I get a kick out of reading academic articles as the conclusions of their studies often seem to be just plain common sense. For example, one such article I recently read is: “The relationship between career plateauing, employee commitment and psychological distress: the role of organizational and supervisor support” (International Journal of Human Resource Management, Vol. 20, No. 5, May 2009).
Here’s a remark made early on in the article: “plateauing may have harmful consequences for both the employee and the organization”. Gosh, really?! 😉 Yeah, I know, academic research has to be rigorous and all that. But still.
I’ll summarize some of the article’s key points and then offer some of my own observations and opinions.
The authors note that employees who have plateaued in their career are generally still solid performers. Therefore, “managers, because of their limited resources, tend to concentrate their attention on the organization’s rising stars and problem employees. As a result, most plateaued employees, who generally continue to perform well at work, are pushed aside.” And though it may not be intentional, “the resulting sense of abandonment could be a source of declining motivation and psychological distress.”
They go on to describe two forms of career plateauing: structural (or hierarchical) plateauing, when an employee has low likelihood of vertical advancement (and possibly horizontal as well), and content plateauing, “which occurs when individuals have mastered their work and feel it no longer offers opportunities for learning or challenge.” Then they state what to me seems obvious, that “plateauing has generally always been associated with negative consequences. Among other things, it has been linked negatively to employee satisfaction at work, affective commitment to the organization, work performance and psychological well-being.” In other words, if you feel you’ve hit a plateau in your career, then you’re going to be a stressed, unhappy, emotionally disconnected and disengaged employee. Surprise, surprise!
They hypothesize that career plateauing (structural and content) are negatively related to employees’ perception of supervisor (manager) and organization support. In other words, generally speaking, an employee experiencing plateauing perceives less support from his or he manager. He or she may blame the supervisor for unfair performance reviews or preferential treatment of other team members. As well, “employees experiencing hierarchical or content plateauing have often been left out in the cold by the organization” (or so they feel). In this case they may blame downsizing or company policies (e.g. outsourcing) for example.
I would suggest that in addition to content and structural plateauing, we might add what I’ll call compatibility plateauing, which can result from the first two. That is, an employee who finds herself stuck in her career because she feels there’s no chance of upward mobility or that her current job is stagnant and has “become routine and no longer offer opportunities or challenges”, may opt for a lateral move (often without fully thinking it through) to a new role in the company because of the desire for change. (The grass is always greener on the other side of the fence. 😉 Then over time, she realizes that her real interests and passions actually lie elsewhere.
When faced with career plateauing, what can an employee do? What factors enter into their thinking and ultimately, their decision-making process? This is outside the scope of the article, but there are some obvious considerations such as age, internal and external opportunities, willingness to retrain, etc. For me personally, my (positive) relationship with my manager and team has a strong weighting (i.e. commitment, loyalty) on any decision I would make, which unfortunately, only adds to the stress. My wife reminded me of another factor: how much self-definition and significance do I derive from my career? Especially in relation to family, friends, health, volunteering, hobbies, etc. A good question that I can’t give a simple answer to.
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