A communicative-tension model of change-induced collective voluntary turnover in IT

Abstract

Losing talented IT employees, the most critical strategic resource in IT, during a major organizational change can be catastrophic to the overall performance of the IS organization. This paper develops a multi-layered communicative-tension model of change-induced collective voluntary turnover from a historical case study analysis. A major organizational change at a healthcare insurance firm"s IT unit reveals the presence of three primary communicative tensions: alignment-autonomy, stability-change and expression-suppression. A group of employees, dissatisfied with the negative communicative practices employed by their managers in the midst of these communicative tensions, left the organization. A communicative-tension model of change-induced collective voluntary turnover complements and extends upon prior collective voluntary turnover research by accounting for the organizational change context and broader relational dynamics. This study offers practitioners important insights on how to manage communicative tensions during an IS organizational change to improve IT talent retention.

Work engagement and task performance within a global Dutch ICT-consulting firm: The mediating role of innovative work behaviors

“…This increased level of skills mobility has caused a talent crisis within the ICT sector (Diedericks and Rothmann 2014). In fact, research suggests that staff turnover within the ICT sector ranges between 25% and 35% on an annual basis (Armstrong et al 2018;Maleh et al 2019;Naidoo 2016;Naqvi and Bashir 2015).…”

“…These high job demands, and low resources lead to extreme fluctuations in both momentary and long-term work engagement (Mauno et al 2007), which consequently has a negative impact on ICT professionals' task performance (Diedericks and Rothmann 2014;Janse van Rensburg et al 2018). This "milking-thecow-till-its-dry" performance strategy does not only have the opposite intended performance effect, but it leads to negative consequences for both the employee and the fiscal performance of the company (Naidoo 2016).…”

“…Driving 'objective' performance metrics (such as billable hours, chasing targets etc.) is therefore not sustainable and will eventually lead decreased performance, higher staff turnover and a tarnished employer brand (Armstrong et al 2018;Maleh et al 2019;Naidoo 2016;Naqvi and Bashir 2015). So, if the focus should not be on driving outputs (i.e.…”

Role stress and turnover intentions among information technology personnel in South Africa: The role of supervisor support

“…These norms of high turnover of IT personnel are also a persistent challenge facing many South African organisations (Igbaria, Meredith & Smith, 1995;Smith & Speight, 2006;Naidoo, 2016). Factors such as role ambiguity, role conflict, role overload, exhaustion, stress and burnout offer useful explanations for turnover decisions in IT (Johnson & Stinson, 1975).…”

Coping with Organizational Information Technology Events: A Perceived Organizational Support and Relationship-Focused Coping Perspective

“…Researchers of organizational change have pointed out the importance of quality employee-organization relationships in fostering employees' acceptances of changes [42][43][44]. Strategies for resolving relational stresses and conflicts originated from changes in organizations have also been widely discussed in the organizational change literature (e.g., [45][46][47]). By applying the coping framework and relationshipfocused coping strategies to investigate organizational IT events, researchers will be able to unravel the causes of employees' different relationship-focused coping strategies and the outcome IT use or nonuse.…”