The employer-employee relationship: A phenomenological study of retention and the information technology worker

This phenomenological study explored how highly skilled and in demand programmers and systems analysts Information Technology (IT) workers experience retention in the employment relationship. Issues of employee retention and Rousseau's theory of psychological contracting were used as the framework for this research. Exploration of the IT workers' employment relationship will help organizations improve staffing and retention strategies.; The employment relationship is defined by the formal and informal obligations and expectations. The literature proposes that employee experiences relating to work fall under the broad category of the psychological contract. The research has implications for further defining the psychological contract. The psychological contract is developed at an individual level through experiences, but within occupational sub-groups (e.g., IT workers) the core elements of the PC present generalizable themes at a group level.; Ten IT workers from banking, finance, consulting, health care, manufacturing, IT research and development, and quasi-government sectors of public and private industry completed background surveys and were interviewed twice. The interview approach was developed using a modified Seidman methodology. The data was analyzed using a combined van Kaam-Stevick-Collaizi-Keen (Moustakas, 1994) to analyze the data. The IT workers completed follow-up rank and define forms, and confirmed the results of his or her individual analysis and the group composite.; The group results indicated that IT Workers experience the employment relationship in a life cycle. Within the life cycle are a bundle of core components.; Conclusions from this research indicate that IT Workers see the employment relationship as a mutual exchange of formal and informal obligations and expectations. The IT worker will bring to the organization needed technical skills and experience. In return, IT workers believe the organization should be providing a core set of items in order to retain them. Participants in the study specifically define the most critical retention factor in the employment relationship as management. IT workers are seeking both technical competence and managerial competence in the relationship with their immediate supervision. In addition to management, two additional critical factors include access to up-to-date technology and technology related training, and market-level compensation. Other important factors include: career growth, co-worker relationships, and flexibility in work scheduling. These items were identified as primary factors that influence IT Workers to remain an organization. Negative changes in one or all of the critical items, particularly in the relationship with management, influences an IT Worker to start evaluating all the items and consider leaving. The findings suggest that organizations need to invest in all the critical components in order to retain highly skilled IT workers.