Employee Disengagement as a Process: How Organisational Experience Shapes Retention in a Continuously Connected Workforce

This ongoing DBA study examines how organisational experience, shaped by leadership behaviours and organisational culture, influences the development of engagement and disengagement over time and how these processes affect employee retention in continuously connected work environments, with particular attention to Gen Z employees. Grounded in Transformational Leadership Theory and Organizational Culture Theory, it uses a mixed-methods design combining the Multifactor Leadership Questionnaire and the Organizational Culture Assessment Instrument with semi-structured interviews. Preliminary findings suggest that employees often begin highly engaged but gradually disengage when leadership and culture fail to align with expectations around communication, feedback and development, increasing the likelihood of turnover.