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[ 11]
Career Development
International
2/1 [1997] 11–20
© MCB University Press
[ISSN 1362-0436]
Career development in the plateaued organization
Steven H. Appelbaum
Professor of Management, Faculty of Commerce and Administration, Concordia
University, Montreal, Quebec, Canada
Victor Santiago
Canadian National Rail, Montreal, Quebec, Canada
Examines how the hierarchi-
cal organization is withering
away, and with it the function
of a sizeable chunk of the
workforce – the middle man-
ager. Given the current demo-
graphic situation and recent
organizational restructuring,
the shrinking of middle man-
agement positions, and the
linear focus of promotional
programmes is increasingly at
odds with reality. The stark
reality of limited promotional
opportunities is now forcing
individuals in the workplace
to rethink their career plans
and strategy. Some forecasts
suggest there will be one job
for every 20 qualified execu-
tives by the year 2000. Most
middle managers will have
reached their last plateau in
the corporate hierarchy.
Examines why the hierarchi-
cal organization is out and
why the horizontal organiza-
tion is in vogue and the
impact on career plateauing
and career development
strategy of the horizontal
organization. By understand-
ing the phenomenon of career
plateauing as influenced by
flattened organizations, an
individual can begin to look at
career strategies to improve
his/her career opportunities
within or outside the organi-
zation. Offers insights to
determine if one’s career has
reached a “dead-end” and
what course(s) of action can
be taken, by both the individ-
ual and the organization.
Introduction
Today’s workplace is ripe for change. The
hierarchical organization is withering away,
and with it the function of a sizeable chunk of
the workforce – the middle manager[1, p. 48].
Given the current demographic situation and
recent organizational restructuring, the
shrinking of middle management positions,
and the linear focus of promotional
programmes is increasing at odds with real-
ity[2, p. 391]. Insecurity, disorientation and
fear of the future are running through the
workforce like a virus. This is the type of
atmosphere and feelings today’s managers
experience each day, questioning their cur-
rent role in their organization and what, if
any, the future holds for them.
The stark reality of limited promotional
opportunities is now forcing individuals in
the workplace to rethink their career plans
and strategy. By the late 1990s, people of mid-
dle management age will make up 50 per cent
of the workforce. Some forecasts suggest
there will be one job for every 20 qualified
executives by the year 2000. Most middle
managers will have reached their last plateau
in the corporate hierarchy[3, p. D3]. It is
becoming clearer that besides the fear of
losing one’s job, the fear of seeing one’s oppor-
tunities for career advancement diminish
may be the most widespread form of stress in
organizations today[2, p. 387].
Individuals work within organizations.
Consequently, individual career paths and
promotional possibilities are largely deter-
mined by organization structures and behav-
iour. Organizations in turn are influenced by
the “external environment”. This especially
includes demographic developments, over
which both individual and organization deci-
sions effectively have no control[2, p. 388].
Therefore, it is essential to understand
today’s organizational dynamics and what
factors bring about changes in organization
structures that affect individual wellbeing
within the organization. Only by understand-
ing these factors would individuals within
the organization be able to take control of
their career strategy to meet the challenge of
today’s changing environment.
This article examines why the hierarchical
organization is out and why the horizontal
organization is in vogue and its impact on
career plateauing and career development
strategy. By understanding the phenomenon
of career plateauing as influenced by flat-
tened organizations, an individual can begin
to look at career strategies to improve
his/her career opportunities within or out-
side the organization. The current state of the
demographics of baby boomers will demon-
strate the significant impact of career
plateauing and what options, if any, are avail-
able. This article will also offer insights to
determine if one’s career has reached a
“dead-end” and what course(s) of action can
be taken, by both the individual and the orga-
nization.
By examining and adapting behaviour
theories of attribution, expectation and moti-
vation, this article will also attempt to
explain the individual’s different reactions to
gaps between expectations and actual reality
when it comes to diminished opportunities in
today’s organization. An analysis of the rea-
soning processes of individuals within orga-
nizations who are faced with questions of
what to do when their careers have reached a
dead-end will also be addressed.
The shrinking organizations
Research presented in “The new career
strategist”[4] depicted the following schemat-
ics of the traditional organization versus the
future organization (Figure 1). What is quite
evident from this diagram is the reality of the
shrinking core employees in today’s organi-
zation. The trend of using supplemental
employees is on the rise. These are employees
on contract or vouchers who can be dismissed
at any time. Outsourcing is also on the rise
which satisfies an organization’s needs by
simply hiring the services of human
resources who are terminated after comple-
tion of the project. What this means is the
inevitable trend of disappearing core posi-
tions in today’s corporate organizations.
In support of the above findings, the follow-
ing trends affecting corporate life have
[ 12]
prompted downsizing, cutbacks and layoffs[5,
p. 26]:
• increased reliance on technology, automa-
tion and capital investment;
• the emerging importance of employees’
support of the company’s objectives;
• reorganization of tasks and functions to
improve labour efficiency, innovation;
• innovation and productivity improvements
at the operating level.
Because of these “external environments”
and the need to improve market competitive-
ness, corporations are scrambling for an
organization structure that will permit effi-
ciency in their operation. The following is a
mélange of current thinking in search of what
works. What is it like in new organizations?
Power is out; self-management is in. Func-
tions are out; process is in. Horizontal is
definitely in; networks are in again. Hierar-
chies are not completely out, but you can
hardly find them on today’s radical organiza-
tional charts. Indeed, these are likely to be
called process maps and to look like extra-
large pepperoni pizzas instead of the
organizational “wiring diagrams” of yester-
day[6, p. 22].
A McKinsey study in 1986 estimated that
70 per cent of all jobs in Europe in the year
2000 would require cerebral rather than man-
ual skills. In 1988, the Henley Forecasting
Centre claimed the figure for Britain was
already more than 50 per cent. McKinsey also
estimated that one half of these brain-skill
jobs would require the equivalent of a higher
education, or professional qualification. If
that is even approximately true, it means that
some 35 per cent of an age group should today
be entering higher education or its equiva-
lent if the labour force is going to be
adequately skilled in 2000[1, p. 49]. This
study demonstrates that in order to cope
with the changing and shrinking organiza-
tion, the workforce may have to acquire a
new set of skills such as in the form of educa-
tion.
As individual career paths and promotional
possibilities are largely determined by
organization structures and behaviour, one
has to wake up to assess the extent of the
personal impact of external environmental
factors that change organization structures.
It is important to examine the reasons why
the hierarchical organization structure needs
to be flattened and what impact it would have
on individuals’ career development.
Flattening of the pyramid and
career development
In the hierarchical pyramid organization,
information flows from the bottom and
orders flow from the top. This type of organi-
zation is too slow to survive in the fast paced
age of global competition and heavy reliance
on information technology where decision
making must be made timely at the lowest
possible level of the organization. This is not
possible with leptokurtic (tall) pyramidal
organization structures because of the many
levels within the organization before the
decision is rendered at the level with decision-
making ability.
Some examples of emerging organizational
structures are[7, p. 24]:
• inverted pyramid, e.g. Nordstrom;
• wagon wheel, e.g. AT&T Universal Card
Services;
• the cluster, e.g. Aid Association for Luther-
ans (AAL).
Steven H. Appelbaum and
Victor Santiago
Career development in the
plateaued organization
Career Development
International
2/1 [1997] 11–20
Figure 1
Shrinking core employees
Core
employees
Core
employees
Supplemental
employees
Traditional organization Future organization
Supplemental
employees
Outsourced
functions
Outsourced
functions
Source: [4]
[ 13]
The common characteristic of the above
examples of radical changes in
organizational structure is that there are
only a few levels, and decision making is
pushed down to the lowest possible level or
group. The inverted pyramid puts the cus-
tomers on top and the board of directors at
the bottom with decision making encouraged
at the salesperson level in the case of Nord-
strom.
The wagon wheel (AT&T) puts the
customers at the hub and the supporting
functions at the spokes while the outer rim
and wheel are the chief executive and board
of directors to make certain everybody has
everything he or she needs to service the
customer. Finally, the cluster features work
teams depicted on the organizational chart as
interlocking ovals whose members do every-
thing. An example is the AAL where the work
team does life insurance, health insurance,
billing and support which were formerly
handled functionally.
The raison d’être of many contemporary
management theories is to reduce
management by control and replace this with
empowering individuals to make decisions.
The flattening of the organizational struc-
tures now taking place calls for more than
technical skills. Individuals have to diversify,
broaden their range of skills, learn how to
work as an equal member of a team, master
new technologies, welcome responsibilities,
make decisions and be prepared to zigzag
laterally[8, p. 31].
Although some organizations will perhaps
continue to maintain hierarchical structures,
many will adapt to this new reality by slowly
flattening their tall pyramidal organizational
structures. A motivation may be to reduce the
importance of promotions by reducing the
number of hierarchical levels. When there
are fewer levels, less upward movement is
possible and much of the employee’s atten-
tion is directed laterally rather than verti-
cally.
Giant pyramidal structures reached their
peak in the early 1980s[6, p. 22]. Examples of
toppling the pyramid were experienced in
Northern Telecom, Bank of Montreal and
CIBC during the last two to three years[9,
p. 19]. In Northern Telecom, instead of 21 pay
grades, there are only ten with room to boost
salaries up to 75 per cent as a form of recogni-
tion through an increase in pay without hav-
ing to get into the business of formal promo-
tion. Bank of Montreal recently divided the
managerial levels for its corporate, institu-
tional and financial services group into three
broad categories or bands. In doing so, 1,000
employees were affected who will now spend
several years moving laterally from job to job
within a band acquiring a variety of skills,
knowledge and experience necessary to move
to the next band. The focus is growth of the
individuals as opposed to moving up the lad-
der in a vertical sense that will have greater
compensation attached to it. A similar
approach was taken in CIBC in October 1993
when 2,500 jobs were eliminated through
reduction of 35 job grades down to only ten.
These are critical examples to demonstrate
what is happening in today’s organizations
because of external environmental factors. In
other words, individuals are being encour-
aged to give up the myth that the only true
sign of success is to move up the ladder but
rather, to keep in mind a network or a lattice.
An obvious consequence of the flattened
organizational pyramid is career plateauing
because of the increasing number of qualified
and highly skilled employees versus a short-
age of positions. The next section of this arti-
cle on career plateauing will attempt to dis-
cuss the stark reality of limited promotional
opportunities, in particular, the baby boomer
generation. It will attempt to answer ques-
tions such as: What is career plateauing? How
do I know my career has reached a dead-end
or has plateaued? Are there hopes after
career plateauing? What can I do to cope with
career plateauing? What can companies do to
deal with career plateauing?
Career plateauing, a.k.a. careers in a “rut"
A career plateau occurs when, after a period
of consistent career progression within an
organization or several organizations, the
individual’s role takes on a sameness.
Although the norm of five or six years in the
same job is frequently used to measure
whether an individual has reached a career
plateau, research has shown that this varies
depending on the type of plateauing an indi-
vidual is experiencing. Acceptable norms
vary between individuals and organizations
concerning duration of immobility.
The increase in today’s plateaued employ-
ees can be attributed to additional factors
such as flatter organizations; baby boomers
who are holding down positions of responsi-
bility longer; mergers and takeovers causing
lay-offs of managers, resulting in fewer avail-
able, but more competitive, positions; foreign
competition taking jobs away from the North
American workforce; an increase of women
and minorities in the workforce; and the
extension of the mandatory retirement age[6,
p. 35].
Judith Bardwick[10], a psychologist and
management consultant specializing in
plateauing, believes that by far the major
cause of career plateauing, or structural
plateauing as she terms it, is increased
Steven H. Appelbaum and
Victor Santiago
Career development in the
plateaued organization
Career Development
International
2/1 [1997] 11–20
[ 14]
competition for higher level positions in the
face of slower economic growth. Pointing to
dramatic increases in the education and
training of the workforce and management
reductions which have continued into the late
1990s, Bardwick believes there is room at the
top of the organization for only about 1 per
cent of all employees. As a result, she believes
that plateauing is now so widespread as to be
considered a normal career development
stage and that this trend will continue.
Unfortunately, the phrase “career plateau”
has a negative connotation of failure and
defeat. A plateau describes an individual’s
current career status within a particular
organization and does not necessarily imply
cessation of personal growth and career
development. Plateaux may be categorized in
two ways: organizational plateaux and per-
sonal plateaux. People who are organization-
ally plateaued may have the ability to per-
form well in higher level jobs but are unable
to do so owing to the lack of job openings
and/or a management belief that he/she
lacks the required skills. Age may also be a
consideration if the organization decides to
hire younger employees who are assumed to
lead longer useful lives. Actuarial data do not
support these hypotheses proffered by man-
agerial professionals.
Personally plateaued people are seen by the
organization as not desiring a higher level
job. The individuals may be lacking in profes-
sional or technical skills and/or are organiza-
tionally naïve and side-tracked too long in
their present job. Others may simply not
want to be promoted any further even though
they have the ability[11, p. 605].
Assuming the incidence of career plateau-
ing will occur more frequently in the future,
it is important for organizations to determine
what may be done to reduce its negative
impact on employees. As Bardwick notes,
ambition may become an organization liabil-
ity if career plateauing yields extreme frus-
tration, low work involvement, dissatisfac-
tion, and poor performance[10, p. 60].
The baby boomers
Corporate hierarchical structures with a
broad base of entry level positions were well
designed to accommodate wave after wave of
new labour market entrants over the post-war
period, and especially over the 1960s and
1970s. However, over the 1980s they had
become less appropriate as shortages of entry
level workers gradually became more wide-
spread in the economy. Over the later 1990s it
is likely that, unless modified, these struc-
tures will prove to be inadequate for the new
labour force environment. This emerging
mismatching between organization
structures and the labour force is the founda-
tion of recent concern over the promotional
prospects for the large baby boom generation.
While plateauing is inevitable for most
employees, it is occurring sooner for the baby
boomers owing to the large size of the cohort
group[2, p. 388].
According to previous statistics from the
Financial Times[12], it is projected that over
70 per cent of the workforce will be in the 25-
54 age range, comprising mainly individuals
from the baby boomer generation (see Figure
2). With the emergence of horizontal organi-
zations and the flattening of the hierarchical
pyramid, there is significant shortage of
promotional levels to accommodate surplus
of skilled workforce. The baby boomer gener-
ation will find the limited organization ladder
crowded with their colleagues and will be
forced to stay there. The critical questions
now are just how far do baby boomer man-
agers want to go, and how likely are they to
get there? About one-quarter feel that there is
no room to advance with their current
employer, but only one in ten believe that
their career has already reached its peak. At
the same time, two in three managers in this
group believe that they will reach a career
plateau in the next five to six years[13, p. 13].
There are many courses of action for baby
boomers and others that have plateaued in
their jobs to get out of the “rut”. One can no
longer seek upward movements all the time
but rather, one must begin to move sideways
in order to move up. Belasco and Stayer in
Flight of the Buffalo[14] have stated that
employees can no longer function like a herd
of buffalo – loyal, but waiting to get slaught-
ered in the marketplace. Instead, employees
must become like a flight of self-directed
geese, flying in formation[7, p. 23]. Charles
Handy noted in his book, The Age of
Unreason, that those who adapt to change
most comfortably take responsibility for
themselves and their future, visualize that
future clearly, want to ensure they get there
and they believe they will[1, p. 45]. It is
important to examine some of the research on
plateaued employees in order to understand
this emerging paradox.
Near[15] performed a study to deal with
some related and common assumptions peo-
ple have about plateaued employees. For
example, these employees are assumed to
have lower job performance, lower motiva-
tion and satisfaction, lower aspiration, bad
attitudes and behaviour in non-work factors,
and lower ratings of their own job[16, p. 33].
This study found that plateaued managers
worked fewer hours and had higher absen-
teeism than non-plateaued employees. Yet, it
also found that plateaued employees were
Steven H. Appelbaum and
Victor Santiago
Career development in the
plateaued organization
Career Development
International
2/1 [1997] 11–20
[ 15]
neither less motivated nor less satisfied
than their non-plateaued peers. In addition,
they did not have poorer attitudes or
work behaviours. They did, however, rate
their jobs as less challenging and less reward-
ing, and reported much lower career
aspirations.
In another study based on interviews with
200 managers from various firms, Near found
both the plateaued managers and the non-
plateaued managers described their jobs in
similar ways regarding the difficulty, chal-
lenge, time pressures, and benefits[15, p. 75].
Other results demonstrated the plateaued
managers were as likely as the non-plateaued
managers to rate favourably their relations
with co-workers, yet were much more likely
to rate negatively their relations with super-
visors. When asked how they saw themselves
at work, virtually equal numbers of plateaued
and non-plateaued managers felt they were
highly successful, knowledgeable about the
job, and motivated to do their best on the job.
Furthermore, the plateaued managers’ satis-
faction off the job was nearly as high as that
of their non-plateaued managers. A large
percentage of plateaued managers claimed to
be very happy with their current position[15,
p. 77].
Characteristics of the dead-end job
The following is an assembly of various
thought processes on dead-end jobs and
career plateauing to help assess one’s career
status:
1 Are you in a dead-end job?[17, p. 22]:
• Your job responsibilities have not
changed in three or more years.
• You no longer get picked for high-
powered projects or high-profile
committees.
• You have just been passed over for a
promotion or you have been demoted.
• The company’s strategic focus has
shifted, and your function is greatly
de-emphasized.
• You find your work inherently boring
and you suffer greatly from “tune out”
on the job.
• The relationship with your boss and co-
workers is deteriorating.
2 Has your career plateaued?[18, p. 39]:
• Have you permanently lost the desire to
go to work in the morning?
• Is there a lack of challenge in what you
do?
• Are you tested technically, personally,
commercially – or do you consistently
stay within your comfort zone?
• Is the quality of your work stagnating
or even declining?
• Have you stopped attending
professional education seminars?
• Have you stopped thinking about how to
improve your organization’s productiv-
ity?
Steven H. Appelbaum and
Victor Santiago
Career development in the
plateaued organization
Career Development
International
2/1 [1997] 11–20
Figure 2
Age proportion of employees in the workforce
100
90
80
70
60
50
40
30
20
10
0
1986 1991 1996 2000
Per cent
Key
15-24
25-54
55+
Source: [12]
[ 16]
3 The following indicates lack of career
progression within an organization which
contributes to career plateauing[18, p. 40]:
• No recent merit recognition by the com-
pany of your performance (for instance,
promotion within the past three to five
years or a merit salary review with the
last two years).
• Being passed over for promotion in
favour of more junior colleagues.
• Being moved sideways into another role
that does not offer any great personal
challenges.
By understanding career plateauing, know-
ing the plight of the baby boomers and
through self-assessment about one’s current
career situation, one should then use self-
examination to find out whether a career
development strategy is in order.
Career development strategy – who is in
control?
In order to cope with the challenges of dimin-
ished promotional opportunities, baby
boomers and those that have plateaued in
their jobs must first take control of their
career development. It will be crucial to have
a strategy in order to meet the challenges of
today’s ever-changing organization and work-
place.
One must be a strategist and not simply a
planner as differences exist between the
two. Consider the comparison as outlined in
Table I[4].
Today’s planner is generally “boxed-in”
with limited scope and values, highly depen-
dent on the corporate organization structure.
On the other hand, tomorrow’s career strate-
gist “steps out of the box” opening up wider
scope of possibilities and is characterized by
flexibility and personal fulfilment. The locus
of control of today’s career planner leans
heavily on external factors, while for tomor-
row’s career strategist it lies mainly within
the individual.
The research, both historical and current,
suggests the importance of understanding
plateauing from the vantage point of the
employee. For example, since the plateaued
employee frequently blames the supervisor
for the situation, transferring him/her to a
new position may avoid conflict. Alterna-
tively, if a transfer is not feasible, the supervi-
sor may consider enriching the job by adding
variety and challenge. The supervisor may
also help the plateaued employee identify off-
the-job activities to enhance the situation[15,
p. 79].
Top management needs to recognize
plateauing as part of the normal phase of
one’s career and know how to adapt to it.
They should be aware that the plateaued
employee, being older, may be more apt to
suffer health problems and more likely to put
in fewer hours and/or be absent[15, p. 79]. In
addition, if employees feel comfortable about
career plateauing, they will not feel like fail-
ures and will be able to set more realistic
expectations about themselves[16, p. 36]. The
perception of a career plateau affects the
individual’s perception of his or her career
future[19, p. 190]. If an individual believes the
likelihood of future promotions is very low, it
will be that perception and not the eventual
reality of the future that will affect current
attitudes, behaviours and plans for the future.
It was found that the negative effects of a
career plateau were most pronounced when
the plateau was perceived negatively during
Steven H. Appelbaum and
Victor Santiago
Career development in the
plateaued organization
Career Development
International
2/1 [1997] 11–20
Table I
Comparing planners and strategists
Today’s career planners Tomorrow’s career strategists
Assume stable, fixed career paths View career paths as fragmented and subject to change
Equate career success with trophy collecting Equate career success with personal satisfaction
Focus on fixed long-term goals Focus on multiple, short-term objectives
Create a plan that is linear Develop a multi-dimensional plan, clustered around
several objectives that fulfil career needs at a particular
point in one’s life
Believe that goals are age-dependent Believe that goals are independent of age
Develop a plan that is rigid, with goals developed early Create a plan that is flexible, with goals that are
and never re-examined continually reassessed and contingency planning
regarded as essential
Track progress through external career makers Track progress by the degree to which career decisions
satisfy personal needs
Assume that the organizations they work for will chart Assume that they will have to chart their own career
their career direction direction, because they cannot rely on the
organization they work for to do it for them
Source:[4]
[ 17]
the early years of an individual’s job
tenure[19, p. 190].
In general, the way management handles
plateauing has a tremendous impact on the
lives of the plateaued employees and how they
affect the organization. Management must
prevent employees from becoming ineffec-
tive, improve the monitoring so that problems
can be detected early, and manage ineffective
and frustrated managers more effectively[11,
p. 607].
The following are some practical tips
within the control of an individual as com-
piled from various researchers on how to get
out of the “management rut”[20, p. 65]. These
tips are consistent with what a career strate-
gist would do:
• Take charge of your career – look after your
own development and training.
• Zigzag your way to the top. Stop looking
upwards and start looking sideways. Put in
for a lateral transfer, particularly to a rev-
enue-producing department such as cus-
tomer service or marketing. Sniff out new
challenges.
• Feeling plateaued is an indication of your
limited focus. Why not just face the fact that
unlimited promotions are not available and
stop seeing your job as the only definition of
success?
• Dissect your dissatisfaction. Pinpoint spe-
cific causes of frustration – people, projects,
policies? How much are you the problem,
how much the organization?
• Get to know what is happening within your
organization by networking with people to
get familiar with the pulse and direction of
the firm. Let other people know who you
are and what you do.
• Buttonhole your supervisor for an honest
appraisal of what is holding you up. Ven-
ture further afield and talk to subordinates,
peers and superiors. Ask for feedback on
your personal performance.
• Make every effort to get on a problem-solv-
ing team or task force.
• If work teams are not possible, increase
your skills through non-profit and volun-
teer organizations.
• Develop your interpersonal skills.
• Pursue mentoring relationships.
In addition to the above, there are many
things the company can do to assist managers
to get out of the “rut”[21, p. 9]:
• Emphasize challenge over promotion in
defining success.
• Horizontal transfers can add challenge,
responsibility for new assignments.
• Employees must always be allowed to grow
and encouraged to try new things.
• The importance of promotion can be less-
ened by reducing the number of manage-
ment levels in a firm (e.g. examples from
Northern Telecom, Bank of Montreal and
CIBC).
• Companies should guard against their
employees becoming workaholics.
Employees should be encouraged to take
regular holidays and strive for a balanced
lifestyle.
Despite the candid reality of what has been
presented so far on diminished promotional
opportunities, there are indications that baby
boomers and those who have reached a dead-
end in their careers are now beginning to
take control of their careers. The Careers
Project launched in the Spring of 1991 in
Toronto targeting baby boomers in lower and
middle management positions, confirmed
that financial compensation is no longer the
number one concern. Consider some data
from this study depicted in Figures 3 and
4[22].
Steven H. Appelbaum and
Victor Santiago
Career development in the
plateaued organization
Career Development
International
2/1 [1997] 11–20
Figure 3
Important factors in overall job satisfaction
Source [22]
[ 18]
It is interesting to note that the main theme of
overall job satisfaction of baby boomers in
the Careers Project is a sense of personal
achievement (Figure 3). It appears that baby
boomers are mainly concerned now with
personal development and realization of their
potential. Figure 4 shows the areas of effort
by companies in the Careers Project survey
over the next five years. This figure indicates
that even though base salary is no longer the
number one reason for job satisfaction among
baby boomers, income was still ranked high
in today’s company’s effort to meet the needs
of baby boomers. There appears to be a mis-
alignment of today’s company effort and what
is really required to meet the baby boomers’
needs[22]. This is not to say that income is not
important but perhaps, more efforts should
be concentrated on areas in the company that
would promote self-esteem and self-actualiza-
tion.
The Careers Project demonstrated that the
baby boom generation, in all its diversity, is a
resource that Canadian employers cannot
afford to ignore. Its sheer size ensures that it
has a powerful impact on traditional organi-
zational values and responses. If these skilled
managers follow through with their plans to
retire early or pursue other personal goals,
where will Canadian employers find replace-
ments with equivalent experience and educa-
tion? How organizations respond to baby
boomer supervisors and managers today will
dramatically affect Canadian organizations
in the future[13, p. 16].
Recommendations: prescriptions for
management
With sizeable chunks of promotional opportu-
nities disappearing with the flattening of the
organizational pyramid, it is inevitable that
employees will plateau earlier in their
careers unless they take control of their
career development strategy. To do so,
employees’ fears to remain at the status quo
must be greater than the fear to change and
this is the dilemma that confronts most of
today’s baby boomers who must begin the
process of change and start taking control of
their career development strategy. This
challenge begins with an honest self-
appraisal and goal-setting to plot the
course, stepping out of the box and consider-
ing all possibilities, such as moving sideways
in order to move up and growing in the
current job through job enrichment. A
review of the literature and related research
have identified critical factors needed to
meet the challenge of managing career
plateauing.
Hall’s research in career plateauing in
declining organizations concluded that criti-
cal factors such as structural career opportu-
nities, intrinsic job rewards and recognition
were necessary to mitigate the effects of a
plateau. More specifically, it was felt that it is
important to move the mature professional to
a job which enables their experience, matu-
rity and skill which have been developed over
the years to be put into practice. Doing more
applied, generalist work would provide more
feedback, more sense of task identity, more
variety and more feeling of task significance,
all of which are critical in enriching a job[23,
p. 285]. This research identified a dozen meth-
ods which management could use to “grow”
managers with broad, transferable skills.
The following list provides viable
strategies to prevent ineffective plateaued
employees[23, pp. 285-9]. Borrowing from Hall
Steven H. Appelbaum and
Victor Santiago
Career development in the
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Figure 4
Areas of effort over the next five years
Source:[22]
[ 19]
and others has helped to crystallize and
develop the following 12 recommendations for
organizations to consider seriously:
1 Policies facilitating lateral, cross-functional
moves. Moving people laterally can pre-
vent content plateauing. Content plateau-
ing occurs when people perform the same
set of activities over a period of years and
become bored with the routine as little
learning takes place. One possible method
of moving people laterally is by employing
a version of the Hay Compensation Sys-
tem, which assigns a certain range of
points to each job classification. Allowing
people who elect to move laterally to retain
their Hay points and salary makes the
move easier[16, p. 36].
2 Legitimize and promote slow career
advancement. Slower advancement takes
the employees’ attention off future jobs
and helps them focus on the present job,
present job mastery and the growth of
skills.
3 Job redesign and training. Corporate
career-planning programmes can be devel-
oped to train managers to design creative
ways to add new responsibilities, activities
and rewards to present jobs. Activities
such as mentoring, service on interdepart-
mental committees, task forces, and prod-
uct teams can be extremely skill-enhanc-
ing.
4 Skill-based (not position-based) career
paths. This involves creating job
sequences which move the person up
through positions which demand succes-
sively higher levels of skill. When the per-
son reaches the mastery level in one
sequence or path, he/she starts again at
the bottom of another job area. As people
move over to new functions, they are expe-
riencing career growth, even though they
may be taking a temporary demotion.
5 Create more “project-type” jobs. The project
management job design is an ideal way to
meet both the organization’s needs for
flexibility and the individual’s need for
broad-based career experiences. The pro-
ject design can draw people from all levels
of the organization and pay can be based
on the project’s needs and resources rather
than on formal position level.
6 Periodic rotation of technical specialists. A
specialist could be rotated from one spe-
ciality area to another to develop new
skills and provide challenge and variety.
This does not mean retraining in an
entirely new speciality, but in one where
the person will develop the new skills
naturally.
7 Temporary moves. A temporary assign-
ment in a different position, such as filling
in for an employee who is sick or on vaca-
tion or a short developmental assignment,
gives a person exposure to a new area or
the ability to explore a possible permanent
move.
8 Downward moves. Properly planned down-
ward moves can be useful developmental
activities. A move may help employees
overcome being stuck in a dead-end career
path, or make a cross-functional move less
risky (since the new job would have less
responsibility). In addition, a downward
move may move a poor performer back
down to a level where he/she previously
experienced success.
9 Facilitating job switches. Job switches are
when two people trade jobs for a specified
period of time. Job switching allows for
new learning, challenge and variety and is
not costly if the salary grade from the
person’s original position is kept.
10 Loaned employees. Loaning employees
from one department to another (from one
overstaffed department to one
understaffed department) allows employ-
ees to learn new skills and eliminates the
need to lay off people where there is over-
staffing.
11 Put pay in person, not position. Pay raises
must be based on performance and growth
of skills, not on position. It is important
that employees learn the value of career
success through increased job responsibil-
ities rather than moves up the corporate
ladder. This may lessen resistance to lat-
eral and even downward movement. In
addition, management can use rewards
other than promotions and money to moti-
vate the solid citizen. Rewards such as
putting a person’s picture in the company
newspaper or permitting the person to
attend an executive development
programme may prove to be of tremendous
emotional support to the solid citizen[16, p.
37].
12 Give honest feedback. Managers owe their
employees honest assessments of their
strengths and liabilities and opportunities
to correct their weaknesses. A common
symptom of plateaued workaholics is
increasing the amount of time they work
and their effort because they do not know
what else to do. Unfortunately, this effort is
not usually rewarded in terms of money or
promotion. As they are frantically busy,
their pace usually leads to stress, burn-out
or depression[16, p. 37].
Most importantly, as mentioned in the studies
above, managers must understand their
employees’ situations. Individuals who are
organizationally plateaued because of lack of
Steven H. Appelbaum and
Victor Santiago
Career development in the
plateaued organization
Career Development
International
2/1 [1997] 11–20
[ 20]
job openings may thrive on managerial job
enrichment efforts. Including them in pro-
jects which can benefit from their experience
may allow them to stay productive and happy
in their present position. Yet, the same
approach might overwhelm managers who
are personally plateaued because their abili-
ties are being utilized fully in their present
job[11, p. 605].
Economic and skill projections suggest that
career plateauing will become an increas-
ingly familiar experience for individuals in
the late 1990s. It is also likely that the nega-
tive effects of plateauing such as frustration,
dissatisfaction, low motivation and perfor-
mance will increase in frequency. By follow-
ing these learning points, management can
ensure that their employees are informed
about career plateauing and may be able to
reduce many of its negative effects.
Why would an organization worry about all
of this anyway? After all, is not a company
primarily concerned with making money for
its shareholders? The answer is that a quality
workforce is in the best long-term interests of
the shareholders. In the long run, respecting
and caring for the individual is what sets
successful companies apart from unsuccess-
ful ones[16, p. 9].
References
1 “The human organization”, Management,
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2 Foot, D.K. and Venne, R., “Population, pyra-
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3 “Younger worker can expect to find corporate
ladders becoming crowded”, Montreal Gazette,
15 March 1989, p. D3.
4 Purdie, J., “The new career strategist”, The
Futurist, September-October 1994, pp. 8-14.
5 Purdie, J., “Recession’s end will transform
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6 Galagan, P., “Beyond hierarchy: the search for
high performance”, Training & Development,
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7 Austin, N.K., “Reorganizing the organization
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8 “Getting set for brave new world in the work-
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9 Luckow, D., “Moving up by moving sideways”,
Financial Times of Canada, 10-16 April 1993,
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10 Bardwick, J.M., The Plateauing Trap, Bantam
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11 Ference, T.P., Stoner, J.A.F. and Warren, E.K.,
“Managing the career plateau”, Academy of
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12 “Farewell youth”, Financial Times of Canada,
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13 Rogers, J., “Baby boomers and their career
expectations”, Canadian Business Review,
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14 Belasco, J.A. and Stayer, R.C., Flight of the
Buffalo, Warner Books, New York, NY, 1993,
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15 Near, J.P., “Reactions to the career plateau”,
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16 Slocum, J.W., Cron, W.L. and Yows, L.C.,
“Whose career is likely to plateau?”, Business
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17 “Are you in a dead-end job?”, Personnel Jour-
nal, March 1995, p. 22.
18 “Career development, on the plateau”, CGA
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19 Chao, G.T., “Exploration of the conceptualiza-
tion and measurement of career plateau: a
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ment, Vol. 16 No. 1, 1990, pp. 181-93.
20 Furlong, C., “Unstuck”, BCB Business
Magazine, July 1993, pp. 63-7.
21 Stanley, W., “Managing plateauing”, The
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22 “The Careers Project, Spring 1991”, Canadian
Business Review, Spring 1993.
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career plateauing in a declining engineering
organization”, Human Resource Management,
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Steven H. Appelbaum and
Victor Santiago
Career development in the
plateaued organization
Career Development
International
2/1 [1997] 11–20
