The hidden cost of retention in emerging economies: toxic leadership, employee silence and the dark side of job embeddedness

Purpose This study aims to develop a differentiated account of employee responses to toxic leadership beyond the conventional emphasis on intended exit. Focusing on Ghanaian informal-sector small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), it explains how toxic leadership may become associated with employee silence through learned helplessness and how job embeddedness (JE) conditions its relationship with turnover intention. Design/methodology/approach Using a quantitative approach, data were collected from 505 employees of SMEs operating within Ghana’s informal sector through a three-wave time-lagged survey design. Partial least squares structural equation modelling was used to test the hypothesised relationships. Findings The findings reveal that toxic leadership is positively associated with learned helplessness and employee silence but does not significantly predict turnover intention. Learned helplessness partially mediates the relationship between toxic leadership and employee silence. The results further show that JE weakens the relationship between toxic leadership and turnover intention, suggesting that employees with stronger organisational and community attachments are less likely to leave despite experiencing workplace toxicity. Originality/value This study advances toxic leadership scholarship by distinguishing its psychological and communicative consequences from its relationship with turnover intention. It identifies learned helplessness as a mechanism linking toxic leadership with employee silence and JE as a boundary condition shaping the relationship between toxic leadership and turnover intention. The study thereby integrates explanatory mechanism and boundary condition within an underexamined informal-sector SME context.