Career plateaus occur when employees believe they have no growth opportunities, challenges, or upward mobility within their current organization. Employees in career plateaus often report feeling stuck and dissatisfied, leading to increasing feelings of stress. While typically harmful to the individual, researchers (Ng & Yang, 2024) wanted to better understand the negative effects these plateaus could have on the organization itself.
THE RESEARCH STUDY
The researchers used a three-wave survey design to gather data from 193 participants. At the start of the study, participants provided data on their experience with hierarchical plateaus (e.g., lack of growth opportunity) and content plateaus (e.g., lack of challenge in current work tasks), as well as their own emotion regulation abilities. Three months later, participants were asked to report any negative emotions they were experiencing. Finally, six months after the start of the study, participants reported their participation in counterproductive work behavior against the organization.
Results indicated that both types of career plateaus led to employees experiencing greater levels of negative emotions, and subsequently, greater amounts of counterproductive work behavior. Emotion regulation abilities were able to protect against the harmful effects, but only when employees were experiencing content plateaus, not hierarchical plateaus.
PRACTICAL APPLICATIONS
Most employees like feeling some level of challenge and growth potential in their jobs, so plateaus can be particularly detrimental. To utilize the results of this study, organizations should consider doing the following:
- Establish frequent check-ins with employees to gauge their level of comfort, stress, and desire for new responsibilities or growth.
- Provide training and new job responsibilities for interested employees. This will foster career growth.
- Teach employees and leaders effective coping strategies. This may help them deal with the negative emotions that may arise when facing potential plateaus.
Ng, K., & Yang, W. N. (2024). Feeling stuck and feeling bad: Career plateaus, negative emotions, and counterproductive work behaviors. Human Resource Management Journal, 34, 921-941.
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