought, opinions as well as concerns raised by staff, even when it comes

making a decision which would affect the company as a whole (Lim, Loo & Lee, 2017).

As a result, this kind of management has a more positive impact on productivity as well as

motivation of employees since employees are fully engaged. Furthermore, this management style

gives employees a sense of ownership, allow them feel as if they are real input into the daily

operations of the organization as well as creating and environment open for new ideas and

innovation (Zhang et al. 2015).

While d democratic management style is majorly considered the best style of leadership,

there are times and persons who do not necessarily respond well to this form of leadership. In

highly regulated organizations or positions which involve a great deal of risk, it is often worth

trading employee flexibility for safety as well as security of the group as a whole.

c) Laissez-faire Management Style

This category of management is much more casual approach to leadership. This category

of mangers believe that an employee led approach is the best way to go and offers minimal

oversight into the day to day roles of the employees (Zhang et al. 2015). The main advantages of

this leadership approach are that it leads to new and innovative ideas being rapidly adopted within

the company, employees feel self-motivated and work at a higher intensity and again a flexible

management structure allows employees to better balance work and family commitments which
EMPLOYEE ENGAGEMENT AND RETENTION ISSUES 5

may increase the rate of employee retention. At the end of the day, you work as a manger and

leader within the organization is to understand your workers, the organization as well as the task

which has to be completed and then embrace the leadership scheme which is going to lead to the

best possible outcome.

Employee Engagement, And Retention Issues

Engaging and retaining top talent is not only important to a company’s prosperity but also

for survival of the organization. Offering employees what they require goes hand in hand with

driving their commitment to as well as their interest into your business and ultimately desire to

stay. Some of most useful approaches to engage and retain employees currently used by most of

mangers include:

i) First of all is approaching a leadership style which makes employees feel engaged and

within the best working environment

ii) Providing clear instructions guidelines as well as expectations to employees

iii) Assisting employees understand how their work matters to the organization.

iv) Recognizing as well as awarding employees

v) Providing meaningful feedback on a regular basis.

Work institute retention as well as engagement study assist mangers to gain vital insight into the

matters that affects the business performance, employee support, connection to the overall strategic

goals, how workers feel about their mangers as well as their chances for career growth. Since poor

engagement may produce high turnover and high internal costs, mangers must get to the roots of

the issues and work to resolve them (Lim, Loo & Lee, 2017). The business experts assist by

developing a plan of action to maximize employee engagement, retention and minimize any

possible internal costs.

EMPLOYEE ENGAGEMENT AND RETENTION ISSUES 6

However, it is worth important to note that increasing workers engagement and retention starts

with employee feedback. Employees who are fully engaged would not only stay in the organization

for an extended period but also serves as advocates of the company, its products and services and

contributes to the bottom line of the company’s success (Popli & Rizvi, 2015). Ignoring employee

engagement, you will find your organization with:

i) Low work morale – Without engagement, workers find little connection to their work

or company and little satisfaction in their duties.

ii) Diminished productivity - New workers take time to get up to speed on their work. In

the meantime, the company’s productivity would be affected (Popli & Rizvi, 2015).

iii) Increased turnover – Disengaged workers take their experience, knowledge as well as

skills to a competitor.

iv) Lost recruit dollars as well as lost training - Money and time invested in employing and

onboarding schedules is wasted on departing employees.

Vividly, employee engagement, retention and leadership style are all related in one way or

the other. The type of leadership style a hospitality manger approaches dictates the level of

employee engagement as well as employee retention. Poor leadership style would ruin the name

of the organization and ultimately affect its production. Good leadership approach motivates

employees and employees are likely to stay under such kind of leadership for a long period.

Therefore, the company will enjoy the benefits of retaining high skilled employees. The base line

matter of this discussion is that the type of leadership approaches a hospitality manager employs

may affect the company positively or negatively and therefore it is up on them to be wise while

managing the company.

EMPLOYEE ENGAGEMENT AND RETENTION ISSUES 7

References

Carasco-Saul, M., Kim, W., & Kim, T. (2015). Leadership and employee engagement: Proposing

research agendas through a review of literature. Human Resource Development Review,

14(1), 38-63.

Lim, A. J. P., Loo, J. T. K., & Lee, P. H. (2017). The impact of leadership on turnover intention:

The mediating role of organizational commitment and job satisfaction. Journal of Applied

Structural Equation Modeling, 1(1), 27-41.

Popli, S., & Rizvi, I. A. (2015). Exploring the relationship between service orientation, employee

engagement and perceived leadership style: a study of managers in the private service

sector organizations in India. Journal of Services Marketing, 29(1), 59-70.

Zhang, J., Ahammad, M. F., Tarba, S., Cooper, C. L., Glaister, K. W., & Wang, J. (2015). The

effect of leadership style on talent retention during merger and acquisition integration:

Evidence from China. The International Journal of Human Resource Management, 26(7),

1021-1050.