Justice Perceptions and Intention to Quit in IT-ITES Employees in India

Abstract

Intention to quit and employee turnover are some of the most researched topics in organizational behavior. Many researchers have explored the linkage between justice perceptions and intention to leave. This paper is focused on role of demographic variables in justice perceptions and intention to quit in IT-ITES industry in India. Indian IT-ITES industry has seen significant growth in the past decade and is expected to touch around USD 90-100 billion by 2020 in India (NASSCOM-McKinsey's Perspective 2020 Study). HR Managers in India are dealing with a dual challenge of meeting hiring targets on one hand and controlling turnover on the other; which ranges between 20%-40%. Hence understanding the reasons for turnover is very important especially when greater number of young Indian professionals are joining IT-ITES industry year on year. For this study, a sample of 401 responses across 6 locations covering 7 IT-ITES were collected and analyzed. The results indicate that the turnover intention of the IT-ITES professionals is influenced by their perceived justice of equity rule and demographic variables like age, gender, education and tenure in the organization. Age was found to have an inverse relationship with Intention to quit. The younger employees were found to have higher intention to quit as compared to employees with higher age.  In terms of gender, females found it difficult mange household responsibilities especially w.r.t. life events like marriage, childbirth, etc. and were found to have higher intention to quit as compared to male employees. Employees with higher qualification had higher intention to quit as they desired higher job responsibility and complex assignments. Employees with lesser tenure in the organization possessed higher intention to quit as compare to the employees with higher tenure with the organization. There are implications for Managers, as they need to adopt different engagement and retention strategies w.r.t. demographic profile of the employees.  Hence the understanding the demographic factors like age, gender, education and tenure will enable the organizations plan better HR interventions to retain their qualified skilled force.