R&D professionals' reactions to the career plateau: Mediating effects of supervisory behaviours and job characteristics

Abstract

A career plateau is defined as that point in a person's career which represents a cessation of both lateral and upward movement between jobs. The present study elaborates the idea that a fuller understanding of individual reactions to the career plateau can be achieved by considering supervisory behaviours and job characteristics as variables transmitting the influence of career plateauing to behavioural and attitudinal reaction measures. It is suggested that supervisors invest less attention and resources in plateaued employees and that plateaued employees are assigned to jobs with less motivating potential. Analyses of questionnaire data from 618 R&D professionals in 11 large West German firms show that there are significant differences between plateaued R&D professionals (i. e. those subjects with at least 10 years of job tenure) and a nonplateaued comparison group (i. e. respondents with not more than 6 years of job tenure) controlling for age as a potential confounding influence. Specifically, plateaued R&D professionals indicate less working hours, to be less satisfied with their career and their work, to be less involved in their work, and they tend to produce less publications and patents per year of company tenure. Furthermore, considerable differences are found between one's immediate supervisor's behaviours (e. g. provision of job‐related performance feedback) reported by plateaued professionals and their non‐plateaued counterparts. However, even after controlling the mediating effects of supervisory behaviours and job characteristics variables plateauing still had a small, but significant detrimental effect on 3 out of 6 reaction measures. Implications are outlined for organizational career management activities.

Career plateauing: reactions and moderators among managerial and professional employees

“…Individuals who perceive blocked promotional opportunities may decide to invest their time and energies in nonwork pursuits. As previously noted, findings on the effect of career plateauing on job satisfaction are mixed, with some researchers reporting non-plateaued employees to be more satisfied than plateaued employees (Gerpott and Domsch, 1987;Veiga, 1981) while others report non-significant differences (Near, 1985;Slocum et al, 1985). Chao (1990) reported a negative relationship between career plateauing and the intrinsic and extrinsic facets of job satisfaction.…”

“…Therefore, it should be expected that individuals who perceive career plateauing will be negatively committed to their organizations. Job involvement, measured in terms of number of hours worked per week, has been shown to be negatively related to career plateauing (Gerpott and Domsch, 1987). Individuals who perceive blocked promotional opportunities may decide to invest their time and energies in nonwork pursuits.…”

Le plafonnement de carrière

“…Certains auteurs présentent le plafonnement de carrière comme le moment où la probabilité d'obtenir une affectation verticale (Evans et Gilbert 1984 ;Ference, Stoner et Warren 1977 ;Veiga 1981) ou horizontale (Hall 1985 ;Slocum et al 1985) dans un avenir rapproché est faible, alors que d'autres réfèrent plutôt à l'absence effective et définitive de mobilité (Gerpott et Domsch 1987 ;Near 1985). Ainsi, pour de nombreux spécialistes, le plafonnement de carrière renvoie sans équivoque à une conception centrée exclusivement sur la dimension hiérarchique et, de façon plus précise, à la cessation de la mobilité verticale intra ou interorganisationnelle.…”

“…Le sexe constituerait aussi un déterminant du plafonnement (Beehr et Juntunen 1990) et, dans le secteur public, les femmes auraient plus de chances d'être plafonnées que leurs collègues masculins (Rinfret et Lortie-Lussier 1993). Par ailleurs, le niveau de scolarité des individus plafonnés serait inférieur à celui des individus non plafonnés (Gerpott et Domsch 1987 ;Near 1983 ;Garavan et Coolahan 1996a, 1996b. L'environnement familial pourrait aussi agir sur les décisions de carrière et, par voie de conséquence, sur la mobilité (Garavan et Coolahan 1996a, 1996b.…”

“…L'utilisation de cette mesure continue du plafonnement de carrière tient compte de certaines critiques adressées aux recherches traditionnelles qui traitent le plafonnement comme une réalité dichotomique, c'est-à-dire « être ou ne pas être en situation de plafonnement » (Chao 1990). La vision statique du plafonnement fait donc place à une conception dynamique et évolutive dans le temps (Bardwick 1986 ;Chao 1990 ;Gerpott et Domsch 1987) qui permet de mesurer le degré de plafonnement perçu par les cadres et professionnels de la ville. Le coefficient alpha de Cronbach relatif à cette mesure est de 0,77.…”