Article Review
Introduction
MIS professionals have shown a substantially high rate of turnover which reached up to 20% in 1987 and is double of the average for business managers and professionals. Such high turnover can prove to be dysfunctional to organizations due to the shortage of experienced MIS employees and high costs associated with the training of new employees. The trend in turnover has made it very important for MIS managers to recruit, hire and train qualified MIS employees.
The purpose of this study is to test an integrated model of turnover intentions among MIS employees. The test involves using a structural equation modeling approach with Partial Least Squares (PLS) and incorporating a number of variables which consistently explains and predict turnover across studies. PLS being a second generation of multivariate analysis is used to estimate the parameter of causal models. This study will address to four research questions. The first question is regarding the impact of employee demographic characteristics on the turnover intentions of MIS employees. The second research question is about the impact of role stressors on the turnover intentions of MIS personnel. The third research question is based on the impact of career experiences on the turnover intentions of MIS personnel. The last research question emphasizes upon the role of work related attitudes in mediating the effects of demographic characteristics, role stressors and career experiences on the turnover intentions of MIS personnel.
Research Literature
A number of empirical studies conclude to the fact that organizational commitment plays a vital role in the turnover process which means highly committed workers are less likely to leave the organization as compared to uncommitted workers. Literature also confirms that there is a strong link between job satisfaction, organizational commitment and turnover. The findings of studies states that high levels of career satisfaction enhances organizational commitment on the part of employees and employees who are highly satisfied with their careers are likely to perceive substantial benefits in staying with the organization.
Methodology
The procedural and sampling method that was used for this study involves distributing questionnaire among 2,548 members of the ACM in Pennsylvania, Delaware and Southern New Jersey. 517 questionnaires were returned to the researchers and the response rate remained consistent with other mail surveys. The participants held a variety of positions with the computer field. The sample represented the population of ACM members as 85% of the ACM members were men and 80.3% of the sample consisted of men.
Findings
The results of the measurement model show that the convergent validity of the survey measures was strong. The reliability of the scales ranged between 0.88 and 0.97 and the variance ranged from 0.53 to 0.83. The results of original structural model show that there is a strong link between organizational commitment and turnover intentions.
Conclusion
The study results conclude that job satisfaction and organizational commitment are the most immediate determinants of turnover intentions. Therefore employers of MIS personnel must ensure that they monitor the attitudes of employees on an ongoing basis and understand all the factors that affect the attitudes of MIS employees. Furthermore young and highly educated MIS employees are susceptible to high turnover.
Work cited
Igharia, Magid and Greenhans, Jaffry. “Determinants of MIS Employees’ Turnover Intentions: A structural Equation Model”, Communications of the ACM, 1992.
