Hierarchical plateau and turnover intention of employees at the career establishment stage

Abstract

Purpose Applying the theory of work adjustment (TWA), the purpose of this paper is to investigate whether the effect of hierarchical plateau on the turnover intention of employees at the career establishment stage is mediated by job satisfaction and moderated by person-job fit. Design/methodology/approach A survey method was used and data were collected from 248 Chinese employees at the career establishment stage. Hierarchical regression analysis and moderated mediation analysis were used to test the hypotheses. Findings The results demonstrated that hierarchical plateau was positively related to the turnover intention of employees at the career establishment stage and that job satisfaction played a mediating role in the relationship. Person-job fit moderated the relationship between hierarchical plateau and job satisfaction, and the indirect effect of hierarchical plateau on turnover intention via job satisfaction. Originality/value This research offers new insights into the links between hierarchical plateau and employees’ work attitudes and withdrawal behaviour within the TWA. The results suggest that managers can lessen the negative effects of hierarchical plateau on employees’ attitudes and withdrawal behaviour by improving employees’ overall person-job fit.

The Mediating Influence of Fit Perceptions in the Relationship Between Career Adaptability and Job Content and Hierarchical Plateaus

“…When employees find their jobs challenging, they are likely to exhibit high performance (Kristof-Brown et al, 2005), seen as promotable (Hoobler, Wayne, & Lemmon, 2009), and consequently experience less hierarchical plateau. Indeed, in a recent study, Xie, Xin, and Bai (2016) reported an association between person–job fit and hierarchical plateau, but in this study, person–job fit was measured with a single item. Hypothesis 3: Demands-ability fit will mediate the relationship between career adaptability and (a) job content plateau and (b) hierarchical plateau. …”

“…The job becomes routine, boring, and unchallenging (Allen et al, 1999). In general, previous research has reported that plateaus are negatively related to job satisfaction (e.g., Chao, 1990; Jung & Tak, 2008), organizational commitment (Jung & Tak, 2008; McCleese & Eby, 2006), task performance (Stout, Slocum, & Cron, 1988), and citizenship behaviors (Hurst et al, 2017) and positively related to absenteeism (Near, 1985), turnover intentions (Xie et al, 2015; Xie, Xin, & Bai, 2016), and turnover (e.g., Veiga, 1981).…”

“…Using Kristof’s (1996) finer measures of needs–supply fit and demands–ability fit, Guan et al (2013) reported career adaptability to be related to both types of fit perceptions, but they did not study the effect of fit perceptions on plateauing. Xie et al (2016) reported an association between person–job fit and hierarchical plateau. They used a single-item measure of person–job fit and did not include career adaptability as an independent variable (IV).…”

Career plateau: A review of 40 years of research

“…Such claims stem from the evidence that satisfaction is highly predictive of job performance and other attitudinal variables such as turnover intentions(Judge, Thoresen, Bono, & Patton, 2001;Tett & Meyer, 1993). For example,Armstrong-Stassen and Ursel (2009) andXie et al (2016) both found that satisfaction was a mediator of the effects of job content, but not hierarchical plateau, on intention to remain in the organisation. More recently,Hurst et al (2017) demonstrated that job satisfaction mediated the relationship between job content plateau and organisational citizenship behaviour (as a form of job performance) among hospital workers.…”

Entrepreneurial Leadership and Turnover Intention of Employees: The Role of Affective Commitment and Person-job Fit

“…Edwards [52] defined person-job fit as the match between personal skills and vocational requirements, or as the match between personal requirements and vocational characteristics. Person-job fit indicates the correspondence between job reinforcement system and need system of the individual [53]. Hence, person-job fit is an important concept both for employees and recruiters.…”