The effects of employment opportunity on organizational commitment and intention to quit in China's IT outsourcing industry

Abstract

Although India has dominated the global IT outsourcing market over the past few decades, China has picked up momentum and is rapidly catching up. As China threatens the Indian monopoly on IT outsourcing, the Chinese success in this area is threatened by high employee turnover. To provide insights to the key factors that impact turnover intention, this research examined the moderating effects of employment opportunity on the impact of organizational commitment on intention to quit of IT outsourcing professionals in China.A quantitative methodology was employed to collect and analyze data from 292 participants who completed a questionnaire through a self-administrated Internet survey. The questionnaire design comprised organizational commitment items from Wang’s (2004) five-component commitment model, and items for employment opportunity and intention to quit from Peters et al. (1981).Findings suggest that organizational commitment have a negative and significant influence on intention to quit, while employment opportunity has a positive and significant influence on intention to quit. However, the regression analysis results revealed that employment opportunity does not have a significant moderating effect on the impact of organizational commitment on intention to quit. Other findings are that Wang’s (2004) five-component commitment model can be successfully extended to China’s IT outsourcing sector. The research adds to the existing body of knowledge in the field by providing a greater understanding of the key factors that impact turnover from the perspective of IT outsourcing professionals in China. However, the sample size relative to China’s huge IT outsourcing population may be considered insufficient to generalize the study’s findings to other jurisdictions. Accordingly, it is recommended that future related research should use a larger sample size to conduct a cross-cultural study. And, since there might be relationships among the variables other than those identified in this research, it is further recommended to develop a more comprehensive turnover model for IT outsourcing professionals in China.