Relationships Between Leadership and Followers’ Quitting Intentions and Job Search Behaviors

A model was developed and tested in which quality of leader—member exchange mediated the relationship between followers’ perceptions of transformational leadership behavior and their (a) intentions to quit the organization and (b) job search behaviors. The key contribution of this study was that the exchange relationship between leader and follower explained the majority of the relationship between transformational leadership and job search behaviors. A transformational leader may take individual followers’ motivations into consideration and so attempt to stimulate personal development, but the exchange between the two explains the action of seeking another employment situation. Limitations and implications are discussed.