IT Service Management Employee Compensation: Determinants and Outcomes

Information technology (IT) service management (ITSM) is a critical function of an IT organization and it is important to recruit, manage, and retain qualified ITSM employees who are responsible for providing IT services to an organization. Organizations rely on their in-house ITSM team and the outsourced IT systems (or business processes) to deliver high quality IT services. While IT outsourcing has become a norm in many organizations, its potential impact on in-house ITSM employee compensation and job outcomes, such as job satisfaction and turnover intentions, has remained under-examined. We develop a model that examines the interplay between human capital factors such as educational qualifications, employee compensation, employee job outcomes, and two organizational factors–IT outsourcing and ITSM size. We conducted a survey of ITSM employees from 423 organizations and found support for the model. Our findings have important theoretical and practical implications.