Factors Influencing Thai IT Professionals to Work in ASEAN Countries

Abstract

Workforce mobility among ASEAN countries is made more possible after the realization of ASEAN Economic Community (AEC) in 2015. In particular, IT professionals are prone to relocate because IT skills are more universal and transferable across countries. Management challenge is to retain their IT talent. We address this issue by 1) exploring the extent to which Thai IT professionals are interested to work in ASEAN countries and 2) identifying the key factors that promote and restrain Thai IT professionals to work in these countries. We apply social cognitive theory (SCT: Bandura, 1886) and social cognitive career theory (SCCT: Lent, Brown & Hackett, 1994) as theoretical backdrop for our investigation. Four hundred and fifty three Thai IT professionals participated in our survey. Results show that Thai IT professionals have moderate to high interest to work in ASEAN countries. The analysis of multiple regression report that outcome expectation and self-efficacy are the two key influential factors driving Thai IT professionals to relocate to ASEAN countries. Other personal and environmental factors such as English language skills, marital status and family obligation are not significantly different from zero on their criterion prediction. In addition, we found that salary level is the only inhibiting factor for the mobility prospect: IT professionals with higher salary level show lower level of interest to work in AEC. Management should consider providing internal career progression that ties with motivational compensation package in order to retain talented IT professionals.

Save as a Favourite

Author Information
Patchara Popaitoon, Chulalongkorn Business School, Thailand
Yingyos Theerataweewut, Chulalongkorn Business School, Thailand

• Category: Industrial Organization and Organization Theory

Posted by James Alexander Gordon

All Posts