The effect of transformational leadership perception in hotel businesses on quality of working life and levels of intention to leave work: The case of Istanbul

Hotel businesses are tourism businesses that operate labor-intensive, service production and consumption take place at the same time, and work with a focus on customer satisfaction. It can be stated that the most important element of success in hotel businesses that provide 24-hour uninterrupted service is the workforce. In order for the employees to have high performance and to provide quality service, the behavior of the hotel managers during the work and the quality of the working conditions in the enterprise should be parallel. For this reason, hotel managers are required to exhibit leadership behaviors that will increase the quality of working conditions and connect the employees to the business, while working for the goals of the business. Therefore, the main purpose of the study is to reveal the effect of the transformational leadership behaviors perceived by the managers of the hotel staff on the quality of work life and intention to leave. In addition, it was aimed to determine to what extent the quality of work life affects the intention to leave. Within the framework of these purposes, first of all, a detailed literature review was made on the subject, and then data were obtained by using the survey technique from a total of 410 employees in four and five-star hotels operating in the province of Istanbul using the convenience sampling technique. Confirmatory and exploratory factor analyses, percentage and frequency analysis, correlation and regression analyzes were applied to these obtained data. As a result of the analyzes, it was concluded that hotel employees perceive their managers as transformational leaders. In addition, it has been determined that the level of perception of the employees' quality of work life is high and their intention to leave their job is low. At the same time, a significant relationship was found between transformational leadership and quality of work life, and between transformational leadership and intention to leave, and it was concluded that there was a significant relationship between quality of work life and intention to leave.