Going beyond career plateau: Using professional plateau to account for work outcomes

Prior research has used career plateau to account for employees’ work outcomes. Owing to recent de‐emphasis on organizational careers, however, employees may have changed their attitudes toward career plateau. This research argues that professional plateau—defined as the point where employees find their jobs unchallenging and that they provide few opportunities for professional development and future employability—can enhance the explanation for employees’ work outcomes. The major hypothesis of this research is that professional plateau will account for a significant variance in three work outcomes—namely, career satisfaction, job satisfaction, and turnover intentions. Data collected from a questionnaire survey were used to test the hypotheses in this research. The results show that professional plateau accounted for a significant variance in the three work outcomes. The results are significant because they add another dimension to our understanding of plateau.