Relations of Career Plateau and Supervisory Support on Career Satisfaction

Introduction

Career plateau is a concept that has been around since twenty years, and not something that has developed in recent years (Ference et al., 1977). As a result of the organizational changes that have taken place within that period, the numbers of employees that are affected by this phenomenon have grown substantially (Trembley and Roger, 1993; Chay et al., 1995) and have spread throughout organizations in a big way that started effecting the majority of the work force around the world in every region (Ongori & Angolla, 2009). Many of the academics that study organizational development and organizational career are arguing more and more that career plateau is turning it no a major issue that is in a dire need to be addressed and managed appropriately to avoid employee dissatisfaction with their jobs and their organizations that they work for (Burke and Mikkelsen, 2006). Overtime, career hierarchy has become more and more horizontal in its shape, making it more and more challenging to go vertically up the career ladder (Jung & Tak, 2008). Which can be referred to as Career Plateau. Career plateau is defined, as “the point at which future career mobility, including both upward and lateral moves, is in reasonable doubt because the length of time in the present position has been unduly prolonged” (Veiga, 1981, p. 566). Various studies addresses the factors that affect the job satisfaction and job plateau for instance challenging environment create positive attitude and more efficient outcome (Slocum et al., 1985; Hall, 1985; Orpen, 1983), However other studies that career plateau can be occurred in different methods depending on the characteristics and type of job and the organization context (Ettington, 1997; Ference et al., 1977; Nicholson, 1993;). In light of study made through Canadian middle management level, explained that career plateau is highly related to the job scope, job ambiguity and the level of involvement in the origination, which can be achieved through management, support (Michel Tremblay & Alain Roger, 2004). To overcome such career obstacles for employees, managers offer to support career development and support for the employees to develop their careers (Erdogan et al., 2004; Heslin, 2005), which also results in increasing their subordinates’ job satisfaction (J.H. Greenhaus, S. Parasuraman, & W.M. Wormley, 1990). It is arguable that employees would not properly handle their own career development without the support of their management (Yarnall, 1998). Thus, managements would make efforts to minimize the chances of career plateau from occurring by supporting their employees’ career development within the organization. Supervisory sponsorship has an important effect on career satisfaction within employees and in turn, on business success (Burke and McKeen, 1997; Fagenson, 1994; Major et al., 1995; Scandura and Schrieshiem, 1994). By doing so, career plateau chances can be reduced, which will positively affect career satisfaction. When employees have an ongoing development in their careers they tend to be more satisfied with their jobs than those who have reached a plateau in their careers (Orpen 1986). Employees that are supported by their management to develop their career could have higher job satisfaction levels than those that do not receive such support from their organization.