The Differential Influences of Career Plateaus on Informal Learning Among R&D Personnel

Drawing on Conservation of Resources theory, this study examined the differential effects of content and structural career plateaus on informal learning among R&D personnel, and the buffering role of perceived career development support.Data were drawn from the 2024 KIRD survey of science and technology personnel, and the analysis covered 967 R&D professionals (620 in public institutes and 347 in private enterprises).The measures were examined through exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses, metric invariance across organization types was established, and the hypotheses were tested with hierarchical regression models including interaction terms.Both content and structural plateaus were negatively associated with informal learning.No evidence emerged that the strength of either association differed by organization type, so the moderating role of organization type was not supported; the subgroup results, in which content plateaus were significant in public institutes and structural plateaus in private enterprises, are reported only as supplementary findings.The interaction with perceived career development support was significant for content plateaus but not for structural plateaus; because the difference between the two interaction coefficients was not tested, the buffering effect is not interpreted as confined to a particular dimension.By confirming a negative association between career plateaus and informal learning, this study extends the scope of career plateau research from attitudes and intentions to the learning activity of employees who stay in their organizations, suggesting that the costs of plateauing may extend beyond visible turnover to lower learning activity among those who stay.