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1. Introduction
The continuing high turnover rate of information systems (IS) personnel presents a formidable challenge to managers. Studies ([24] Jiang and Klein, 2002, [33] Moore and Burke, 2002) show that the turnover rates in Fortune 500 companies are between 25 percent and 35 percent. A more recent study finds that as many as 50 percent of the information technology (IT) workforce in the USA considered changing jobs ([39] Rothberg, 2006). This phenomenon can best be described as "turnover culture" defined by [1] Abelson (1993) as "the systematic patterns of shared cognitions by organizational or subunit incumbents that influence decisions regarding job movement" (p. 388). The particularly high turnover rate within IT professions results from high marketability of IT job skills, such as network and database management skills and enterprise resource planning (ERP) system skills ([33] Moore and Burke, 2002). [33] Moore and Burke (2002) also show that "romance of turnover" is another important contributor to the high turnover culture of IT industries. Since departing IT professionals are often observed as heroes who successfully find a way out for better opportunities, turnover could be romanticized as the ultimate solution to various problems and issues encountered by IT professionals.
Turnover of IS personnel is often regarded as dysfunctional for organizations because it incurs significant direct costs related to recruiting and replacement, and indirect costs related to retraining, as well as loss of firm knowledge and experience. To get high turnover under control, it is important for management to learn what factors influence an individual's decision to leave an organization and to take steps to address the major reasons for turnover and design retaining policies accordingly. Effective career planning is essential to gaining control of the turnover problem ([11] Bartol and Martin, 1982; [22] Igbaria and Greenhaus, 1992; [45] Thite, 2006).
In the midst of the recent economic recession and the high unemployment rate, would the particular turnover culture in the IT industry be less evident than before? Our answer is no. Even though the credit crisis led to the worst recession since the Great Depression, with the national unemployment rate reaching as high as 10.2 percent, unemployment rates for IT workers are as much as 4 percent lower than the national average and the IT industry...