Affiliation:
1. School of Management and Marketing Faculty of Business and Law Curtin University Perth Western Australia Australia
2. School of Law and Business University of Notre Dame Australia Perth Western Australia Australia
3. Management and Organizations Department UWA Business School The University of Western Australia Perth Western Australia Australia
Abstract
AbstractBeing on a career plateau is widely regarded as an undesirable career experience characterised by a lack of individual proactivity, ability, or opportunity for promotion. In this paper, we present an alternative view arguing that some employees may choose to plateau their careers and deliberately forego opportunities for hierarchical progression. Drawing on in‐depth interviews with 75 law enforcement officers in the US and Australia, we explore why they declined a promotion opportunity or elected not to apply for promotion. Drawing on social cognitive career theory, we develop a provisional taxonomy characterised by individual proactivity: self‐initiated and self‐resigned career plateaus. Specifically, we report how the decision to remain on either of these career plateaus is informed by either the low valence accorded to a promoted position or, paradoxically, the reduced self‐efficacy in navigating what is viewed as a flawed promotion system.
Subject
Organizational Behavior and Human Resource Management