Keywords
Employee Engagement
Employee Retention
Micromanaging Leadership
Small and Medium Enterprises
How to Cite
Plaudit
Abstract
In a business organization, diverse individuals with specific roles are crucial for operations and growth, and MSMEs are predominant in the Malaysian economy. There is a significant gap in empirical research regarding the combined effects of authoritative and micromanaging leadership on employee engagement and retention in business organizations. While individual studies exist on each leadership style, their joint impact in dynamic organizational contexts is still not well understood. The study aims to analyze the effects of authoritative and micromanaging leadership styles on employee engagement and retention in small and medium enterprises (SMEs) in Malaysia, where SMEs represent a significant portion of businesses. This study employed an online survey with a structured questionnaire, resulting in a purposeful sample of 121 participants. This survey gathers information from ten SMEs across various sectors, including sales and marketing, information technology, investment, investment holdings, travel, entertainment, and social enterprise. There are seven hypotheses in this study. Four hypotheses are accepted, while three are rejected. These findings indicate that in the sampled SMEs, authoritative leadership behaviors alone do not sufficiently increase employees' emotional involvement or long-term commitment. Organizations should reduce micro-management and adopt leadership practices that foster trust, autonomy, and open communication. Management needs to focus on engagement-oriented leadership development, encourage delegation, and establish supportive work environments to enhance employee engagement, which is crucial for long-term retention and organizational stability.
References
D. Kafetzopoulos and K. Gotzamani, “The effect of talent management and leadership styles on firms’ sustainable performance,” European Business Review, vol. 34, no. 6, pp. 837–857, 2022, doi: 10.1108/EBR-07-2021-0148.
V. Udovita, “Conceptual review on impact of leadership style on employee performance,” International Journal of Business and Management Invention, vol. 9, no. 9, pp. 16–23, 2020, doi: 10.35629/8028-0909011623.
M. Dandira, “Dysfunctional leadership: Organizational cancer,” Business Strategy Series, vol. 13, no. 4, pp. 187–192, 2012, doi: 10.1108/17515631211246267.
E. Franken and G. Plimmer, “Mediocre and harmful public sector leadership,” International Journal of Public Leadership, vol. 15, no. 4, pp. 274–286, 2019, doi: 10.1108/IJPL-09-2019-0058.
J. Capler, “Death by authoritative leadership and micro-management,” in When Leadership Fails, Bingley, UK: Emerald Publishing, 2021, pp. 49–57, doi: 10.1108/978-1-80043-766-120211005.
A. Z. Abdullahi, E. B. Anarfo, and H. Anyigba, “The impact of leadership style on organizational citizenship behavior,” Journal of Management Development, vol. 39, no. 9–10, pp. 963–987, 2020, doi: 10.1108/JMD-01-2020-0012.
A. Basit, V. Sebastian, and Z. Hassan, “Impact of leadership style on employee performance,” International Journal of Accounting and Business Management, vol. 5, no. 2, pp. 112–130, 2017.
A. Azeez and N. Aboobaker, “Cracks in leadership: A systematic mapping of toxic leadership literature,” International Journal of Ethics and Systems, vol. 40, no. 1, pp. 112–134, 2024, doi: 10.1108/IJOES-01-2025-0041.
B. S. Al-Romeedy and K. Alharethi, “How talent management drives sustainability in hospitality enterprises,” Sustainability, vol. 6, no. 4, p. 176, 2025.
Y. Lee and J. Kim, “The impacts of CEO leadership behaviors on employees’ affective commitment,” Leadership & Organization Development Journal, vol. 43, no. 2, pp. 261–278, 2022, doi: 10.1108/LODJ-11-2020-0501.
D. A. M. R. C. J. Athapaththu and E. Rebecca, “The impact of leadership style and work environment on employee performance,” Journal of Management and Organizational Behavior, vol. 12, no. 1, pp. 45–62, 2025.
J. Sharafizad, J. Redmond, and R. Morris, “Leadership factors impact on employee engagement,” International Journal of Organization Theory & Behavior, vol. 23, no. 1, pp. 43–64, 2020, doi: 10.1108/IJOTB-12-2018-0134.
Z. A. Iqbal et al., “Impact of authoritative and laissez-faire leadership on thriving at work,” European Journal of Investigation in Health, Psychology and Education, vol. 11, no. 3, pp. 667–685, 2021, doi: 10.3390/ejihpe11030048.
S. Milojević, V. S. Aleksić, and M. Slavković, “The effect of leadership style on stress and self-efficacy,” Behavioral Sciences, vol. 15, no. 1, p. 25, 2024, doi: 10.3390/bs15010025.
A. S. Dewi, M. C. Wardana, and A. Saputra, “The effect of leadership style on employee performance,” International Journal of Social Science and Business, vol. 9, no. 2, pp. 210–225, 2025.
S. Ryan and C. Cross, “Micromanagement and its impact,” Leadership & Organization Development Journal, vol. 45, no. 1, pp. 140–152, 2024, doi: 10.1108/LODJ-07-2022-0329.
İ. Limon and Ü. Dilekçi, “Development of micromanagement scale,” Participatory Educational Research, vol. 8, no. 1, pp. 123–140, 2020.
H. Hume, “Micromanagement scale: Development and validation,” Illinois State Univ., 2019.
C. Johnson, “Improving employee and manager relationships,” Strategic HR Review, vol. 19, no. 2, pp. 67–70, 2020.
F. Özsungur, “The effects of ethical leadership,” International Journal of Public Leadership, vol. 16, no. 2, pp. 199–216, 2020.
D. Nguyen et al., “Laissez-faire leadership behaviors in public sector,” in Palgrave Handbook of Leadership, London, UK: Palgrave Macmillan, 2017.
R. L. Thompson and J. Chen, “Micromanagement as predictor of workplace stress,” Journal of Occupational Health Psychology, vol. 29, no. 3, pp. 215–230, 2024.
S. Zhang, X. Liu, and Y. Du, “Authoritarian leadership influences employee innovation,” Leadership & Organization Development Journal, vol. 42, no. 5, pp. 722–734, 2021.
M. Maryadi et al., “Mapping employee performance research,” F1000Research, vol. 14, p. 633, 2025.
E. Franken and G. Plimmer, “Mediocre and harmful public sector leadership: A pathway to harm model,” International Journal of Public Leadership, vol. 20, no. 1, pp. 15–32, 2024.
S. Hattab et al., “The effect of toxic leadership on turnover intention,” International Journal of Public Sector Management, vol. 38, no. 2, pp. 142–159, 2025.
K. M. Mwita and O. Tefurukwa, “The influence of leadership on employee retention,” International Journal of Human Resource Studies, vol. 8, no. 2, pp. 32–48, 2019.
S. K. Eshete et al., “Inclusive leadership and workplace performance,” Social Sciences & Humanities Open, vol. 12, p. 101940, 2025.
L. Meng et al., “Authoritarian leadership and innovative behavior,” Frontiers in Psychology, vol. 13, 2022.
E. Darmasari et al., “Authoritarian leadership style and employee innovation,” Journal of Economy, Management and Information, vol. 3, no. 1, 2024.
A. Sharma, “Micromanagement on employee performance,” International Journal of Research in Technology, Society and Humanities, vol. 2, no. 4, 2025.
L. DeHart-Davis and S. K. Pandey, “Does micromanagement lead to resignation?” Public Administration Review, vol. 65, no. 3, pp. 342–352, 2005.
Y. Zhang, T. B. Lin, and S. F. Foo, “Servant leadership,” Chinese Management Studies, vol. 6, no. 2, pp. 369–383, 2012.
S. Yomralıoğlu, “Talent management practices and competitive advantage,” Sustainability, vol. 17, no. 21, p. 9909, 2025.
A. M. Ndidi et al., “Micromanaging behaviour and employee productivity,” International Journal of Research and Innovation in Social Science, vol. 6, no. 4, pp. 745–755, 2022.
A. P. Ejusa Jr, “Micromanagement and employee performance,” Asian Journal of Economics, Business and Accounting, vol. 25, no. 7, pp. 174–185, 2025.
X. Xu et al., “Authoritarian leadership on employee service performance,” Journal of Managerial Psychology, 2025.
S. R. Aguilar and O. Kosheleva, “Economic view of micromanagement,” Asian Journal of Economics and Banking, vol. 5, no. 3, pp. 284–288, 2021.
R. Caldwell and M. Uhl-Bien, “Leader-member exchange theory,” Journal of Strategic Management & Leadership, vol. 14, no. 1, pp. 54–71, 2025.
F. Sobral and L. Furtado, “LMX,” in Elgar Encyclopedia of Organizational Psychology, Cheltenham, UK: Edward Elgar, 2024, pp. 377–381.
F. E. Fiedler, Leader Attitudes and Group Effectiveness. Urbana, IL, USA: Univ. Illinois Press, 1958.
M. Rafiq-uz-Zaman et al., “Comparative analysis of leadership styles,” Inverge Journal of Social Sciences, vol. 4, no. 2, pp. 105–117, 2025.
X. S. Pereira and P. Q. Wang, “Glass ceiling and leadership,” Journal of Human Resources in Hospitality & Tourism, vol. 24, no. 2, pp. 323–343, 2025.
M. R. Payne, “Leadership psychological safety,” Ph.D. dissertation, Univ. Southern California, 2024.
B. G. Hall, “Leadership style and turnover intention,” Ph.D. dissertation, Louisiana State Univ., 2025.
T. Suman, “Employee turnover and engagement programs,” Doctoral dissertation, LAB Univ., 2024.
M. T. Mrayyan, “Toxic leadership on nurses’ workplace satisfaction,” Journal of Advanced Nursing, vol. 82, no. 1, pp. 522–539, 2026.
S. Kehinde et al., “Employees do not leave work, they leave management,” Pakistan Journal of Life & Social Sciences, vol. 22, no. 2, 2024.
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.
Copyright (c) 2026 Wei Yee Ngan , Hemaloshinee Vasudevan