Individual, Familial, and Organizational Determinants of Career Plateau

Abstract

This article examines the effects of various individual and organizational variables on two measures of career plateau, an objective measure of job stability and a subjective evaluation of having reached a dead end. The study is based on a sample of 2,183 managers from all organizational ranks, representing 41 business establishments and three Canadian economic sectors. The results show wide differences between the variables explaining the fact of having reached a career plateau and the feeling of being in a dead end. The best predictors of objective plateau are objective factors such as past success, age, and education. For the subjective plateau, personal variables such as desire for advancement and personality (locus of control) play the most important role. In both cases, individual factors come out as better predictors of career plateau than familial and organizational factors.