Job-leisure conflict, turnover intention and the role of job satisfaction as a mediator: An empirical study of Indian IT professionals

The Indian IT and ITES industry has witnessed attrition as high as 15% according to Deloitte Human Capital Consulting in its Compensation Trends Survey 2013-14. Hence, the focus of most organizations in this industry is to reduce the turnover intention of employees ultimately resulting into reduction of actual turnover. Finding out all the factors which contribute to the turnover intention among employees is employers’ high priority. The aim of this paper is to find out if job-leisure conflict influences the IT professionals’ turnover intention. This paper further examines the relationship between job-leisure conflict, job satisfaction and turnover intention for professionals working in IT service provider organizations in India. It is hypothesized that job satisfaction will mediate the relationship between job-leisure conflict and turnover intention. The proposed model is grounded in the social-exchange theory and ideology of individualization. Data were collected from 173 IT professionals. Findings supported a significant positive relationship between job-leisure conflict and turnover intention and significant negative relationship between job satisfaction and turnover intention. It was also confirmed that job satisfaction plays a mediating role between job-leisure conflict and turnover intention. Implications, potential future research areas are discussed.