An Empirical Study of Career Orientations and Turnover Intentions of Information Systems Personnel in Botswana

A number of studies on career orientations of information systems (IS) personnel have focused on developed countries. This study attempts to examine career anchors of IS personnel from the perspective of a developing country, Botswana. The results of the study show that IS personnel in Botswana exhibit career orientations similar to those identified in literature. However, there are some variations, which are attributed to cultural and socio-economic peculiarities. The study indicates that life style does not feature as a significant career anchor in Botswana. The dominant career anchors include organizational stability (security) and sense of service (service). Gender, age, and educational qualifications tend to moderate the career anchors significantly; thus creating a partition of the anchors across demographic groups. The major contributors to the turnover intentions of IS personnel in developing economies are job satisfaction and growth opportunities. Career satisfaction, supervisor support, organization commitment, length of service, and age did not contribute significantly to turnover intention.