How long will they stay? Predicting an IT professional's preferred employment duration

ABSTRACT

Agarwal and Ferratt [3] describe a theory of the staying behavior of IT professionals, which combines individual- and organizational- centric views. Their theory, drawing upon Rousseau's [24] conception of psychological contracts, proposes that a critical antecedent of staying behavior is an IT professional's preferred employment duration. The purpose of the research-in-progress described in this paper is to build upon their work by further examining the antecedents of this construct We argue that preferred employment duration is jointly determined by career anchor, life stage, and competencies of the IT professional, with the type of the employing organization serving as a potentially moderating factor. The paper presents the model and describes the conceptual underpinnings for each of its various constructs and relationships. We also briefly discuss a two-phased empirical study to investigate the model.

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INDEX TERMS

Primary Classification:
  K. Computing Milieux
  K.4 COMPUTERS AND SOCIETY

Additional Classification:
  K. Computing Milieux
  K.6 MANAGEMENT OF COMPUTING AND INFORMATION SYSTEMS

General Terms:
Documentation, Management

Keywords:
career anchor, career stage, competencies, life stage, preferred employment duration, psychological contract, retention of IT professionals