Limitations of the Study

To put the findings and conclusions of this study in perspective, it is necessary to outline the limitations to the scope, generalizability, and acceptability of the findings. The first limitation is that the study does not include control variables, such as gender, age, length of the international assignment, return date, and position in the company. Another limitation is that the sample is limited to repatriated employees of IT firms in Bangalore alone, where talent is abundant. Replication of the study in different geographical locations and cultural environments would reveal a more refined picture on repatriates’ turnover intentions.

Managerial Implications and Contribution to the Literature

We have shown that a three-component model of organizational commitment is useful for understanding the turnover intentions for our sample of repatriates, providing support to the view of Burton et al. (2005).The result revealed a significant inverse relationship between affective organizational commitment and turnover intention, which was an important and surprising finding in this study, not because of the uniqueness of finding, as this relationship is well-established in the literature, but due to the finding in the context of repatriated software professionals. The result indicated that repatriated employees tend to feel strong identification with the work itself; this may suggest that they feel a stronger attachment to their profession than to the firm in which they are employed. This level of self-identification with work suggests that dissatisfaction with the job may be more likely to spur them to move elsewhere, especially in light of the many opportunities in the Bangalore setting. The results of this study provide preliminary evidence that knowledge workers are committed to their employing organizations, albeit in a more nuanced manner than that is generally acknowledged. The traditional mechanisms of securing commitment from employees using pay and offers of job security are certainly not sufficient for managing contemporary knowledge workers. MNEs need to have mechanisms in place that will value and support the returning employee.