Abstract:
The current global environment is constantly and rapidly changing. In order for an organization to manage these changes, it is necessary to strengthen internal management and build competitive advantages through human resource management. This is highly essential, especially regarding the knowledge of practitioners across all positions and duties, and retaining this knowledge within the organization as long as possible by utilizing employee engagement theory as a mediator and transformational leadership theory as a moderator to determine the impact on employee intention to stay and guide the reduction of turnover problems among operational workers. According to the aforementioned literature review, the researcher was interested in studying the influence of transformational leadership and employee engagement on the intention to stay of employees in the convenience store business in Thailand, with a focus on employee retention. The results of this study will provide greater clarity on the relationships among transformational leadership, employee engagement, and employee retention within the context of convenience store organizations.Therefore, this research aimed to answer the question: How does transformational leadership influence employee engagement and retention in the convenience store business in Thailand? This was a quantitative research. A questionnaire was used as a tool to collect data from employees in convenience store businesses in Thailand registered on the Stock Exchange of Thailand. After the data collection process, 586 valid and complete questionnaires were obtained from the sample group, which was considered an acceptable response rate. The researcher then used the data to test the research hypotheses by analyzing the structural equation model (SEM) using the Maximum Likelihood method with the LISREL program. The results of this research found that transformational leadership had a positive direct influence on employee engagement, with a direct effect size of 0.64 and a total effect size of 0.64. Employee engagement had a positive direct influence on their intention to stay, with a direct effect size of 0.38 and a total effect size of 0.38. Transformational leadership had a positive direct influence on the intention to stay through employee engagement, with a direct effect size of 0.12, an indirect effect size of 0.26, and a total effect size of 0.38. For the Coefficient of Determination ($R^2$) of the internal latent variable structural equation, it was found that the $R^2$ of employee engagement was 0.42, meaning that the variables in the model could explain 42% of the variance in employee engagement, and the $R^2$ of employee retention (intention to stay) was 0.22, meaning that the variables in the model could explain 22% of the variance in employee retention.In addition, these findings will be beneficial for executives, entrepreneurs, and owners of public and private organizations to apply this information as a guideline for strategic management planning, policy structure design, and knowledge management, leading to a sustainable competitive advantage.