MISQ Archivist
Turnover of Information Technology
Professionals: A Narrative Review, Meta-Analytic Structural
Equation Modeling, and Model Development
Damien Joseph, Kok-Yee Ng, Christine
Koh, and Soon Ang
Abstract
This study combines a narrative review with meta-analytic
techniques to yield important insights about the existing research
on turnover of information technology professionals. Our
narrative review of 33 studies shows that the 43 antecedents to
turnover intentions of IT professionals could be mapped onto March
and Simon’s (1958) distal-proximal turnover framework.
Our meta-analytic structural equation modeling shows that proximal
constructs of job satisfaction (reflecting the lack of desire to
move) and perceived job alternatives (reflecting the ease of
movement) partially mediate the relationships between the more distal
individual attributes, job-related and perceived organizational
factors, and IT turnover intentions. Building on the findings
from our review, we propose a new theoretical model of IT turnover
that presents propositions for future research to address existing
gaps in the IT literature.
Keywords: Turnover, turnover intention, meta-analysis, structural
equation modeling, MASEM, review, IT professionals