IT Professionals’ Personality, Personal Characteristics, and Commitment: Evidence from a National Survey

Abstract

Drawing on personality traits theory (Costa & McCrae, 1985) and organizational commitment theory (Mowday, Steers & Porter, 1979), the purpose of the present study was to investigate, through four separate hierarchical regression procedures, the effect of a set of independent variables (neuroticism, gender, and generational age) on four separate dependent variables (DV): overall organizational commitment (OC), affective commitment (AC), continuance commitment (CC), and normative commitment (NC). The sample consisted of responses from 279 IT professionals in the United States, drawn from a national sample from the merged cross-sectional GSS 1972-2014 Cross-Sectional Cumulative Data, Release 5, March 24, 2016. Results of multiple regressions analyses revealed that, among IT professionals, neuroticism did not predict overall OC, AC, CC, or NC. Generational age predicted OC, AC, and CC with statistical significance. Gender predicted CC; none of the independent variables (IVs) predicted NC. Directions for future research are offered.