Career Anchors and Employee Retention: An Empirical Study of Information Technology Industry in India

The success of Indian Information Technology IT industry is dependent on the ability of the organizations to retain the human potential. However, profound changes in the occupational environment have implications for an individual's career development in this industry. Most of the employees form a strong self-concept, a set of 'career anchors' that hold their internal career. Organizations need to understand such career anchors and be responsive to improve the employees' intention to stay. The present empirical study attempts to evaluate the impact of nine career anchors on the employee's intention to stay, through a survey of 450 employees from the Indian IT companies. It is found that the career anchors-service, identity, variety, autonomy, creativity and geographic security have significant influence on the employees' intention to stay. However, other career anchors, namely, managerial competence, technical competence, and organizational stability have no influence on the employees' intention to stay. The paper is concluded with implications for practice and directions for future research.