Abstract:
Many organizations are facing the challenge of retaining productive employees to their
competitors due to various reasons. Leadership style and career growth are becoming
a major consideration for employees’ desire to stay or leave the organization. To
minimize turnover, institutions of higher learning are concerned with identifying the
major reasons behind it. The study seeks to analyze the leadership styles and career
growth in public universities as a determinant of employee turnover. The study
adopted a descriptive research design. Organizations embracing appropriate
leadership styles are less likely to have employee turnover. Most employees would
prefer organizations that involve them in decision making and have proper channels to
air their views and grievances. The results revealed that leadership styles had a
significant effect on employee turnover in public universities while career
development had insignificant effect on employee turnover in these universities. Data
was analyzed using statistical package for social sciences (SPSS) software to generate
descriptive and inferential statistics. Multiple regression analysis was used to
determine the statistical relationship between the independent and dependent
variables. The study recommended that universities should put in place mechanisms
and policies of addressing human resource issues relating to leadership and growth of
opportunities inorder to reduce turnover.