Study of Indian IT companies shows value of increasing both learning agility to reduce turnover intentions

Abstract

Purpose

The motivation behind the research was the necessity to innovate. Today’s companies require “learning agile” employees who constantly update their skills. To stay competitive, they have to retain the most capable individuals. For this reason, the authors wanted to investigate the link between LA, LC and TI of employees and they chose the dynamic Indian IT industry where turnover is a major issue for many companies.

Design/methodology/approach

The authors selected 10 different software firms in India and used Google forms to design a questionnaire. They distributed it through LinkedIn, Messenger and email. From the 258 valid responses, 62.8pc were male and 46.8pc were aged between 20 and 30. Only 18pc of the responses came from employees aged over 40. The respondents were mainly programmers (47pc), but there were also senior software engineers (25.8pc), project managers (14pc) and business analysts (13.2pc).

Findings

The results showed no direct effect of learning culture on turnover intentions. But the responses indicated a strong impact of learning agility on turnover intentions. Meanwhile, there was a big influence of learning culture on learning agility.

Originality/value

In conclusion, the authors said the results highlighted how when employees have higher LA, they tend to have stronger involvement in their work, reducing their turnover intentions. The research also showed how learning culture is an important antecedent of learning agility.

Citation

(2021), "Study of Indian IT companies shows value of increasing both learning agility to reduce turnover intentions", Human Resource Management International Digest, Vol. 29 No. 5, pp. 31-32. https://doi.org/10.1108/HRMID-04-2021-0094