The Effect of Toxic Leadership on Employee Motivation: The Mediating Role of Burnout Syndrome

Abstract

Employee motivation, job satisfaction, and retention have become crucial issues that manufacturing companies must deal with in order to achieve sustainable performance in today's fiercely competitive and demanding organizational environment. Employee attitudes and psychological health are significantly influenced by leadership. However, toxic leadership behaviours, which have increasingly been associated with adverse employee outcomes, especially burnout, may undermine the effectiveness of an organization. Despite the growth in attention to the concept of toxic leadership, empirical evidence on its indirect effects on key employee outcomes through burnout remains very limited, especially in the Malaysian manufacturing context. The present study investigates how toxic leadership influences employees' motivational level, job satisfaction, and employee retention with burnout syndrome as the mediating variable. A quantitative research design was adopted for which data were collected through a structured questionnaire from 122 employees at Honda Damansara. A simple random sampling technique was employed and the proposed relationships were tested using statistical methods. The results showed that toxic leadership was significantly and positively related to burnout and negatively related to motivation, job satisfaction, and retention among employees. In addition, burnout significantly mediated the relationship between toxic leadership and employee motivation. These findings highlight the detrimental impact of toxic leadership on employees’ psychological well-being and work-related attitudes. By offering empirical evidence on the mediating role of burnout, this study adds to the body of literature already in existence. It also has practical implications for organizations looking to improve employee motivation, satisfaction, and retention through the development of healthier leadership practices.