FACTORS AFFECTING THE SRI LANKAN IT PROFESSIONALS’ MIGRATION Munasinghe Arachchige Dona Lasanthika Kumari (159121N) Degree of Master of Business Administration in Information Technology Department of Computer Science and Engineering University of Moratuwa Sri Lanka May 2017 FACTORS AFFECTING THE SRI LANKAN IT PROFESSIONALS’ MIGRATION Munasinghe Arachchige Dona Lasanthika Kumari (159121N) Thesis submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Business Administration in Information Technology Department of Computer Science and Engineering University of Moratuwa Sri Lanka May 2017 i Declaration I declare that this is my own work and this thesis does not incorporate without acknowledgement any material previously submitted for a Degree or Diploma in any other University or institute of higher learning and to the best of my knowledge and belief it does not contain any material previously published or written by another person except where the acknowledgement is made in the text. Also, I hereby grant to University of Moratuwa the non-exclusive right to reproduce and distribute my thesis/dissertation, in whole or in part in print, electronic or other medium. I retain the right to use this content in whole or part in future work (such as articles or books). Signature: Date: The above candidate has carried out research for the Masters thesis under my supervision. Name of the supervisor: Ms. Vishaka Nanayakkara Signature of the supervisor: Date: ii Abstract Information Technology (IT) is a fast-moving industry which can nurture in any country. As the IT competency is globally accepted, can be taught and somewhat standardized, there seem to be more migration opportunities available for the IT professionals. In an era where Sri Lanka is with the ambition to make the IT/BPM industry as the top strategic industry of the country, it is challenging to lose the existing IT workforce as a consequence of migration. Therefore this research intended to investigate the factors affecting the migration decision of the Sri Lankan IT professionals. As the first stage of the research, an extensive literature review was carried out to look through existing literature on migration and find out the universally identified factors that are affecting the decision to migrate. These factors were categorized as push and pull in the literature. Then conceptual framework was developed to visualize the literature review findings so as to have a better structuring of the research. The next stage was to collect the data related to the influential factors for migration decision of Sri Lankan IT professionals who are already migrated. An online survey was used for this data collection. The survey was designed with reference to the conceptual framework. The snowball sampling was used to reach out to potential survey respondents. The collected data was analyzed by utilizing the techniques of expert judgement and descriptive statistics. The Microsoft Excel and R software were used as the data analysis tools. As per the data analysis it was evident that pull factors are prominent compared to push factors in influencing the migration decision of Sri Lankan IT professionals. Finally, the initial conceptual framework was refined to reflect the data analysis outcomes. This research is only providing a generalization of the factors that affect the migration decision of overall population of Sri Lankan IT professionals. There is more room for the research on specific sub-populations as future work. Keywords: IT employee migration, Sri Lankan IT workforce, Migration iii Acknowledgement This thesis is a final result of valuable assistance from several parties. First of all I would like to thank my research supervisor Ms. Vishaka Nanayakkara for her great support, guidance and encouragement throughout this research. She is the one who pushed me go beyond the limits. Also, I appreciate Dr. Dilum Bandara and Ms. Jeeva Padmini for their guidance and continuous monitoring on the research progress. I would like to thank Dr. Madhu Fernando, Dr. Dileepa De Silva and Dr. Sulochana Sooriyaarachchi for providing their valuable input for improvements during the periodic research evaluations. Furthermore, my sincere gratitude goes out to all the migrant Sri Lankan IT professionals who found time from their busy schedules to participate in the research survey and helping me reach out potential survey respondents from their contacts. This research would not be successful without their support. Also I would like to thank all the researchers who shed some light in this research area so I could benefit in this research study. Finally, it is a pleasure to thank my family, colleagues and all well-wishers who helped me proceed with this research with their valuable support and advices. iv Table of Contents Declaration .................................................................................................................... i Abstract ........................................................................................................................ ii Acknowledgement....................................................................................................... iii Table of Contents ........................................................................................................ iv List of Figures .............................................................................................................. v List of Tables............................................................................................................... vi List of Abbreviations................................................................................................... ix 1. Introduction ........................................................................................................... 1 1.1. Research Background and Motivation .......................................................... 1 1.2. Problem Statement ........................................................................................ 2 1.3. Research Objectives ...................................................................................... 2 1.4. Overview of the Research Methodology ....................................................... 2 1.5. Structure of the Thesis ................................................................................... 3 2. Literature Review ................................................................................................. 4 2.1. Introduction to Migration .............................................................................. 4 2.2. Statistical Overview of Migration ................................................................. 4 2.3. Impact of Migration ....................................................................................... 5 2.3.1. Positive Impact ....................................................................................... 5 2.3.2. Negative Impact ..................................................................................... 5 2.4. Factors Affecting the Decision on Migration ................................................ 6 2.5. Research Data and Methodologies .............................................................. 13 2.6. Migrants’ Perception Change while in the Destination Country................. 15 2.7. Gap Analysis on Literature .......................................................................... 16 3. Research Methodology ....................................................................................... 17 3.1. Introduction to the Research Methodology ................................................. 17 3.2. Conceptual Framework ............................................................................... 19 3.3. The Population and the Sample ................................................................... 20 3.3.1. Deriving the Population ....................................................................... 20 3.3.2. Deriving the Sample Size ..................................................................... 23 3.3.3. Sampling Techniques Used .................................................................. 23 3.4. Questionnaire Design .................................................................................. 23 3.5. Criteria for Selecting the Research Methodology ....................................... 24 v 3.6. Data Gathering ............................................................................................ 24 3.7. Mapping of Research Methodology with the Research Objectives ............ 24 4. Data Collection and Analysis ............................................................................. 26 4.1. Data Collection Methodology and Challenges ............................................ 26 4.2. Data Analysis Tools and Techniques .......................................................... 26 4.3. Data Cleansing and Transformation ............................................................ 27 4.4. Demographic Distribution of the Sample .................................................... 28 4.5. Basic Statistics on Factors Influencing Migration and their Interpretation . 40 4.6. Correlations of the Factors .......................................................................... 44 5. Conclusion, Further Analysis, Limitations and Future Work ............................. 48 5.1. Conclusion ................................................................................................... 48 5.1.1. Refined Conceptual Framework .......................................................... 48 5.1.2. Attaining Research Objectives ............................................................. 48 5.2. Further Analysis .......................................................................................... 51 5.2.1. Migration Destination Country ............................................................ 51 5.2.2. Gender .................................................................................................. 52 5.2.3. Age Group ............................................................................................ 52 5.2.4. Job Function ......................................................................................... 52 5.3. Limitations ................................................................................................... 53 5.4. Future Work ................................................................................................ 54 References .................................................................................................................. 55 Appendix A: Research Questionnaire ........................................................................ 60 Appendix B: Generated Statistic Tables .................................................................... 69 List of Figures Figure 3. 1 Research Methodology ............................................................................ 17 Figure 3. 2 Initial Conceptual Framework for Factors affecting the Migration of Sri Lankan IT Professionals ............................................................................................. 19 Figure 4. 1 Distribution by Gender ............................................................................ 28 Figure 4. 2 Distribution by Age Group ...................................................................... 29 Figure 4. 3 Distribution by the Job Function at the time of Migration ...................... 29 Figure 4. 4 Distribution by the Current Job Function ................................................ 30 vi Figure 4. 5 Comparison of Current Job Function and the Job Function at Migration 30 Figure 4. 6 Distribution by Marital Status ................................................................. 31 Figure 4. 7 Distribution by Number of Children ....................................................... 31 Figure 4. 8 Distribution by the Job Sector of Spouse ................................................ 32 Figure 4. 9 Distribution by Parents' Living Status at the time of Migration .............. 32 Figure 4. 10 Distribution by Number of Siblings ...................................................... 33 Figure 4. 11 Parents' Living Status vs Number of Siblings ....................................... 33 Figure 4. 12 Distribution by Migrated Period ............................................................ 34 Figure 4. 13 Distribution by Migration Destination Country .................................... 35 Figure 4. 14 Distribution by Highest Academic Qualification at Migration ............. 36 Figure 4. 15 Distribution by Professional Qualification Status at Migration ............ 36 Figure 4. 16 Distribution by Years of Work Experience in Sri Lanka ...................... 37 Figure 4. 17 Distribution by Pre-offer of a Job from Migration Destination Country .................................................................................................................................... 37 Figure 4. 18 Job Search Period in Migration Destination Country ............................ 38 Figure 4. 19 Distribution by Post-Migration Perception ............................................ 38 Figure 4. 20 Distribution by the Intention to Return .................................................. 39 Figure 4. 21 Post-Migration Perception vs Intention to Return ................................. 39 Figure 5. 1 Refined Conceptual Framework for Factors affecting Sri Lankan IT Professionals' Migration ............................................................................................. 50 List of Tables Table 2. 1: Unfavourable Conditions in the Mother Country - Push Factors .............. 9 Table 2. 2: Favourable Conditions in the Migration Destination Country - Pull Factors ........................................................................................................................ 11 Table 2. 3: Factors Influencing the Return Migration ............................................... 12 Table 2. 4: Summary of the Research Methodologies used in Research on Migration .................................................................................................................................... 13 Table 3. 1 Statistics on the Migration and Deriving the Population .......................... 21 Table 3. 2 Research Questions Mapping to Questions in Research Questionnaire ... 25 Table 4. 1 Coding of Factors considered as influential for Migration ....................... 27 vii Table 4. 2 Basic Statistics on the Distribution of Factors Affecting Migration ......... 41 Table 4. 3 Categorization of Factors based on their Influence on Migration Decision .................................................................................................................................... 43 Table 4. 4 Sub-section of Correlation Matrix for Significant Correlation Coefficients .................................................................................................................................... 44 Table 5. 1 High influence factors for migration by migration destination country ... 51 Table 5. 2 High influence factors for migration by job function ............................... 52 Table B. 1 Basic Statistics on the Influential Factors for Migration using the entire Sample ........................................................................................................................ 69 Table B. 2 Correlation Matrix of the Influential Factors for Migration using the entire Sample - Part 1 ........................................................................................................... 71 Table B. 3 Correlation Matrix of the Influential Factors for Migration using the entire Sample - Part 2 ........................................................................................................... 72 Table B. 4 Basic statistics for sub-sample of people who migrated during the War period.......................................................................................................................... 74 Table B. 5 Basic statistics for sub-sample of people who migrated after the end of War period .................................................................................................................. 75 Table B. 6 Basic statistics for sub-sample of people who migrated to Australia....... 77 Table B. 7 Basic statistics for sub-sample of people who migrated to Singapore ..... 78 Table B. 8 Basic statistics for sub-sample of people who migrated to USA ............. 79 Table B. 9 Basic statistics for sub-sample of Males .................................................. 81 Table B. 10 Basic statistics for sub-sample of Females ............................................. 82 Table B. 11 Basic statistics for sub-sample of people who are below the Age of 31 years ........................................................................................................................... 84 Table B. 12 Basic statistics for sub-sample of people who are in the Age of 31-35 years ........................................................................................................................... 85 Table B. 13 Basic statistics for sub-sample of people who are above the Age of 35 years ........................................................................................................................... 86 Table B. 14 Basic statistics for sub-sample of job function - Academic ................... 88 Table B. 15 Basic statistics for sub-sample of job function - Non-Academic (i.e. All excluding Academics) ................................................................................................ 89 Table B. 16 Basic statistics for sub-sample of job function - Development .............. 91 viii Table B. 17 Basic statistics for sub-sample of job function - QA ............................. 92 Table B. 18 Basic statistics for sub-sample of job function - Management .............. 93 Table B. 19 Basic statistics for sub-sample of job function - Support ....................... 95 ix List of Abbreviations BPM - Business Process Management BPO - Business Process Outsourcing ICT - Information and Communication Technology IT - Information Technology ITeS - Information Technology enabled Services KPO - Knowledge Process Outsourcing KSI - Knowledge Services Industry QA - Quality Assurance SD - Standard Deviation SE - Standard Error SES - Standard Error of Skewness SLASSCOM - Sri Lanka Association of Software and Services Companies