“That's not what I signed up for!” A longitudinal investigation of the impact of unmet expectation and age in the relation between career plateau and job attitudes

Career plateau is often associated with undesirable outcomes, but the reasons for this association remain unclear and the evidence for the effects of plateau has mainly been cross-sectional. The current study adopts a three-wave longitudinal design to explore a potential mechanism of the negative effects of career plateau on job attitudes. Drawing on the psychological contract and careers literature, we hypothesised that unmet expectations would mediate the effects of two key forms of career plateau, namely hierarchical plateau and job content plateau, and that these mediated effects would vary by age. Regression analysis on 110 individuals over an 8-month period revealed only two main effects, with job content plateau associated with lower job satisfaction and higher turnover intentions. However, there were indirect effects of both types of plateau on job satisfaction and turnover intentions, and indirect effects of hierarchical plateau on organisational commitment, via unmet expectations. Although the experience of career plateau was positively related to workers' age, the mediated effects of career plateau on job attitudes were observed irrespective of workers' age. This study contributes to the field by offering a new explanation as to why plateaued individuals develop unfavourable job attitudes, by offering evidence of the longitudinal links between career plateau and job attitudes, and by suggesting that organisations need to be mindful of the damaging effects of career plateau for employees of all ages.