Top Team Cohesion, Transformational Leadership, and Employee Turnover Intentions

Researchers have demonstrated organizational benefits of a Top Management Team (TMT) that works together as a cohesive team, but little insight exists whether TMT cohesion also matters for the organization’s employees. Drawing from Conservation of Resources Theory this study develops, and tests, the argument that low TMT cohesion relates to high corrosive energy in the organization, and increases employees’ turnover intentions. We also investigate whether transformational leadership from lower-level managers transforms these negative effects on employees’ turnover intentions. The results of our moderated-mediation analyses of a multi-source dataset of 100 organizations, including 19.212 employees, managers, and TMT members, support these expectations. Our findings contribute to the TMT and leadership literatures by emphasizing that low TMT cohesion can do harm across the organization, and by revealing that lower-level managers can buffer these negative effects.