IT WORKERS ON OUTSOURCING: WHAT ABOUT ME? WHAT ABOUT THE PROFESSION?

To date, there have been numerous studies examining the impact of outsourcing on the IT function within and across organizations. Practitioners and researchers have focused tremendous efforts on understanding how to enter into and maintain relationships with outsourcing vendors. There have been, however, very few studies focusing on the impact outsourcing is having on the IT worker. In order to understand how outsourcing is impacting the IT workforce, this paper empirically examines the attitudes of IT workers toward IT outsourcing. Perceptions of how individuals perceive the impact of outsourcing on them personally and on the profession are explored along with whether these individuals perceive the impact as having already occurred or will occur. Findings from this study of over 450 IT workers from various organizations in the U.S. indicate that individuals do have different perceptions of how outsourcing impacts them versus how outsourcing impacts the IT profession. Analysis of how these perceptions impact outcomes shown to be important to IT workers was also conducted. Key outcomes including satisfaction and turnover intention were found to be significantly and negatively related to IT workers' perceptions of outsourcing's impact. Implications of these findings are provided along with direction for future research. [PUBLICATION ABSTRACT]