Voluntary turnover among technical consultants. Mediating role of social identities and perceived promises

Abstract: Background: Development of technologies and high pace of changes made a modern organization highly dependent on the expertise and assistance of technology specialists. To be able to compete and be cost efficient, but at the same time be on the cutting-edge of technology development, is an essential requirement for doing business in the contemporary world. Moreover, this requirement became a solid ground for the emergence of a technical consulting industry and a new type of human resources - technical consultants. On the one hand, technical consultants are the main resources of technical consulting organizations, but on the other hand, technical consultants can cause harm to technical consulting organization, particularly, in the case of voluntary turnover. Aim: Through the qualitative analysis of the four technical consultants’ voluntary turnover stories in Sweden and based on the literature review, this master thesis opens up the door to the world of technical consultants. The aim of this work is to seek new insights into the problem of voluntary turnover in a new context of technical consultants and discover what role multiple identities and perceived promises play in voluntary turnover decision. Results: Technical consultants are a type of knowledge workers with non-traditional work arrangements. Empirical evidence demonstrates that technical consultants’ decision to quit can be described using "Eight motivational forces", but the framework should be extended, due to developing multiple identities and receiving perceived promises from multiple sources.