Article Preview
TopIntroduction
There are many studies that have been studying from decades on factors influencing on employee engagement (Abdullah & Wan, 2013) in Information Technology (IT) organisations. Most of the IT companies constitute employees as the largest resource (Lockwood, 2007) which shows a greater impact on the quality of IT services, their progress and survival. Therefore it is not surprising that IT companies consider their employees as valuable assets who increase the productivity of the organisation (Mac & Clearke, 2011). In order to meet their competitive demands and advantages IT companies need to understand about their personnel requirements and keep them engaged (Shuck & Wollard, 2010). Also the HR managers are constantly looking for the improvement of employee engagement (EE) in order to develop their organisations (Mehrzi & Singh, 2016). Researchers in Human Resource Management have observed that employees who are eager to engage in their work strengthen their organisation (Kompaso & Sridevi, 2010). Among them one of the identified determinants for positive employee engagement is career development programs (Joo & Lee, 2017) which also enhance IT company’s marketability too. Many employees engage depending on their career progress (Kerr & Armstrong, 2011). Lee, Kwon, Kim & Cho (2016), in their study examined that career linked resources that include career development programs and career support programs that were provided by organizations promote employee engagement. They have proposed a framework (conceptual model) based on the relation between career determinants and EE depending on previous studies. The framework encompasses with organisational and individual view which explains about employee’s career progress. Therefore employees who perceive positive support from their companies are happy with their career growth which involves their career route, development, skill improvement, advance which in term lead to employee engagement (Joo & Lee, 2017). Hence it is understood that when employees are satisfied with their career determinants they will be highly engaged.
Gender is said to be one of the important variables while explaining the model that includes the relationship between the career determinants and EE (Lee & Eissenstat, 2018). Few studies identified that gender as a moderator influence career development programs, opportunities, salary, benefits and promotion (Cleveland, Vescio, & Farrell, 2005). In a study done by Gati and Perez (2014) examined that there are thirty one aspects of career priorities that showed gender differences extends to gender gap. Through there are research studies which treated gender as important demographic variable for career and EE, those studies are inconsistent (Lee & Eissenstat, 2018). Hence it is recognized that furthermore there is a need to study about the significant influence of gender between career determinants and EE. Moreover most of the studies are opinion based rather than evidence based. So there is a need of research work to be done on this subject. The main objective of the study is to explain about the relationship between career determinants and Employee Engagement and the extent to which their relationship would vary depending upon gender of the employees in IT Company. Therefore the study would give a meaningful understanding to this relationship.