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Correlates of turnover propensity of software professionals in small high tech companies
Author(s) -
Garden AnnaMaria
Publication year - 1989
Publication title -
randd management
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.253
H-Index - 102
eISSN - 1467-9310
pISSN - 0033-6807
DOI - 10.1111/j.1467-9310.1989.tb00655.x
Subject(s) - autonomy , sample (material) , job satisfaction , business , empirical research , inventory turnover , work (physics) , marketing , public relations , psychology , social psychology , engineering , finance , profitability index , mechanical engineering , philosophy , chemistry , epistemology , chromatography , political science , law
The intent of this study is to shed some empirical light on the turnover propensity of software professionals in small software companies. Different sized firms were included to examine whether organizational size affected the relationships between the time the employees expected to stay in their present company, and a range of personal and organizational characteristics. A sample of 339 employees completed a questionnaire on their experience of and reactions to working in their current firm. None of the usual demographic indicators, e.g. age or tenure, was related to turnover propensity. The more time spent on programming, debugging or implementation, the shorter the time expected to stay. Satisfaction with both job and senior management was strongly related to expecting to stay longer, although satisfaction with project team or immediate boss showed virtually no relationship at all. The effect of organizational size occurred primarily with different company atmosphere qualities and certain work conditions. A warm atmosphere, fun and enjoyment, and friends in the company were important correlates only for the companies with below 50 people. Autonomy was a critical theme in the companies with 150–250 people, and recognition and advancement were important in the large company with approximately 2,000 employees. This suggests that the critical issues managers are confronted with would be different in organizations of different sizes.