I Am More Committed to My Profession Than to My Organization: Professional Commitment and Perceived Organizational Support in Turnover

Abstract

Given its knowledge centred nature, retaining key talents is essential for any IT organization. Inability to do so reflects a failure in employee-organization relationship. Since IT professionals possess unique workplace behaviours, it is presumed that they leave organizations as more committed to the profession. Thus, the study aimed to investigate the influence of professional commitment and perceived organizational support on IT professionals' turnover intention. Data was analysed using a structural equation model. A sample of 96 software engineers revealed that professional commitment negatively influences turnover intention while its effect is partially mediated by job satisfaction. Surprisingly, unlike for other employees, for IT professionals, perceived organizational support had no influence on turnover intention: instead stimulated job satisfaction. Similarly, professional commitment stimulates job satisfaction. Job satisfaction negatively influenced the turnover intention. Gender showed no moderating effect on the relationship between job satisfaction and turnover intention while career stage moderated the relationship. The comparison between the findings of professional commitment and perceived organizational support directs IT firms to re-visit presumptions about IT professionals and to re-assess what is meant by organizational support to IT professionals. Since gender had no effect on the job satisfaction-turnover intention relationship, both male and female IT professionals must be acknowledged for their equal professionalism in the industry. IT companies must take initiatives to retain talented early career staged IT professional who have proven to easily leave their organizations compared to others. Such efforts can be integrated to professional commitment and job satisfaction.