Leader-Member Exchange as a Predictor of Employee Turnover

Knowledge workers form the core of contemporary organizations. However, they have to work with leaders who belong to old school – typically bureaucratic and rigid. Conflicts arise because the highly proficient team-members are not used to control and command and bosses are not ready to step out of their comfort zones and build bridges of trust, empathy and openness. Bosses confine themselves to a few ‘trusted’ lieutenants while majority of people at workplace have to face the roadblocks in spite of their competencies, commitment and ingenuity and thus fail to contribute their mite in organizational success or find meaning in whatever they are doing. On several occasions, such talented people have no option but to change the organization and look for better employment opportunities where their full potential can be capitalized. Such a scenario calls for review of leader-member exchange as a predictor of employee turnover. This paper is a humble attempt to revisit the role of superior-subordinate relationship as an antecedent of employees’ intention or decision to quit the organization