Antecedents of heavy work investment: a qualitative study among Indian IT professionals

Purpose This research aims to explore the antecedents of heavy work investment (HWI) based on the subjective experiences of IT professionals working in the Indian IT sector. Design/methodology/approach Semi-structured interviews of 38 Indian employees working in the IT industry were conducted. These participants were purposively selected from a diverse sample based on their work investment. A thematic analysis was used to understand the Indian IT professionals’ experiences to identify the antecedents of HWI in the context of Indian IT industry. Findings Based on the qualitative investigation, this study proposes a research model highlighting the antecedents of HWI in the Indian IT industry. Thematic analysis using NVivo resulted in 480 zero-order codes, 64 first-order codes, 25 subthemes and 10 main themes. These 10 identified themes were further categorised into employee-level, job-level and organisational-level antecedents based on the similarities. Originality/value The novel contribution of this study is that it addresses theoretical, contextual and methodological gaps by verifying the relevance of existing antecedents of HWI. Furthermore, this study proposed a research model that unveils the antecedents of HWI through qualitative inquiry in the Indian IT context, which will guide future researchers for its empirical validation.