Career plateau research is heavily focused on the private sector at the management level. There are few studies which examine career plateau in the public sector and no studies of career plateau in the Canadian core public sector. This qualitative research study is the first career plateau study focused on the core public sector in Canada. The systematic review study includes a map of the career plateau research and completed a synthesis analysis to provide new insights into career plateau. The second study involved an initial 67 participants with further data being gathered from focused interviews of 48 participants who were classified as career plateaued. Echo sorting and content analysis of the resulting data was completed to explore the perceived causes of career plateau; identify the affective impacts of career plateau on public servants; examine the behavioural responses of public servants to being career plateaued; and identify organizational implications. The study results indicate that public servants perceive the causes and affective impacts of career plateau generally consistent with existing research findings while some of the perceived causes categories may possibly be unique to the public service setting. However, public servants may respond to career plateau in two unique ways involving public service value responses and responses based on public sector organizational characteristics. Given that this is the first study to be completed on career plateau in the Canadian public service, all the findings must be considered tentative. The categories developed throughout the study describing how public servants feel and respond to career plateau as well as the organizational implications all require further refinement and more empirical testing. / Graduate / 2021-05-01

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Career plateau has been identified as stressful experiences that can lead to employee negative feelings and attitudes in the workplace. However, empirical studies that examine how career plateau relates to employee outcomes and the conditions that moderate the above relationships have been scarce. Using an occupational stress model as the foundation, this study examined whether two types of career plateau (i.e., hierarchical plateau and job content plateau) relate to employee outcomes (emotional exhaustion, job satisfaction, and affective organizational commitment). Furthermore, this study examined whether the proposed psychological processes (future career uncertainty and subjective monotony) mediate the above relationships and whether components of workplace spirituality (i.e., inner life and belongingness to community) moderate the relationship between career plateau and psychological processes. Based on responses of 243 participants, hierarchical regression results indicate that both plateaus relate negatively with job satisfaction, job involvement, and affective organizational commitment. However, only hierarchical plateau relates positively to emotional exhaustion, whereas job content plateau is not related to emotional exhaustion. Also, individuals’ future career uncertainty partially mediates the relationship between hierarchical plateau and employee emotional exhaustion and job attitudes, whereas subjective monotony partially mediates the relationship between job content plateau and job attitudes, but completely mediates the relationship between job content plateau and emotional exhaustion. Furthermore, only the inner life component of workplace spirituality moderates the relationship between hierarchical plateau and future career uncertainty. Based on the study findings, managerial implications, limitations and suggestions for future research directions are given.

The changing working environment and ageing workforce suggest that many workers will inevitably reach a career plateau, a stage where people regard future promotions as unlikely, or no longer feel challenged at work. Experiencing career plateau is found to be associated with negative job attitudes and performance in the workplace. However, existing studies have been mainly cross-sectional in design and few of them investigate the mechanisms and the conditions that influence the negative relationship. This study follows a quantitative longitudinal research design to further enhance the understanding of the relationships between career plateau and job outcomes. The job outcomes in this research include work attitudes such as job satisfaction, organisational commitment, turnover intentions and three aspects of job performance. Specifically, the three research aims of this thesis are: (1) to understand the causal directions between career plateau and job outcomes, (2) to examine whether employees’ unmet expectations may explain these relations and (3) to investigate whether employees’ age may modify the mediation effects of career plateau on job outcomes via unmet expectations. Three waves of data were collected from working individuals in various industries over an eight-month period. The majority of the participants were working in the UK or in Taiwan. Results showed that unmet expectations partially explain the negative relationship between career plateau and job attitudes over time but not for job performance. Furthermore, age did not affect the strength of the mediation effect of career plateau on the job outcomes through unmet expectations. The significance of this research is three-fold. First, it provides a new explanation for the unfavourable work attitudes of plateaued individuals. The findings that career plateaued employees have lower job satisfaction, lower organisational commitment and higher turnover intentions can partly be explained by unfulfilled expectations in receiving promotions or challenging tasks. Second, the study signals the danger of career plateau at any age, as younger and older workers were found to be equally influenced by career plateau. Finally, this is the first study in the area that seeks to resolve the debate over the directional relationship between career plateau and job outcomes. The implications in theory and in practice, limitations and suggestions for future research directions are discussed.

Five lions were reintroduced to the Welgevonden Private Game Reserve in 1998. These lions were studied to increase the limited knowledge of the ecology of reintroduced lions on small wildlife reserves, and to provide baseline data to the reserve management from which to develop management decisions. In the past, reintroduction attempts of felids have often failed because the animals failed to establish ranges in the new environment. During the current study, homing behaviour and range establishment of the reintroduced lions were studied and used as an indication of the success of the reintroduction attempt. The ease with which lions on Welgevonden established ranges indicated that they did not experience problems with adapting to their new environment The population dynamics of the reintroduced lion population were investigated. The population grew rapidly due to early breeding and short inter-litter intervals. The collected data were used to model the lion population using VORTEX population modelling software. Various potential management strategies to reduce the population growth were also modelled and discussed. The feeding ecology and predation patterns of the reintroduced lions• were investigated to give an indication of the predator-prey relationships on Welgevonden. These data were used in a model that investigated the effect of lion predation on the various prey populations of Welgevonden. The model was also used to test the influence of other factors on the prey populations, as well as the number of killing lions that can be supported by the prey population. The study has shown that reintroduction can be used successfully to establish a lion population on a small game reserve, but that certain management actions will increase the chances of success. However, continual monitoring and management will be necessary to ensure the long-term viability of the lion and prey populations. <p. / Dissertation (MSc (Wildlife Management))--University of Pretoria, 2006. / Centre for Wildlife Management / unrestricted

This thesis examines the capacity and desire of older workers to provide discretionary effort and skilled contributions in what some researchers consider to be the predominant form of new career, the 'boundaryless career'. Features of the 'boundaryless career' include multiple employers, and the demise of the organisational loyalty that was embodied within the image of the 'company man'. The research is justified by the fall in Australia's fertility rates and the simultaneous ageing of Australia's population. In combination, these are predicted to produce significant shortfalls in skilled labour, which experts believe will require organisations to better manage and utilise its older workers. The case study and pattern matching methodology involved interviews with forty volunteer older workers who worked in the headquarters of Australia Post, which enjoys a formidable local and international reputation. 'Career plateau' was a term used by many to describe their perception of their current career position and prospects. Their descriptions of their work situation and their ambitions, at work and in retirement, were analysed for patterns which were then compared with literature on career plateaus, motivation and job design, and the 'boundaryless career'. This analysis was overlaid onto a foundation of contemporary management practice with regard to older workers, current business environments and issues, and views on the skill sets needed for the future. This foundation emerged from a review of academic literature, business and government reports and from an ongoing review of the Australian Financial Review over the six years of the study. Contributions to theory and practice are claimed in the parent theories of career plateau, and older worker motivation; together with the focus theory of boundaryless careers. Although there are legitimate organisational constraints on optimising the older worker contribution, older workers do not contribute to capacity, and organisations do little to optimise their contribution. Joint organisational and individual worker attention to skills maintenance and career management over an entire working life will likely be 'boundaryless' for both organisations and the older workforce.

Thesis (M.S.)--Ohio University, June, 2006. / Title from PDF t.p. Includes bibliographical references (p. 97-104)

Composite propellants are composed of a solid oxidizer that is mixed into a hydrocarbon binder that when polymerized results in a solid mass capable of selfsustained combustion after ignition. Plateau propellants exhibit burning rate curves that do not follow the typical linear relationship between burning rate and pressure when plotted on a log-log scale, and because of this deviation their burning behavior is classified as anomalous burning. It is not unusual for solid-particle additives to be added to propellants in order to enhance burning rate or other properties. However, the effect of nano-size solid additives in these propellants is not fully understood or agreed upon within the research community. The current project set out to explore what possible variables were creating this result and to explore new additives. This thesis contains a literature review chronicling the last half-century of research to better understand the mechanisms that govern anomalous burning and to shed light on current research into plateau and related propellants. In addition to the review, a series of experiments investigating the use of nanoscale TiO2-based additives in AP-HTPB composite propellants was performed. The baseline propellant consisted of either 70% or 80% monomodal AP (223 μm) and 30% or 20% binder composed of IPDI-cured HTPB with Tepanol. Propellants’ burning rates were tested using a strand bomb between 500 and 2500 psi (34.0-170.1 atm). Analysis of the burning rate data shows that the crystal phase and synthesis method of the TiO2 additive are influential to plateau tailoring and to the apparent effectiveness of the additive in altering the burning rate of the composite propellant. Some of the discrepancy in the literature regarding the effectiveness of TiO2 as a tailoring additive may be due to differences in how the additive was produced. Doping the TiO2 with small amounts of metallic elements (Al, Fe, or Gd) showed additional effects on the burning rate that depend on the doping material and the amount of the dopant.

Thèse de doctorat : Géographie physique : Nancy 2 : 1993.