IT Employees' Organizational Identification: Examining its Antecedents and Impact on Turnover

Non-IT organizations increasingly rely on IT to achieve both operational excellence and strategic competitiveness. IT employees play pivotal roles in helping non-IT organizations realize the potential of IT. Yet, the turnover culture within the IT profession has posed challenges to organizations. How to effectively manage and retain IT human capital has become a critical issue. The current study examines turnover issue among IT employees in non-IT organizations from an organizational identification perspective. We propose that IT employees’ organizational identification could weaken their turnover behavior. Further and more importantly, the study explores organization-, job-, and relation-related antecedents to IT employees’ organizational identification. A survey with 126 IT employees provides significant empirical support. IT employees’ organizational identification has a significant negative effect on turnover intention. Business-IT alignment, boundary spanning activities, and the closeness of the relationships with non-IT employees can significantly improve IT employees’ organizational identification.