Effects of Individual and Organizational Factors on the Turnover Intentions of Information Technology Professionals

High employee turnover is a problem that organizations cannot ignore because of the financial burden, negative impact on employee morale, and employee relationships, and adverse impact on the quality of services and products that organizations deliver to customers. The apparent high employee turnover rates in the Information Technology (IT) industry suggests that the factors influencing turnover in the industry may not be well understood. This quantitative study examined the organizational and individual factors that influence IT employees' decisions to leave an organization. The results of the study indicate that employee compensation and workplace relationships are factors that influence turnover. (ProQuest: . denotes formulae omitted.)IntroductionEmployee turnover can be a costly problem for information technology (IT) companies. When employees leave, organizations have to attend to the high cost of training and development, burnout of existing staff, and decreased quality of products and services due to the shortage of staff (Beauchesne, 2006; Chandler, 2004; Moore, 2006; Quigley, 2006; Siebenmark, 2006). Skilled IT workers are scarce resource in the IT industry. The U.S. Department of Commerce estimated that the United States would require more than 1.3 million new and highly skilled IT workers to address the projected staff shortage (Kamal, 2005). The purpose of this study was to examine the role of employee satisfaction in the turnover rate of employees in the IT industry. The factors that influence employee satisfaction were also examined in the study conducted. A study of turnover factors is necessary to identify the factors that influence employees to leave organizations and help company leaders predict turnover trends.Many researchers have examined the factors that influence employees to remain in organizations (Capps, 2007; Carson, Carson, Birkenmeier, & Toma, 2006; Chang & Lee, 2006; Chiaburu & Marinova, 2006). Lock (2003) indicated that challenging work, respect, a balanced work life, effective leadership, and a workplace that fosters risk taking strengthens social bonds among IT employees.Summary of the LiteratureThe conceptual framework for the study included research on the impact of management on employee motivation. Horn and Griffeth's (1995) turnover model illustrated job satisfaction and organizational commitment as two antecedents of voluntary turnover (as cited in Hwang & Kuo, 2006). Horn et al. (1992) noted that employees who are dissatisfied with their jobs or who have lost organizational commitment would have intentions or make decisions to quit (as cited in Hwang & Kuo, 2006). Horn et al. (1992) emphasized that turnover intention would lead to actual turnover (as cited in Hwang & Kuo, 2006). Organizations do not necessarily have to pay employees high salaries to encourage them to remain with organizations (Hwang & Kuo, 2006). Other factors, such as good relations with supervisors, trust, and confidence in organizational leaders, are paramount to job satisfaction (Hwang & Kuo, 2006; Wade-Hahn, 2006). Anuradha (2005) stated that turnover intentions can indicate employees' plans to leave but will not provide the insight to determine if people who remain do so because they are motivated to stay. Even if organizational leaders know why their employees leave, they cannot effectively retain employees until they understand the factors that encourage employees to remain.The quantitative study was different from Anuradha's study because Anuradha focused on employee retention and this study focused on employee turnover. Anuradha did not focus on a specific industry but this study focused on the IT industry. This study examined the factors that influence IT employees' decisions to leave organizations.Chandler (2004) examined the organizational, nonorganizational, and individual factors related to job retention of Texas county extension agents to determine why the agents chose to stay employed by Texas Cooperative Extension. …