The Effects of Career Plateau on Job Satisfaction,Organizational Commitment and Turnover Intentions

Abstract

A number of theoretical models suggested that continued constant mobility is an important source of satisfaction and motivation.It has been shown that the perception of mobility have an influence on employee attitudes about his job and organization.Since Ference put forward career plateau,a lot of literature about career plateau had come forth.Many researchers in the field focused on the effects of career plateau on work attitudes,such as job satisfaction,organizational commitment,performance,work involvement and intention to quit.But the literature in this area includes a multitude of contradictory conclusions about the attitudes of those who have attained career plateau and those who have not.With development of Chinese society,career plateau is becoming an important task of organizational career management.But,the empirical study on consequences of career plateau is scarcity in Chinese culture.Hence,our study focuses on three possible consequences of career plateau: job satisfaction,organizational commitment and intention to quit,using the method of quantitative research. Career plateau questionnaire was developed by ourselves.It was composed of three dimensions: hierarchal plateau,content plateau and inclusive plateau.The instruments which measured employee's work attitudes included Minnesota satisfaction questionnaire,organizational commitment questionnaire and turnover intention questionnaire.Sampling has been carried out twice.The 219 valid data from 4 different enterprises was collected,in order to develop career plateau questionnaire by using the exploratory factor analysis.The 288 samples from 4 different enterprises was collected,in order to test the validate and reliability of career plateau questionnaire.The relationship between job satisfaction,organizational commitment and turnover intention was analyzed,based on the 288 samples. The results indicated:(1) hierarchal plateau had no effect on job satisfaction and organizational commitment,but could increase the likelihood of turnover.However,the relationship between hierarchal plateau and turnover intention was moderated by organizational tenure.(2) content plateau had negative effect on job satisfaction,organizational commitment.Moreover,it also could increase the likelihood of turnover.(3) inclusive plateau had negative effect on job satisfaction and organizational commitment,but no effect on turnover intention significantly. The primary theoretical contribution of the research is that career plateau was proved to have a significant impact on work attitudes of employees in the context of Chinese culture.The second theoretical contribution of the research is that clarified the specific relationship between career plateau and job satisfaction,organizational commitment and turnover intention,providing a theoretical guidance for the organizational career management.