Professional commitment, organizational commitment, and the intention to leave for professional advancement: An empirical study on IT professionals

Purpose: Given the increasing influence and importance of professionals in modern society, this study aims to investigate the influence of organizational commitment and professional commitment on professionals' intention to leave their organizations for professional advancement (ILPA).

Design/methodology/approach: A total of 500 members of a large Hong Kong association of computer specialists were drawn randomly from the membership list. E-mails were sent directly to those 500 members through a web-based survey, which is an effective way to collect confidential information and potentially reduced the resistance due to the survey sensitivity. After two follow-ups via e-mail, a total of 265 responses were collected with a response rate of 53 percent.

Findings: The study found that organizational affective commitment (OAC) would be more effective for reducing ILPA. For the interactions between different commitment components, there is a substitution effect of professional affective commitment (PAC) and professional continuance component (PCC) toward their impacts on ILPA.

Research limitations/implications: The findings would be explained by the self-justification process due to cognitive dissonance on the professional's continuance commitment and his/her affective commitment in an organization. Moreover, there would be a complementary relationship between organizational and professional commitment.

Originality/value: This study would answer the question on how to effectively avoid a professional leaving an organization.