Journal of Management Research

Vol. 10, No. 1, April 2010, pp. 39-61

Mediating Role of Organizational

Commitment on HR Practices and Turnover
Intention among ICT Professionals
Samson SamGnanakkan
Abstract

Information and Communication Technology (ICT) sector is heavily investing in high involvement HR
practices to retain and motivate the information technology professionals who are the human capital
assets. This study defines a multidimensional HR practices and test its influence on turnover intentions
(TOI) of ICT professionals. Organizational commitment is defined either as an employee attitude or as
a force that binds an employee to an organization. There are very few studies on the effects of
organizational commitment on TOI among ICT professionals. The present research focuses on examining
the mediating effect of organizational commitment on HR practices and TOI relationship. The results
of this study partially support the prediction. HR practices - compensation and training, has a significant
direct effect on TOI and the contribution of organizational commitment to TOI is observed when
combined with HR practices in the model. Implications of these results are discussed.

Keywords: Organizational commitment, HR practices, turnover intentions

In the last decade, India has undergone a major
upward economic trend with the progress of the
modern Information and Communication
Technology (ICT). Even during the present global
economic recession and the recent Satyam
corporate scandal, Indian ICT industry is the major
economic stabilizer. In India, employee turnover
especially in the ICT sector is a worrying figure.
Turnover rates globally is averaging 15 to 20
percent but is as high as 50 to 75 percent in some
sectors (Machado and Kourakos, 2004). Similarly,
even the advanced economy like Canada, which is
a major outsourcer for USA’s Information
Technology (IT) needs, is facing an acute problem
in retaining and filling up the gap in human
Samson SamGnanakkan
Director – HR & Projects
Don Business Solutions Inc.
Toronto, Canada
resources need (Grant and Babin, 2006).
The rate of turnover of ICT professionals is more
than twice the average for business managers and
professionals (Igbaria and Greenhaus, 1991). This
excessive turnover can be dysfunctional to
organizations because of the shortage of
experienced ICT employees and the high cost of
training new employees with scarce capital
resources in the current economic slowdown. Since
organizations are under intense pressure to recruit,
hire, and retain qualified ICT professional
employees, they need to control employee turnover.
To reduce excessive turnover among ICT
employees, it is first necessary to understand the
reasons for the turnover. To the extent that specific
aspects of the job situation of ICT employees
within the control of the organization contribute
to turnover, retention of ICT professionals could
be increased through appropriate administrative
actions designed to address the problem areas.