The Impact of Human Resources Practices on IT Personnel Commitment, Citizenship Behaviors and Turnover Intentions

The past few years have been the most threatening period for enterprises that use, manage or deal in IT. The source of the tumult has been the demand, supply, recruitment and especially retention of IT professionals. Recent literature reveals that a heavy investment in the implementation of HR practices may contribute to organizational success, specifically by reducing the turnover of IT professionals. As of today, very few empirical studies have rigorously examined the influence of relevant HR practices on turnover intentions of IT people. This study offers to fill that gap by testing an integrated model of turnover intentions that addresses the unique nature of the IT profession. De nature conceptuelle, cet article présente un modèle de recherche portant sur la rétention des spécialistes en informatique au Québec. Ce modèle, inspiré largement de la littérature en gestion des ressources humaines, en comportement organisationnel et en technologies de l'information, examine les diverses relations entre sept types de pratiques de ressources humaines, deux formes particulières de comportements discrétionnaires, deux dimensions de l'engagement organisationnel et les intentions de quitter des spécialistes en technologies de l'information. La méthodologie utilisée pour tester les différentes hypothèses sous-jacentes au modèle de recherche est brièvement décrite. En dernier lieu, les limites principales de l'étude ainsi que les implications pour les recherches futures sont mises en lumière.Information technology (IT) staffing issues, turnover among IT specialists, attitudes, Gestion du personnel en technologies de l'information, mouvement (rétention) des spécialistes en technologies de l'information, attitudes

The Measurement and Antecedents of Turnover Intentions among IT Professionals

The purpose of this study is to present and test an integrated model of turnover intentions that addresses the unique nature of the IT profession. We identified a multidimensional set of HR practices likely to increase retention among IT employees and considered citizenship behaviors as well as two distinct types of organizational commitment as key antecedents of turnover intentions. A questionnaire was developed and sent to the Quebec members of the Canadian Information Processing Society. Data from 394 respondents were used to validate the measures and test our research model. We present and discuss the results and make a series of recommendations for IT and HR executives. Dans cette étude, nous présentons et testons un modèle de recherche portant sur la rétention des spécialistes en TI. Ce modèle examine les relations entre diverses pratiques de GRH, les comportements discrétionnaires, l'engagement organisationnel et les intentions de quitter des spécialistes en TI. Un questionnaire fût développé et envoyé aux membres de la Fédération de l'Informatique du Québec (FIQ). Les données de 394 questionnaires ont servi aux fins d'analyses statistiques. Nous présentons et discutons les résultats obtenus et faisons une série de recommandations aux hauts dirigeants en TI et en RH.IS staffing issues, IS turnover, attitudes, Gestion du personnel en TI, roulement du personnel en TI, attitudes

La réforme des institutions démocratiques au Québec : commentaires en marge du rapport du Comité directeur

Le processus de consultation lancé au début de 2002 par le gouvernement du Québec a connu son aboutissement en mars 2003 lorsque le Comité directeur sur la réforme des institutions démocratiques a produit son rapport. La plupart des recommandations faites dans ce rapport apparaissent viables et utiles, mais, en les examinant sous l’angle du droit constitutionnel, l’auteur estime que certaines d’entre elles pourraient être améliorées. C’est le cas des réformes proposées quant au mode de scrutin, aux élections à date fixe, à l’accroissement de la démocratie directe et à l’adoption d’une constitution du Québec. Par contre, l’auteur trouve que les développements consacrés par le rapport au système politique méconnaissent les besoins particuliers du Québec et que l’adoption envisagée par le Comité directeur d’un système présidentiel à l’américaine serait inconstitutionnelle. À cet égard, les recommandations du rapport concernant le changement du mode de scrutin et l’assouplissement de la discipline de parti suffiraient aux yeux de l’auteur à corriger les principaux défauts imputés au régime parlementaire québécois.At the beginning of 2002, the Government of Québec launched a consultative process that resulted in the publication in March 2003 of the report by the Steering Committee on the reform of democratic institutions. Most proposals made in the report seem to be workable and useful, but from the constitutional law point of view adopted by the author, some could be made better. These include the proposed reforms bearing on proportional representation, fixed election dates, increasing the means for achieving direct democracy and the adoption of a constitution for Québec. By contrast, the author finds that the portions of the report bearing on the political system ignore the specific needs of Québec and that the eventual adoption here of a presidential system similar to that of the United States — which the Committee seems to favour — would be unconstitutional. In this respect, he believes that the report’s proposals relating to proportional representation and to the relaxing of party discipline would by themselves remedy the main problems that are said to characterize Québec’s parliamentary regime

La taxation provinciale indirecte par voie de licences

Le paragraphe 92 (9) de la Loi constitutionnelle de 1867 permet aux provinces de prélever par voie de licences des taxes indirectes. Toutefois, pour éviter de rendre inutile le paragraphe 92 (2), qui limite en principe les provinces à la taxation directe, la Cour suprême exige que les sommes perçues en vertu de 92 (9) ne servent qu'aux fins d'un régime de réglementation provincial. Cette exigence, même si elle fut appliquée jusqu'à maintenant avec souplesse, entraîne des difficultés de vérification et de preuve, ainsi qu'une certaine confusion sur le plan conceptuel. L'auteur suggère que l'esprit et la lettre de la Constitution seraient bien servis par une exigence complémentaire plus simple, à savoir que la taxe ne puisse être transmise que localement.Subsection 92 (9) of the Constitution Act, 1867, enables the provinces to impose indirect taxation by way of licences. However, this power must be reconciled with subsection 92 (2), which confines the provinces to the field of direct taxation, as a matter of principle. So the Supreme Court requires that the money exacted under 92 (9) be used for the sole purposes of a provincial regulatory regime. So far, such a requirement has not been strictly applied. Nevertheless, it creates problems of evidence and difficulties in practice, as well as some confusion on the conceptual plane. The author suggests that the spirit and letter of the Constitution would accommodate an alternative and simpler conclusion. It would suffice to verify that the tax can only be transmitted locally

Les situations d'urgence qui permettent en droit international de suspendre les droits de l'homme

This article describes and comments the types of emergency situations which are recognised by the international law of human rights as justifying suspension of specific rights and freedoms. The European standards on this matter are extensively analysed, and subsidiary consideration is given to many connected agreements and reports sponsored by international organisations. The introduction asks whether the public danger must always be "officially proclaimed". It then indicates what state organs should be competent to declare an emergency and to what extent their decisions in this respect are liable to effective judicial and political control. On the availability of such checks depends the enforcement of those further safeguards which international bills of rights have set with respect to when a crisis actually prevails. The first Chapter considers the terms whereby the derogation clauses of international charters of human rights refer to emergency situations and draws upon the construction which has been officially given to the relevant provisions. The definition of a public danger may be more or less encompassing and consequently more or less permissive. Thus, the reference in article 4(3)(c) of the European Convention on Human Rights to threats to the "well-being" in addition to threats to the "life" of the community has significantly broadened the scope of emergency exceptions to the freedom from forced or compulsory labour. Under the American Convention on Human Rights, derogatory measures can be taken when a situation "threatens the independence or security of a State Party", and it is demonstrated that this provides no valuable test as to whether a proclamation of emergency corresponds to an actual danger. The same is true of the expression "(threat to) the interests of the people" which appeared in the drafts of both the European Convention and the UN Covenant on Civil and Political Rights. These two agreements, as well as the European Social Charter, condone the taking of derogatory measures wherever the "life of the nation" is endangered, and the meaning of this phrase is studied in the light of the relevant preparatory works and the judicial pronouncements of the European Commission and Court of Human Rights. In the second Chapter, critical sets of circumstances involving revolutionary elements are considered with a view to ascertaining whether they meet the requirements of international bills or rights as regards the nature of the crisis. The main problem which was brought before the European Commission with respect to this matter is raised by the coming to power of an unconstitutional government. Has such a government the right to derogate from the Convention in order to preserve its own existence? An affirmative answer was given in the First Greek Case. Nevertheless, it is submitted that the Report of the Commission on this Case embodies a considerably hardened approach as compared to its earlier case-law. Moreover, on the merits of the Case, the Commission has not stuck to the right question and has overlooked the main element: it has, in fact, decided that on April 21, 1967, no public emergency threatened, the life of the constitutional, rather than the revolutionary, Government of Greece and it has not drawn at all upon the effects of the occurence of the coup itself. Threats to the territorial integrity of Contracting Parties are then shortly discussed and, with particular reference to self-determination, it is shown that most derogation clauses favour the preservation of the status quo. The same would hold good when it comes to threats to democracy as such, whether they be raised lawfully or not. In this connection, the European Commission appears to have qualified the sweeping language that it originally used in the German Communist Party Case. As to duration, finally. Chapter three asks whether the periods just preceding and just following a public danger are themselves covered by the relevant derogatory provisions. Anticipatory proclamations of emergency are invariably accepted as legitimate. All derogation clauses indicate that it is the threat which must be actual and not the hostilities, though these must be imminent. The European Commission has not applied consistently its own views on this matter. Conversely, transitional states of emergency may be acceptable from an economic standpoint, but not in the field of human rights. The difficulty here is to make sure that a crisis has not merely been placed under control and that a withdrawal of derogatory measures will not revive the threat to the life of the nation. This problem, it is submitted, must be treated in conjunction with the determination whether the suspension of rights and freedoms remained "strictly required by the exigencies of the situation". The article concludes that valuable standards have been set on the international plane as to conditions regulating the existence of those public emergencies which condone suspension of human rights. Most of these tend to make sure that the legal conception of a public danger continuously relates to an actual crisis and remains essentially limited in substance and in time. The case is also made for the retention of judicial control over the type of "political" decision involved

La Cour suprême et l'amendement constitutionnel

The decisions rendered last December by the Supreme Court of Canada in Blaikie and Forest and in the Reference concerning the Senate are closely related. They curtail Canadian constitutional amending powers, especially those which were thought to have been repatriated in 1949. The reasons of the Court in these cases are commented upon and their impact is assessed. The author submits that the Supreme Court deviates from the principle of a Constitution similar to that of the United Kingdom. It gives itself too much leeway and not enough to Parliament and legislatures. But at the same time, the Supreme Court appeared to take account of constitutional propriety in construing a power which Ottawa gained unilaterally. The overall result is so favourable to the status quo that it increases the necessity for a fresh pact to be negotiated