Autocratic leadership and employee retention: the role of psychological need satisfaction

Purpose Grounded in self-determination theory, this study examines how autocratic leadership influences employees' intention to stay by investigating the mediating role of basic psychological need satisfaction and the moderating role of generational cohort. Design/methodology/approach Survey data were collected from 390 US employees with direct supervisors. A moderated mediation model was tested using Hayes' PROCESS macro (Model 7) with 5,000 bootstrap samples to examine whether satisfaction of autonomy, competence and relatedness mediates the relationship between autocratic leadership and intention to stay and whether this indirect effect varies across generational cohorts. Findings A key finding is that autocratic leadership does not have a significant direct effect on employees' intention to stay. Instead, its influence operates indirectly through employees' basic psychological need satisfaction, indicating that the relationship is mediated. This indirect effect varies across generational cohorts, with the strongest negative effect observed among Generation X employees, followed by Millennials, while Generation Z exhibits the weakest negative effect. Originality/value This study extends human resource management research on leadership and employee retention by identifying basic psychological need satisfaction as the mechanism through which autocratic leadership influences intention to stay. It also extends understanding of workforce heterogeneity by showing that the indirect effects of autocratic leadership differ across generational cohorts, offering insights for leadership and retention strategies in multigenerational workplaces.