Peculiarities of motivations of IT specialists in crisis conditions

The article analyzes the data of a qualitative research conducted by the authors at the time of the “testing situation”, i.e. the beginning of the SWO and the subsequent anti-Russian restrictions, among IT specialists and technopreneurs who faced a choice: to stay in Russia or to move to another country after their employer (or with their business). As a theoretical basis of the study we used the grad theory of L. Boltanski and L. Teveno, which made it possible to identify appropriate reactions to the resulting “situation-test”, with reasoned criticism and justification, with perceptions of fairness, as well as to identify the main motives contributing to the move or, on the contrary, leading to the refusal of it. The article attempts to identify the relationship between the reaction to the “situation-test” and the action (relocation or refusal of it) that the respondents eventually took. The authors collected 52 research materials, of which 42 were in-depth interviews with IT specialists relocated (22) and those who remained in Russia (20), and another 10 were interviews, statements, posts, and speeches of leading technopreneurs living and working both in Russia and those who moved abroad due to the SWO. As a result of the analysis of the collected data, the authors made the following conclusions: a group of IT specialists, homogeneous by a number of characteristics, is clustered by the type of reactions to the “situation-test”, depending on which the corresponding choice is formed: relocation or refusal of it. This reveals a connection; moreover, depending on the spectrum of reactions, more unambiguous or, on the contrary, blurred in terms of group behavior, choices and actions are observed.

IT specialists, relocation, hail theory, situation-testing