The mediating role of work-life balance in the effect of transformational leadership perception of employees on intent to leave: A research on the Turkish financial sector

In today's business environment, where globalization accelerates its transformative effects, it is important for businesses to manage the turnover intention of employees in the financial sector, which needs qualified workforce. The increasing role of leaders as the corporate practices become more similar and the creation of positive employee experience by cultural structures that give importance to work-life balance will have a positive effect on employees' intention to stay at work. The main purpose of this study is to examine the mediating role of work-life balance in the effect of employees' perception of transformational leadership on intent to leave. In this research due to its capacity to provide data suitable for statistical analysis, the survey method used as one of the quantitative research methods. Since this research was carried out during the pandemic period, the survey applied through the online application. Data were collected from 411 Turkish finance sector employees by using convenience sampling method. SmartPLS v.3.3.6 was used in the analysis of the data. Structural Equation Modeling was used to test the research model. The analyses were carried out according to the application principles of Variance Based Partial Least Squares Structural Equation Modeling (PLS_SEM), a second generation multivariate statistical technique. After determining the structure of the research model variables, the measurement model and the structural model were tested using accepted approaches and reference values. The findings showed that the perception of transformational leadership has a negative and statistically significant effect on turnover intention, positive and statistically significant effect on work-life balance, and moreover work-life balance has a statistically significant and negative effect on turnover intention. According to the results of the research, it was found that the work-life balance has a partial mediation effect between the perception of transformational leadership and the intention to leave.