Will they stay?: turnover intentions of future federal cyber corps members

ABSTRACT Although significant research has been conducted on the turnover intentions of IT professionals once they are engaged in an employment relationship, not much is known about the ex-ante turnover intentions of future IT professionals. This is particularly true for the professional sub-population of cyber security workers. In this study we propose a model based on Agarwal et al. (2007) that examines the factors that influence turnover intentions of future IT professionals who have made the commitment to work for the federal government as members of the federal cyber corps. As Argawal et al. (2007) point out, although researchers are able to identify factors that drive turnover intentions once an individual is already engaged in an employment relationship, little is known about the ex-ante intentions of new IT workforce entrants. Our model takes affective commitment, public service motivation, role stressors (role ambiguity, role conflict), and preferred variety as antecedents of turnover intention. In addition to the contribution to the turnover intention literature, this study will add to the emerging body of knowledge on service corps programs. Given the increasing prominence of these programs (e.g. AmeriCorps) a thoughtful examination of the potential short- and long-term impact is warranted. We expect to present empirical results during the conference.