The Role of Organizational Commitment and Citizenship Behaviors in Understanding Relations between Human Resources Practices and Turnover Intentions of IT Personnel

Ce document est publié dans l'intention de rendre accessibles les résultats préliminaires de la recherche effectuée au CIRANO, afin de susciter des échanges et des suggestions. Les idées et les opinions émises sont sous l'unique responsabilité des auteurs, et ne représentent pas nécessairement les positions du CIRANO ou de ses partenaires. This paper presents preliminary research carried out at CIRANO and aims at encouraging discussion and comment. The observations and viewpoints expressed are the sole responsibility of the authors. They do not necessarily represent positions of CIRANO or its partners. The primary objective of this study is to present and test an integrated model of turnover intentions which addresses the unique nature of the information technology (IT) profession. It identifies a multidimensional set of human resources (HR) practices likely to increase retention among IT employees. It also considers organizational citizenship behaviors and two distinct types of organizational commitment as key antecedents of turnover intentions. A second goal is to explore the moderating effects of organizational commitment and citizenship behaviors on HR practices-turnover intention relationships. A questionnaire was developed and sent to the Québec members of the Canadian Information Processing Society. Data from 394 respondents were used to validate the measures and test the research model. Findings reveal that IT specialists are particularly sensitive to four types of HR policies and practices: distributive justice, competence development, empowerment, and recognition. Results also provide additional support for the generalizability of the two-component model of organizational commitment in the IT context. This study is the first to show that the effects of various HR practices on turnover intentions among IT specialists depend upon the nature of their commitment to the organization. Similarly, we found that citizenship behaviors not only mediate but also moderate HR practices–turnover intention relationships. Implications of these results for practice and research are discussed.