An empirical investigation of the impacts of career plateacing

Three hundred randomly selected mid-level rehab managers received a questionnaire regarding their attitudes towards career advancement in the context of other job factors. The questionnaire consisted of 37 items representing ten job factors. A total of 57 usable questionnaires were returned. The study is important because it empirically tests the impacts of career plateauing on mid-level managers of public programs. The recent literature has identified the narrowing potential for advancement in bureau-cratic pyramids as a potentially demotivating factor for those pleateaued at the mid level. The literature further proposes special programs (such as job enrichment and enlargement, flextime schedules, ten month work years and sabbatical leaves) to counter the impacts of pleateauing. The data were Q factor analyzed, which resulted in a three factor matrix that explained 64.4 percent of the variance. The findings revealed that our respondents are by-in-large satisfied with their jobs, although the sources of their satisfaction are variable.