Theoretical Framework for Turnover Intention of Air Force Enlisted Information Systems Personnel

Retention of valuable information systems (IS) personnel has become increasingly more difficult over the past decade, even during the current economic downturn (ITAA, 2002). The United States Air Force (AF) also suffers from declining retention of its enlisted IS workforce. This research studies the job satisfaction-to-turnover intention relationship of AF IS workers through extensions to the Mobley et al, (1979) turnover model by assessing the effects of work exhaustion (Moore, 2000), interrole conflict (Hom & Kinicki, 2001), and perceived cohesion (Bollen & Hoyle, 1990) to determine if those with high work exhaustion, high interrole conflict, and low perceived cohesion report lower satisfaction and higher turnover intention than those with low work exhaustion, low interrole conflict, and high perceived cohesion, Current archival data from a portion of the AF IS workforce (AFSCs 3C0X1, 3C0X2, and 3C2X1; N= 10,535) was obtained from the AF Occupational Measurement Squadron that resulted in 2,510 usable responses, Partial support was found through contingency table analysis showing that job satisfaction is positively influenced by lower levels of work exhaustions and interrole conflict, and higher levels of perceived cohesion. Further research should be conducted to refine the posited turnover model for possible use throughout the AF, and should explore other contributing factors that adversely affect the job satisfaction-to-turnover intention relationship,Air Force Inst of Tech Wright-Patterson AFB OH School of Engineering and Management is the author of 'Theoretical Framework for Turnover Intention of Air Force Enlisted Information Systems Personnel', published 2003 under ISBN 9781423503248 and ISBN 1423503244.