Business Employees/Individual Contributors/Members/Adults
OBJECTIVE The purpose of this study was to investigate possible relationships between leadership styles and part-time employee tenure within the retail industry.
METHODOLOGY The population consisted of part-time employees in the retail industry within the Sacramento, California geographical area. Over 500 contacts were made, and 155 participants, across a variety of organizations, completed the Leadership Practices Inventory – Observer (once for their current supervisor and a second time for their ideal leader) and provided demographic information. The typical respondent had at least a high-school education (3% a college degree), was under 30 years of age (66%), white (44%, with 23% Black and 21% Hispanic), and not in a supervisory position (92%). Respondents were also asked about their job satisfaction (likelihood of changing jobs if given the chance, and level of job satisfaction in current job) on a 10-point Likert scale. Participant tenure groups were (1) less than one year, (2) more than one and less than two years and (3) two years or more.
KEY FINDINGS No significant differences were found between tenure, or job satisfaction and any of the five leadership practices. Significant differences were found for all five leadership practices between scores from current leaders and “ideal” leaders, with the latter all substantially greater in leadership practices than the current (“real”) leaders.