Mitigating IT Professionals’ Turnover in Non-IT Organizations: An Organizational Identification Perspective

Abstract

The turnover of IT professionals is a perpetual challenge for non-IT organizations. Based on self-categorization theory, this study proposes that IT employees’ turnover may be mitigated by fostering their identification with non-IT organizations, which can be done by meeting various facilitative conditions. Guided by intergroup contact theory, we identify IT employees’ perceived alignment between IT and the core business of an organization (business-IT alignment), the extent of boundary-spanning activities that IT employees engage in, and the closeness of the relationships between IT and non-IT employees as the drivers of their organizational identification. Using survey data collected from organizations in different industries, we obtained empirical evidence supporting the positive effects of the perceived business-IT alignment, the extent of boundary-spanning activities, and the relationship closeness between IT and non-IT employees on IT employees’ organizational identification. Additionally, there was a three-way interaction effect among the three drivers such that the relationship closeness between IT and non-IT employees reduced the positive effect of the extent of boundary-spanning activities on IT employees’ organizational identification when business-IT alignment was low. However, this negative moderating effect diminished when business-IT alignment increased. The findings of this research advance the literature and offer practical guidelines for non-IT organizations on how to enhance their IT employees’ organizational identification and how to mitigate their turnover intentions.