Impact of superior supportiveness on employee turnover intention in IT industry

Abstract

Information Technology (IT) has been a fast-growing industry in Sri Lanka. According to the 2013 ICT workforce survey by the Information and Communication Technology Agency (ICTA) of Sri Lanka, the ICT workforce has grown since 2003. According to them, this growth is expected to be resumed hereafter. ICT companies take the second-largest share of the ICT workforce (40.8%). Nevertheless, in spite of the significance of the industry and the occupation, it encounters numerous challenges when it comes to turnover intention. As per previous sources, 67% of employees left jobs and have the intention to leave their jobs because of the problems with their superior. According to them, superior support is a crucial factor for employees. Superiors need to take required measures to control those measures to thrive in the competitive business market. This research intends to assist the retention of IT professionals by recognizing the impact of superior support. This study will help the superiors of IT organizations to understand the impact and take necessary actions to minimize employee turnover. The research uses a qualitative research methodology. The preliminary survey and online survey are used to identify the impact of superior support. All the main factors and sub-factors of superior support identified through the literature review were finalized from the preliminary survey. The results of the online survey helped to determine the impact of each main factor. Three hundred eighty (380) responses were received from different IT professionals. Superior’s Emotional, Practical, Instrumental, and Companionship support are the main factors identified from the literature review. Also, several sub-factors were identified for each main factor and used for the questions in the online survey. Emotional support of superior is the main factor having a higher impact on employee turnover intention, as identified during the online survey. Employees with different genders, job roles, years of industry experience have different kinds of opinions on superior support factors. Based on the online survey results, several interviews were carried out with a number of superiors to get feedback for the survey findings. Most of the superiors are interested in providing Emotional and Practical support to their employees. Nevertheless, some superiors did not agree with a few sub-factors and had a different opinion. The agreeableness of superiors who participated in interviews was positive and aligned with results and analysis of the online survey. This research conveys some valuable outcome that can be applied into the organizational operation by the superiors. By applying this, we anticipate better retention rates of IT professionals inside the organization together with the industry. The refined profession will therefore strengthen the accuracy of the product or project, resulting in higher client and customer fulfilment in addition to the pleasure and incentive of IT professionals.