Job Satisfaction of IT/IS Professionals: The Impact of Top Management and IT Managers

The capabilities of information technologies (IT) and information systems (IS) and their role in most of today’s businesses has made IT/IS professionals scarce and precious resources for organizations. However, many job-related pressures such as ensuring business continuity in today’s competitive environment have increased their turnover. Prior research has shown job satisfaction to be a significant driver of such turnover. Therefore, a closer investigation on the antecedents of job satisfaction is required. In the past, this issue has been studied from three main perspectives: personal traits, job and organizational characteristics, and career orientations. Our focus is more specifically on how top management and IS management can affect job satisfaction of IT/IS professionals. Our results show that the managerial competence of IT managers, in terms of their ability to effectively utilize IT/IS professionals’ skills, and to be an effective representative with top management is a significant predictor of these professionals’ job satisfaction.