Modelling turn away intention of information technology professionals in Bangladesh: A partial least squares approach

Abstract

Despite, Bangladesh produces many IT graduates each year but only one tenth of total graduates contribute in IT development sector. In order to keep the contribution to economy through IT development, it is crucial for IT industry to know the factors that influence turn away of IT graduates. In this paper, building upon role stress theory, we develop a research model to explore the influence of workplace exhaustion and threat of professional obsolescence (TPO). Data were gathered from 185 IT professionals from 15 different IT companies through survey questionnaire. The structural equation modelling technique was used to test the paths. The results suggests that strong influence of TPO on turn-away intentions. Result also suggests significant roles of work overload, family-career conflict and control over career and workplace exhaustion on turn away intention. This paper contributes to the body of work dedicated to helping us better understand the turn away behaviour from the workplace exhaustion and TPO perspectives. From the viewpoint of practice, this research sheds light on some of the challenges that the IT industry might face when making strategy and policy to control turn away from IT profession in Bangladesh.