The Role of Mentoring Others in the Career Plateauing Phenomenon

The purpose of the present study is to investigate relationships between mentoring others, perceptions of career plateauing, and job attitudes. A total of 306 government employees located in the southeastern United States completed surveys (50.08% response rate). Of these, 110 reported experience as a mentor. As expected, the results indicated that mentoring others was associated with more favorable job attitudes, whereas greater job content and hierarchical plateauing was associated with less favorable job attitudes. The results provided mixed support that mentoring others may alleviate the negative consequences associated with career plateauing. Specifically, the results indicated that mentor experience and psychosocial mentoring moderated the relationship for job content plateauing. Similar relationships were not found for hierarchical plateauing. Implications and future research suggestions are provided.

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