Leadership and its contribution towards employee retention within the Irish service sector

Purpose – This research will examine the relationship between leadership and employee retention. It will examine the styles of leadership currently used within the Irish service sector. It will then determine if the managers consciously work on retaining staff. Methodology – A qualitative research approach was used in the form of interviews of leaders in several Irish companies. The leaders range from middle to top management positions with various levels of experience. Previous research has often asked the employees about their managers while this paper bridges the research gap by examining the leaders themselves. Themes were then examined to recognise if there are any patterns present within the current leadership style. Findings –The findings of this paper reveal that the leaders perceived that they had effective styles that proved to have a positive effect on employee retention. Also uncovered was that HR’s presence in Irish companies is disconnected, either there was not a department, or the leaders discussed remaining extremely separate. Three leaders admitted to not consciously working on retention as they believed it was not within their responsibility. Practical implications – The paper brings to light that organisations need to examine how managers should be supported by the HR department, and how retention should be tackled by both parties for the good of the companies. Research Limitations – Time constraints due to a worldwide pandemic. Covid-19 restraints as employees were now working from home. The normal environment in which the premise of the thesis was embedded was altered. Further to this, the restrictions imposed for Public Health made it difficult to research libraries as they were closed. Overall, it limited the sources from which data could possibly be harvested from. Limited participants could be accessed through the medium of a phone interview. Originality/value – Expanding on linking employee retention with (in) effective leadership from the perspective of the managers. Keywords – Retention, leadership, management, job stress, job satisfaction, Irish workplace, trust, communicatio