Determinants of subjective career plateau

Abstract

Many employees in their mid-career stage experience the career plateau. The plateau is the point in a career where the likelihood of additional hierarchical promotion is very low. Executives, who are practicing in different industries in Sri Lanka, now, have confronted challenge of less promotional opportunities available in the organization. This initially leads them to become plateau with their career and it explicitly influence to decrease job satisfaction and organizational commitment while increasing job stress and labor turnover. The study was aimed at identifying contributing factors of the career plateau and its significance among selected executives in Sri Lanka. The study used survey method, where data were collected through conducting personal interviews using a structured questionnaire. The sample of 172 executives, employed in different industries in Sri Lanka namely, Banking, Insurance, Textiles, Hotel and Tourism, Food Processing and Engineering, in the southern and western province was selected for the study. The impact of Demographic, organizational and job related variables to determine executives' subjective career plateau were measured by multiple regression analysis. Results indicated that respondents' gender, business strategies, supervisory and peer support, employees' motivation to learn and role ambiguity were significantly related to subjective career plateau