Indian IT survey links customized job deals to careers and quitting intentions

A structured survey of 560 employees in India’s information and technology industry found that customized arrangements for tasks and work responsibilities were positively associated with career sustainability and negatively associated with intention to quit. The statistical model also identified adaptive performance as a mediating mechanism linking these individualized employment arrangements to career outcomes, while psychological contract breach moderated the strength of the relationship between customized deals and adaptive performance. Researchers examined task and work-responsibility idiosyncratic deals, abbreviated in the study as T&WRID, and tested a model based on the conservation of resources theory.

The analysis considered relationships among T&WRID, adaptive performance, career sustainability and intention to quit, with adaptive performance serving as a mediator and psychological contract breach serving as a moderator. The reported results indicate that T&WRID positively influenced the model’s estimate of career sustainability and significantly reduced the model’s estimate of intention to quit. Adaptive performance mediated the association between individualized deals and career sustainability, and the pathway was also associated with lower intention to quit.

The moderation result means that the relationship between T&WRID and adaptive performance was not uniform across employees. Psychological contract breach changed how strongly customized task and responsibility arrangements were related to adaptive performance, and this conditional relationship extended to the downstream links with career sustainability and intention to quit. It therefore supports the presence of the modeled relationships and the moderating role of psychological contract breach, but not a claim that customized arrangements benefit every employee equally.

Data were gathered from 560 respondents employed in the Indian IT industry, and the researchers analyzed the survey results using partial least squares structural equation modeling, identified as PLS-SEM 4.0. As a result, the findings are survey-based associations within the specified population and model; they do not establish that introducing customized jobs directly causes longer careers, actual retention or reduced turnover. The practical implications proposed by the authors are for organizations and human-resources practitioners to consider flexible job arrangements and strategies for developing adaptive performance when seeking more sustainable working careers and lower turnover intentions, while accounting for the boundary condition represented by psychological contract breach.

Subject of Research: Survey analysis of customized job arrangements, adaptive performance, career sustainability and quitting intentions among Indian IT employees

Article Title: The influence of idiosyncratic deals, adaptive performance and psychological contract breach on career sustainability and intention to quit

Article References: Kumari, A., Khan, M., & Agarwal, P. (2026). The influence of idiosyncratic deals, adaptive performance and psychological contract breach on career sustainability and intention to quit. Discover Sustainability. https://doi.org/10.1007/s43621-026-04730-4

Image Credits: AI Generated

DOI: 10.1007/s43621-026-04730-4

Keywords: Indian IT industry, idiosyncratic deals, adaptive performance, career sustainability, quitting intentions, psychological contract breach, structured survey, structural equation modeling, employee turnover intentions, influence, idiosyncratic, deals