Damien Joseph

Turnover of information technology professionals: a narrative review, meta-analytic structural equation modeling, and model development

This study combines a narrative review with meta-analytic techniques to yield important insights about the existing research on turnover of information technology professionals. Our narrative review of 33 studies shows that the 43 antecedents to turnover intentions of IT professionals could be mapped onto March and Simons (1958) distal-proximal turnover framework. Our meta-analytic structural equation modeling shows that proximal constructs of job satisfaction (reflecting the lack of desire to move) and perceived job alternatives (reflecting ease of movement) partially mediate the relationships between the more distal individual attributes, job-related and perceived organizational factors, and IT turnover intentions. Building on the findings from our review, we propose a new theoretical model of IT turnover that presents propositions for future research to address existing gaps in the IT literature.

COUNTRY-LEVEL DETERMINANTS OF E-GOVERNMENT MATURITY

This paper presents a model of the drivers of e-government maturity. We differentiate “maturity” from “readiness” on the basis that the former refers to demonstrated behavior, while the latter provides an idea of a country’s potential to achieve e-government, and argue that maturity is a more accurate measure of a country’s realized progress. We investigate the prevalence of affluent countries in many e-government rankings using a model where the relationship between GDP and e-government maturity is mediated by ICT infrastructure, human capital, and governance. Using data from authoritative sources, we find that most of the positive influence of GDP on e-government maturity occurs through ICT infrastructure. More mature e-government, however, does not necessarily reflect better governance; in fact our data show a weak but significant negative relationship between e-government maturity and the quality of governance. We suggest plausible explanations for these findings and how the future evolution of egovernment might change the observed relationships.

RIP - beliefs about IT culture: exploring national and gender differences

This multi country study of the IT occupational culture builds on US data to examine differences in IT occupational perceptions in the United Kingdom, Singapore, Malaysia, India and Australia. In this research in progress we present survey data about the adaptation to the cultural characteristics of the IT occupation and its relationship with occupational commitment. This paper presents the initial data results collected in the above five countries. So far, our preliminary data supports previous findings in that adaptation to the occupational culture in the information technology field predicts occupational commitment and more significantly affective occupational commitment. While no significant differences were found across countries, further analysis is currently being conducted to evaluate possible differences by gender and nationality.

Turnover of IT professionals: a quantitative analysis of the literature

IT scholars have long been interested in the turnover of IT professionals. In their many studies, IT scholars have considered a wide range of predictors of IT turnover including personal characteristics, role constructs, job characteristics, and organizational characteristics. In this paper, we conduct a meta-analysis to summarize this body of research. The objective of this paper is, therefore, to examine the bivariate relationships of predictors with IT turnover. The meta-analytic results on the relationships with turnover are consistent with theory and prior empirical research.

A LONGITUDINAL STUDY OF E-GOVERNMENT MATURITY

Extending the findings of prior cross-sectional studies, this paper presents a longitudinal analysis of the drivers of e-Government maturity. We constructed a panel dataset for the period from 2003 to 2007 using data published by various authoritative sources. We fitted a mixed-effects regression model to the data to study how the growth of e-Government around the globe is influenced by changing levels of affluence, ICT infrastructure, human capital, and governance. We found that countries’ e-Government matures as they become more affluent (in terms of GDP per capita) and as their ICT infrastructure improves. Human capital and the quality of governance have no significant effect on the development of e-Government maturity. The results suggest that countries investing in leading-edge ICT infrastructure can maintain or improve their global standing in e-Government without substantial changes to human capital or governance. We put forward plausible reasons to explain our findings, and their implications for future research and the practice of e-government.

Turnover or Turnaway? Competing Risks Analysis of Male and Female IT Professionals' Job Mobility and Relative Pay Gap

This study draws on distributive justice, human capital, and stigmatization theories to hypothesize relationships between relative pay gap and patterns of job mobility. Our study also expands the criterion space of job mobility by contrasting different job destinations when information technology IT professionals make job moves. We examine three job moves: a turnover to another IT job in a different firm, b turnaway-within to a non-IT job, and c turnaway-between to a different firm and a non-IT job. We analyze work histories spanning 28 years for 359 IT professionals drawn from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth. We report three major findings. First, as hypothesized, larger relative pay gaps significantly increase the likelihood of job mobility. Second, IT males and IT females have different job mobility patterns. IT males are more likely to turn over than turn away-between when faced with a relative pay gap. Further, and contrary to predictions from human capital theory, IT males are more likely to turn away-within than turn over. This surprising finding suggests that the ubiquitous use of IT in other business functions may have increased the value of IT skills for non-IT jobs and reduced the friction of moving from IT to other non-IT positions. Third, and consistent with stigmatization arguments, IT females are more likely to turn away from IT than to turn over when faced with a relative pay gap. In fact, to reduce relative pay gaps, IT females tend to take on lower-status jobs that pay less than their IT jobs. We conclude this study with important theoretical, practical, and policy implications.

Cultural intelligence and collaborative work: intercultural competencies in global technology work teams

With the growth of offshoring and the global delivery model, IT professionals need to collaborate with clients, users, vendors and other IT employees in multiple locations. Yet, we know very little about the new and unique capabilities IT professionals need, to function effectively in such a global environment. This paper introduces the concept of cultural intelligence (CQ) and discusses its relevance to the global IT workforce. We propose that CQ is a critical individual capability for IT professionals working in global collaborative IT teams.

Is Updating Play or Work?: The Mediating Role of Updating Orientation in Linking Threat of Professional Obsolescence to Turnover/Turnaway Intentions

This study proposes that IT professionals’ behavioral orientation towards IT knowledge and skills updating demands can take on two contrasting forms: updating-as-play or updating-as-work. Drawing on threat-rigidity theory (Staw, Sandelands, & Dutton, 1981), the authors hypothesize that IT professionals who feel threatened by professional obsolescence are more likely to approach updating-as-work more than as play. Results from a sample of IT professionals are consistent with threat-rigidity theory (Staw et al., 1981) in that the threat of professional obsolescence is negatively related to updating-as-play and is positively related to updating-as-work. The authors also find that updating-as-play is negatively related to turnaway intentions and that updating-as-work is positively related to turnover intentions; these findings are consistent with IT theories of job mobility. The authors conclude this study with a discussion of these results and propose future research directions.

Executive Pay Before and After Technology IPOs: Who Receives More?

Technology IPOs expose Information Technology (IT) firms to significant challenges that are fundamentally different from those faced during the founding or startup stage. To tackle the post-IPO challenges, IT firms pay premium wages to hire professional executives from the external labor market rather than from within. Yet, how the executive pay of external hires compares to that of internal hires when IT firms mark significant milestones in their lifecycle remain understudied. The current study therefore examines the pay of internal and external hires and place it within the context of the IPO timeline i.e. pre- and post-IPO. By analyzing data from multiple sources using a linear mixed effects modelling technique, we find that IT firms pay internal hires significantly higher than external hires in the pre-IPO stage. In the post-IPO stage, IT firms pay external hires significantly higher than internal hires. We discuss the implications of the findings on theory and practice.

Professional Obsolescence in IT: The Relationships between the Threat of Professional Obsolescence, Coping and Psychological Strain.

Professional obsolescence has been recognized as one of the biggest threats confronting present day IT workers. Despite the imperative to understand the strategies for coping with this professional threat, research on the subject is relatively limited. Moreover, most studies on the subject till date are anecdotal. Clearly, theoretically grounded empirical research on the subject will not only help advance the understanding on professional obsolescence but will also provide actionable directions for IT professionals to work effectively. With this end in view we first draw upon the mediational model of occupational stress to theorize the relationships between the threat of professional obsolescence and problem-focused and emotion-focused coping and their consequent impacts on psychological strain. Next, we test the hypothesized model via survey data collected in two waves from a sample of 738 IT professionals from a large Indian IT company. Results show that the threat of professional obsolescence is positively related to problem-focused coping but not emotion-focused coping. In addition, emotion-focused coping of professional obsolescence is associated with higher levels of psychological strain, but problem-focused coping of professional obsolescence is not significantly associated with psychological strain. We discuss the implications that the results of this study have for theory and practice.