Elsevier

Journal of Vocational Behavior

Volumes 95–96, August–October 2016, Pages 1-10
Journal of Vocational Behavior

The relationship between career adaptability and job content plateau: The mediating roles of fit perceptions

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jvb.2016.06.001Get rights and content

Highlights

  • Career adaptability (CA) negatively related to job content plateau (JCP).

  • CA positively related to person-job (P-J) fit and person-organization (P-O) fit.

  • P-J fit and P-O fit negatively related to JCP.

  • P-J fit and P-O fit mediated the relationship between CA and JCP.

  • Women had a stronger indirect effect of CA on JCP via P-J fit than men.

Abstract

This study is the first to test career adaptability as an antecedent of the job content plateau. Based on career construction theory and person-environment fit theory, it examined the mediating effects of person-job fit and person-organization fit on the relationship between career adaptability and the job content plateau. Results from 270 full time workers showed that employees with higher levels of career adaptability were less likely to experience job content plateaus. Partial mediating effects were found for both person-job fit and person-organization fit. Specifically, career adaptability firstly led to increased person-job fit and person-organization fit, which in turn resulted in decreased job content plateaus. Additional analyses showed that the mediating effect of person-job fit was stronger for female than for male employees. This study identified a new antecedent (i.e., career adaptability) of the job content plateau and revealed the functional mechanism underlying the effect of this antecedent. It offers innovative and useful insights for career management practice.

Introduction

The career plateau perceived by employees has been a growing source of organizational concern (Allen et al., 1999, Hofstetter and Cohen, 2014). Considerable evidence indicates that reaching a career plateau may result in negative consequences, such as decreased job and career satisfaction (Chang, 2003, McCleese and Eby, 2006), reduced organizational commitment (McCleese & Eby, 2006), unsatisfactory performance (Stout, Slocum, & Cron, 1988), and increased intention to quit (Hofstetter & Cohen, 2014). The career plateau was traditionally defined as a point in one's career beyond which promotion becomes highly unlikely (Ference, Stoner, & Warren, 1977), followed by Feldman and Weitz's (1988) extension of the connotation of little likelihood of obtaining assignments of increased responsibility. This traditional view focuses on a hierarchical (or structural) plateau, which concerns employees' vertical movement in the organization (Allen et al., 1999, Bardwick, 1986) and has been dominantly studied in the career plateau literature (Armstrong-Stassen, 2008, Xie et al., 2015). However, advances in research suggest that in addition to experiencing a hierarchical plateau, employees may also experience the job content plateau, which occurs when employees are no longer challenged by work or job responsibilities (Bardwick, 1986).

Recent scholars point out that our currently changing business environments (e.g., the popularity of boundary-less careers and unpredictability of organizational downsizing and restructuring) have made understanding and addressing the job content plateau particularly important (Hofstetter and Cohen, 2014, McCleese and Eby, 2006). There is also research suggesting that the job content plateau is related to more negative employee attitudes and, compared to the hierarchical plateau, can be more detrimental to the organization (Allen, Poteet, & Russell, 1998). Emerging efforts thus have been devoted to exploring various antecedents of the job content plateau to identify useful strategies for solving issues caused by this type of plateau. For example, research has identified antecedents such as tenure, education, personality, work centrality, mentoring, supervisory and coworker support, and perceived respect (Armstrong-Stassen, 2008, Hofstetter and Cohen, 2014). Despite this informed evidence, our knowledge of the factors influencing the job content plateau is limited because the current literature has largely overlooked some important characteristics associated with the resolution of the career plateau (Hofstetter & Cohen, 2014). For instance, the process of coping with the job content plateau involves self-regulating one's own psychological states to resume positive attitudes toward job or career duties (McCleese et al., 2007, Milliman, 1992). This perspective suggests that personal factors that reflect self-regulatory competences may provide a relatively new lens through which to study the job content plateau.

The present study aims to advance this area by examining career adaptability as an antecedent of the job content plateau. Career adaptability involves self-regulatory capacities in career development (Savickas & Porfeli, 2012) and is regarded as a psychosocial construct that resides at people's interactions with the environment and reflects their psychological resources for dealing with work and career challenges (Savickas, 1997). It involves a range of “attitudes, competencies, and behaviors that individuals use in fitting themselves to work that suits them” (Savickas, 2013, p. 45). Such attributes of career adaptability may facilitate individuals in overcoming career plateaus. The current study also examines the mechanisms of the relationship between career adaptability and the job content plateau by testing the mediating effects of person-environment fit perceptions (i.e., person-job fit and person-organization fit). The person-environment fit perspective is chosen because career development is driven by dynamic adaptation to one's associated environments with an emphasis on person-environment congruence (Guan et al., 2013, Savickas, 2005), and also because the career plateau is argued to be a person-environment interaction process (Hall, 1987). Specifically, drawing on career construction theory (Savickas, 1997, Savickas, 2005), it is proposed that career adaptability allows employees better to fit into their jobs and organizations, which in turn, based on person-environment fit theory (Edwards, Caplan, & Van Harrison, 1998), reduces the likelihood of experiencing the job content plateau.

In summary, the present study examines the relationship between career adaptability and the job content plateau, with a focus on the mediating roles of person-job fit and person-organization fit. It contributes to the literature in two ways. First, this study examines a new antecedent of the career plateau. Although the importance of career adaptability in the career development process is well acknowledged (e.g., Sibunruang et al., 2016, Urbanaviciute et al., 2014), how it may influence career plateau issues, particularly the job content plateau, is not known. The exploration of career adaptability as a potential antecedent of the job content plateau serves as a basis for identifying new approaches to understand and address employees' plateau status in the career development journey. It also further affirms the broad applicability of career adaptability in solving career-related obstacles and bottlenecks. Second, this study investigates the mediation effects of person-environment fit perceptions. The career construction theory (Savickas, 1997, Savickas, 2002, Savickas, 2005), along with its associated theoretical and empirical models (e.g., Hirschi et al., 2015, Tolentino et al., 2014), assert the interrelations between career adaptive, adaptability, and adapting. The present study extends this theory and relevant models by establishing an integrative framework of career adaptability, fit perceptions, and job content plateau to highlight the mechanism through which adaptability strengths can lead to adapting responses. For instance, it offers deeper insights regarding the process by which the role of career adaptability (a reflection of adaptability strength) can be transmitted to cope with the job content plateau (a reflection of adapting response).

Career construction theory (Savickas, 1997, Savickas, 2002, Savickas, 2005) suggests that individuals continuously adapt themselves to the environment through self-regulation and, in this process, actively build careers and work lives by imposing meaning on vocational behaviors. In career development, individuals develop various psychological resources to effectively cope with career-related tasks, transitions, traumas, and obstacles (e.g., career plateaus). Based on this theory, Savickas (1997) initiated the concept of career adaptability and defined it as the “readiness to cope with the predictable tasks of preparing for and participating in the work role and with the unpredictable adjustments prompted by changes in work and working conditions” (p. 254). Consistent with this definition, Savickas and Porfeli (2012) further explain that career adaptability resources are dynamic and changing self-regulatory capabilities over time and across situations, rather than stable traits. They have verified that career adaptability is a higher-order hierarchical construct that consists of four dimensions (i.e., concern, control, curiosity, and confidence) at the lower level, with these dimensions adding up to a global indicator that reflects the overall level of the construct (Savickas, 1997, Savickas and Porfeli, 2012). Concern refers to the degree to which individuals care about the future and prepare for upcoming career and work tasks and challenges. Control describes the extent to which individuals hold personal responsibility for shaping themselves and the environment by showing self-discipline, effort, and persistence. Curiosity is defined as the extent to which people explore possible selves and future scenarios, and think about the self with regard to influencing various work situations and roles. Confidence is about individuals' beliefs that they can achieve career goals and aspirations, solve career problems, and conquer career obstacles. These four adaptability resources jointly function to shape actual problem-solving and coping strategies and direct adaptive behaviors in career and work life (Savickas & Porfeli, 2012). In light of career construction theory, this paper argues that career adaptability, which involves individuals' self-regulation capacities in facing work roles and environments (Zacher, Ambiel, & Noronha, 2015), will reduce employees' chances of experiencing job content plateaus.

The job content plateau is regarded as an issue employees experience when they feel that their work has been mastered and perceive job tasks to be routine, boring, and unchallenging (Allen et al., 1999). Research shows that those employees who are adept at career exploration and planning, self-regulation, self-control, positive thinking, role transfer, and other career-related adaptations are less likely to experience job content plateaus (Allen et al., 1999, Hofstetter and Cohen, 2014, Wang et al., 2014). This decreased likelihood could result from these employees' abilities to mentally and psychologically cope with job-related problems, which might be a trigger for them to constantly infuse new and interesting elements to work (e.g., by proactively seeking alternative opportunities for skill development) (McCleese & Eby, 2006). According to career construction theory, employees with higher levels of career adaptability are more likely and willing to effectively use physical, cognitive, and emotional resources and efforts in their careers and work lives (Guo et al., 2014, Savickas, 2013). This tendency may lead highly adaptable employees to acquire enhanced self-regulatory abilities, to positively face openness to change, to gain new experiences, and to keep career proactivity (Zacher et al., 2015). Thus, career adaptability may promote employees to perceive positive aspects of their jobs and subsequently experience enjoyment at work. Although no studies have directly tested the effect of career adaptability on the job content plateau, in support of the above theoretical elaboration, research shows that career adaptability and its related characteristics can increase employees' perceptions of optimism about work duties and responsibilities (Tolentino et al., 2014, Zacher et al., 2015). Therefore, taken together, it may be expected that career adaptability decreases employees' perceptions of the job content plateau.

Hypothesis 1

Career adaptability is negatively related to job content plateau.

This article further argues that career adaptability influences the job content plateau because it can influence employees' fit into their work roles and environments. Person-environment fit is a broad construct that encompasses a wide range of lower-level constructs that involve the nexus between the individual and the environment (Oh et al., 2014). It is one of the ideal psychological states preferred and pursued by most human beings (Jiang & Jiang, 2015). In the organizational setting, person-environment fit refers to the perceived compatibility or congruence between the characteristics of the employee and that of his or her associated work settings (Edwards et al., 1998). Since in the workplace person-environment fit has been popularly operationalized at the work and organization levels (Guan et al., 2013, Saks and Ashforth, 1997), this study follows prior research (e.g., Lauver & Kristof-Brown, 2001) in focusing on person-job fit and person-organization fit. In this article, it is proposed that employees' career adaptability, as a psychological resource, facilitates the process of their integration into their jobs and organizations, which subsequently helps alleviate perceptions of the job content plateau. As discussed below, career construction theory (Savickas, 1997, Savickas, 2002, Savickas, 2013) provides a basis for the effects of career adaptability on fit perceptions, and person-environment theory (Edwards and Van Harrison, 1993, Edwards et al., 1998) may explain the influence of fit perceptions on the job content plateau.

According to career construction theory (Savickas, 2002, Savickas, 2013), career development and adjustment is a contextualization process driven by adaptation to various career- and work-related settings, with the attempt to achieve person-environment integration. In this process, career adaptability resources, such as concern, control, curiosity, and confidence, can integratively function to guide employees' thoughts, reflections, and perceptions at work. As Guan et al. (2013) argued, the roles of these self-regulatory resources finally promote employees to perceive person-environment congruence. For example, career concern directs employees to spend time and energy in planning how to fit into the characteristics of work settings; career control assists them with work matters based on careful decisions and conscientious behaviors; career curiosity facilitates them in exploring the self and the environment; and career confidence ensures that employees will sustain their efforts and persistence should difficulties emerge when they blend into their jobs and organizations. Altogether, these psychological resources embedded in career adaptability play important roles in the person-environment integration process, increasing the likelihood that employees will find a good match of their personal attributes to the characteristics of the job and the organization (Guan et al., 2013). In support of this theoretical elaboration, empirical studies demonstrate that overall career adaptability is positively related to perceptions of person-job fit and person-organization fit by university graduates at the pre-entry career stage (Guan et al., 2013).

Plateau perceptions are generally regarded as undesirable career experiences for an individual, as they are commonly assumed to cause personal stress and depression (McCleese et al., 2007). Based on prior research, the job content plateau is inherently a psychological status wherein employees experience strain and particularly boredom (Hofstetter & Cohen, 2014). Person-environment fit theory (Edwards & Van Harrison, 1993) suggests that coincidence between an employee and his or her work and organization creates less negative career experiences. Despite the lack of direct research on the effect of person-environment fit on the career plateau, empirical evidence demonstrates that the job content plateau is lessened by effective use of coping strategies (McCleese et al., 2007), for which person-environment fit is to some extent viewed as a lubricant (Edwards et al., 1998). Similarly, research shows that person-job fit and person-organization fit decrease employees' perceptions of boredom in the workplace (Edwards & Van Harrison, 1993), which is a key characteristic reflected in the connotation of the job content plateau (Allen et al., 1999). Taken together, the above theoretical discussion, along with the empirical findings that support the relationships between career adaptability and fit perceptions as well as the relationships between fit perceptions and the job content plateau, suggest that fit perceptions may serve as mediators in the relationship between career adaptability and the job content plateau. Therefore, it is proposed:

Hypothesis 2

Person-job fit mediates the relationship between career adaptability and job content plateau.

Hypothesis 3

Person-organization fit mediates the relationship between career adaptability and job content plateau.

Section snippets

Participants and procedure

Data were collected from an online survey administered on the website of a professional research company. Participants were full-time Chinese employees who were members of a professional research pool run by this company. Potential respondents were sent an invitation containing a hyperlink to the online survey. The first section of the survey informed respondents that participation in this study was completely voluntary, anonymous, and confidential. Voluntary participants then continued to

Results

The CFA results are presented in Table 1. As expected, the hypothesized four-factor model was the best model based on the combinational consideration of fit indexes (Jiang & Jiang, 2015). This result supported the discriminant validity of the model, indicating that the study variables (career adaptability, person-job fit, person-organization fit, and job content plateau) used in this study could be distinguished (Chen et al., 2005). In other words, it was both theoretically and statistically

Findings and theoretical implications

This study aimed to examine the relationship between career adaptability and the job content plateau and explore the mechanism underlying this relationship through investigating the mediating role of person-environment fit in the workplace. Results demonstrated that career adaptability was negatively related to the job content plateau, and that this relationship was mediated by both person-job fit and person-organization fit. Additional analyses also suggested that a gender difference existed

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