Understanding the Turnover Intentions of Information Technology Personnel

Abstract

Most of the studies on IT personnel turnover intentions were carried out in the developed countries. Only a few researchers have focused on developing countries. The authors' study makes a comparative study of IT personnel turnover intentions in two sub-Saharan African countries (Botswana and Nigeria) using the Igbaria and Greenhaus turnover model. The intent was to find out if the same model elements affect turnover intentions in the two countries. The results show that demographic variables (age and length of service), the role stressors (role ambiguity and role conflict), the career related variables (growth opportunity, supervisor support and external career opportunities), job satisfaction and career satisfaction have direct effect on turnover intentions in these two developing countries, while other affectors in the research model do not hold equally for the two countries, except for growth opportunity.