Abstract
Employee engagement is the key challenge for the modern organisations and emerging leaders. It is strongly connected to customer service, business financial results and workplace environment. It has observed that leaders in the retail sector are facing this challenge and it is critical especially in the context of Pakistan where the retail is emerging segment. This study has explored the imprint of organic leadership style and connected, linked and motivated workforce, employed in public sector and private sector retail stores in Pakistan. The study has explored if organic styles of leadership revealed by leaders working in the retail sector are cultivating a setting for employees to engage. The study has also investigated that if organic leadership style practised by leaders has the impact of specific behavioural outcomes i.e. say, stay and strive of employee engagement. The study has conducted on 549 retail employees working in public and the private sector in the cities of Lahore, Karachi, Islamabad and Faisalabad (Pakistan). The researcher has used statistical software SPSS 22 to conduct descriptive analysis, correlation and regression analysis for the purpose of data analysis. The findings of the study showed that employee perception of an organic leadership style in his/her line manager inclines to be positively associated with employee engagement with no significant differences between the public and private sector retail employee’s perception of organic leadership style and employee engagement. Further, the research has suggested that there is an association between employee perception of the organic leadership style of his/her line manager and ‘Say’, “Stay” and “Strive” (behavioural outcome) of employee engagement. The research study on the relationship between employee perception about his/her supervisor’s organic leadership style and employee engagement is one of the pioneer studies in the field, as well in the retail sector in the context of developing countries like Pakistan. The study has theoretical as well as practical implications in demonstrating the specific leadership styles to address the major challenge of engaged employees in the retail sector.