EXAMINING THE IMPACT ON INDUSTRY BACKGROUND AND GENDER ON JOB SATISFACTION, ORGANIZATIONAL COMMITMENT AND TURNOVER INTENT

The information technology (IT) and information technology enabled services (ITeS) industry has been one of the key driving forces fuelling India's economic growth. Indian firms, across all other sectors, largely depend on the IT & ITeS service providers to make their business processes efficient and streamlined. The Indian manufacturing sector has the highest IT spending followed by automotive, chemicals and consumer products industries. Although these two industries are somewhat related, they differ in significant ways. Job satisfaction and organizational commitment are important both for the employees and organizations. A satisfied employee demonstrates greater commitment and this leads to lower turnover of the employees. Men generally have work as a central theme in their lives. They achieve a sense of satisfaction when they do well on the job and progress in their careers. They thus get over-involved with work. Finally, the IT sector employees have better job conditions, higher compensation and more recognition at the workplace. On the other hand, the ITES sector employees have odd working hours, more pressure from customers, and lesser flexibility. In addition, a large number of women are entering workforce, posing new challenges for organizations in managing diversity at the workplace. There is evidence that high job satisfaction leads to greater productivity. Research also shows that committed employees have less turnover intent. The present study examines a total of 313 respondents, who were selected through convenience sampling from different IT and ITES organizations of State Capital Region, Chennai. The results showed that the IT group had lower job satisfaction and organizational commitment compared to the ITES group, while it displayed higher turnover intent. The male group showed significantly higher job satisfaction and significantly lower turnover intent compared to the female group. Further, job satisfaction increased organizational commitment. Finally, both job satisfaction and organizational commitment decreased turnover intent. The findings are discussed in the light of the expectations of employees and the future directions for research are outlined.