REASONS FOR PROFESSIONALS TO STAY OR LEAVE INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY ORGANIZATIONS

Abstract

ABSTRACT Purpose: This study describes the reasons for professionals to stay or leave information technology (IT) organizations in Santa Catarina. Originality/value: Technology organizations have experienced challenges in retaining professionals. Therefore, this study contributes to the literature on the subject by presenting the professionals’ perceptions about their reasons for voluntarily staying or leaving these organizations. Design/methodology/approach: Four hundred and forty workers from private technology companies freely answered two open questions in an online questionnaire (survey): “What are the reasons that maintain you working at this company?” and “For what reasons would you leave this company in the future?”. The responses, collected in the second half of 2016, were inductively coded and subsequently aggregated into categories. Findings: The results indicate that the professionals remain in the researched organizations primarily due to occupational (job satisfaction, organizational commitment, proper working conditions and perception of professional growth), organizational (adequate management practices) and environmental reasons (perception that there are no better work alternatives). The professionals surveyed would leave the organizations they currently work, primarily for occupational reasons (lack of job satisfaction and opportunities for professional growth, lack of an outlook on valorization and better working conditions), as well as for organizational (inadequate management practices), environmental (better job alternatives) and individual reasons (career planning). Based on the analysis of these results, an agenda for future research on the investigated topic is presented.