The relationship between developmental HRM practices and voluntary intention to leave among IT professionals in India: the mediating role of affective commitment
Industrial and Commercial Training
ISSN: 0019-7858
Article publication date: 20 August 2018
Issue publication date: 30 August 2018
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to advance the research on the relationship between developmental human resource management (HRM) practices and voluntary intention to leave among information technology (IT) professionals from the Indian IT sector by investigating the mediating role of affective commitment.
Design/methodology/approach
This study adopted a cross-sectional design at the individual-level of analysis. Data on the study constructs (i.e. developmental HRM practices, affective commitment, and voluntary intention to leave) were collected from 752 IT professionals from 17 Indian IT organizations from the city of Bengaluru through a web-based survey between February 2016 and March 2017. Further, this study used the confirmatory factor analysis technique to establish reliability and construct validity for the study constructs. Furthermore, this study tested the research hypotheses empirically through mediated multiple-regression analysis using the bootstrap procedure.
Findings
Empirical results of the present study suggest that espousal of robust developmental HRM interventions enhances affective commitment and significantly attenuates the voluntary intention to leave among employees. Further, the results of this study have indicated that the relationship between developmental HRM practices and voluntary intention to leave was partially mediated by affective commitment.
Originality/value
Past empirical studies on HRM – turnover discourse, in the IT sector, have predominantly examined the direct influence of HRM systems and/or internal labor market strategies on turnover intentions and actual turnover behavior. Rarely have the past studies in the IT domain attempted to examine the intervening role of employee attitudes in the relationship between HRM practices and employee-level outcomes. Addressing this gap, the present study enunciates the critical role of affective commitment and situates it as an important variable that mediates the relationship between developmental HRM practices and voluntary intention to leave among IT professionals in India.
Keywords
Acknowledgements
The authors would like to thank Dr David McGuire and the anonymous reviewer for their valuable comments on the previous version of the manuscript. The authors also thank Dr Nandan Prabhu for assisting them in understanding the “theory of social exchange” in depth through his valuable insights on the said area that greatly improved the manuscript.
Citation
Srirangam Ramaprasad, B., Lakshminarayanan, S. and Pai, Y.P. (2018), "The relationship between developmental HRM practices and voluntary intention to leave among IT professionals in India: the mediating role of affective commitment", Industrial and Commercial Training, Vol. 50 No. 6, pp. 285-304. https://doi.org/10.1108/ICT-01-2018-0001
Publisher
:Emerald Publishing Limited
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