The Influence of Psychological Contracts and Burnout on IT Professionals’ Turnover and Turnaway Intention

Retaining valuable information technology (IT) professionals is still an issue for organizations and the IT profession. The changing business environment and the increased demand for IT professionals to innovate using new technologies and processes puts pressure on IT turnover intention researchers to adapt and innovate as well. Psychological contract and burnout theories are used to explore precursors to turnover and turnaway intention. We collected data from 247 experienced IT professionals across different organizations. We found that (1) burnout is a formative construct with three reflective dimensions: exhaustion, cynicism, and professional efficacy; (2) burnout impacts IT professionals’ turnaway intention more than turnover intention; and (3) burnout is positively related to psychological contract violation. Post-hoc analysis suggests that for non-married IT professionals, psychological contract breach influences psychological contract violation, but this is not the case for married IT professionals. Implications for research and practice are discussed.