Career plateauing and work attitudes: Moderating effects of

This study examined the relation of career plateauing to job satisfaction, organizational commitment and turnover intentions and the moderating effects of mentoring on the relationships between career plateauing and the three dependent variables. Data were collected from 280 government employees in Nigeria who were more than 30 years old and came from a wide variety of organizations. Results of this study showed that career plateauing was negatively correlated with job satisfaction and organizational commitment and positively correlated with turnover intentions. Hierarchical multiple regression analyses indicated that mentoring played a significant moderating role on the relationships between career plateauing and job satisfaction and turnover intentions. Based on the findings, the implications, limitations of this study and direction for future research are discussed.


Introduction
As organizational structures become more horizontal, nowadays career advancement in terms of v ertical promotion has become competitiv e and difficult (Jung & Talk, 2008). Consequently, most employees often reach a career plateau before attaining their career goals. Career plateau is not a new phenomenon; how ev er, the issue of concern is the rate at w hich it is becoming w idespread in many organizations (Ongori & Agolla, 2009). Many scholars on organizational careers are of the v iew that career plateau is fast becoming a critical managerial and organization issue Europe's Journal of Psychology 72 that needs to be managed properly to av oid employees' discontent (Bucke & Mikkelsen, 2006). Because of changes in the business env ironment, restructuring, dow nsizing and employment equity, career plateauing w ill likely become one of the most important career issues of the next decade.
Career plateau is defined as the point in one's career at w hich the likelihood of additional hierarchical promotion is v ery low or impossible (Ongori & Agolla, 2009). Bardw ick (1986) identified tw o types of career plateauing: (a) structural (hierarchical) plateauing and (b) content (job content ) plateauing. Hierarchical plateauing results w hen there is little chance of further v ertical mov ement w ithin an organization w hereas job content plateauing occurs w hen indiv iduals are no longer challenged by their job or job responsibilities, and there is ov erall staleness of the job itself. Burke and Mikkelsen (2006) distinguished betw een three types of career plateauing: structural, content and life plateaus. Life plateauing refers to an indiv idual's feeling of being trapped or stuck in their roles outside of w ork. The focus of the research literature has been on hierarchical plateauing (McCleese, Eby, Scharlau & Hoffman, 2001) w hile job content and life plateauing hav e receiv ed much less attention (McCleese & Eby, 2007). Career plateau has been used as antecedent to many undesirable w ork outcomes such as low satisfaction, high stress, poor performance, w ithdraw al symptoms, low organizational commitment and increased turnov er intention (Heilmann, Holt & Rilov ick, 2008). Career plateau has the potential to cause disco mfort among the employees because lack of continued upw ard progression is regarded a yardstick to measure employees' performance (Ongoni & Agolla, 2009). How ev er, there is no unanimous agreement in the literature on the negativ e influence of career plateau on employees' w ork attitudes. For example, Palmero, Roger and Tremblay (2001) found no significant difference in terms of general satisfaction betw een respondents already at a career plateau and those w ho did not reach this stage. Clark (2005) argued that a plateau can be a positiv e influence upon an employee in the sense that he or she no longer faces uncertainty in the form of changing and/or increased responsibilities. Such a position may lead to contentment, security and job comfort.
Thus far, the literature on the relationship betw een career plateau and w ork attitudes includes a v ariety of contradictory conclusions about the attitudes of those w ho hav e attained career plateau and those w ho hav e not (Xie & Long, 2008).
How ev er, the empirical study on consequences of the career plateau is scarce generally and particularly in Nigeria. Hence, this study focused on three possible consequences of career plateau: job satisfaction, organizational commitment and turnov er intention. Giv en the negativ e consequences associated w ith career plateauing such as job dissatisfaction, lack of organization commitment and Career plateauing and work attitudes 73 turnov er intentions, employers w ill need to know how to av oid career plateauing among their older w orkers.
Research on career plateau has focused on types of career plateau, their measurements, antecedents (Armstrong -Stassen, 2008) and consequences (Tremblay, Roger & Toulouse, 1995). Little empirical research has been reported on the roles of moderators on the relationship betw een career plateau and w ork outcomes (Ettington, 1998). Studying the v ariables that moderate an indiv idual's reactions to reaching career plateau (w ork attitudes) may be a step forw ard in understanding this process in organizations and in searching for solutions in terms of managing human resources in a more effectiv e w ay.
This study also addressed a neglected issue in the career plateau literature: few studies hav e examined the moderating role of mentoring (Lentz, 2004;Lentz & Allen, 2009;Jung & Tak, 2008). Some authors (Ettington, 1998;Milliman, 1992;Palmero et al., 2001) argued that the reactions to career plateau can be more or less pronounced depending on the types of jobs, organizational contexts, and indiv idual characteristics. Prev ious research on moderating v ariables betw een career plateau and w ork attitudes includes job characteristics such as job enrichment potential, v ariety, autonomy, role ambiguity or participation in decision making. Aside from their direct impact on attitudes and behav iours, an interaction betw een these v ariables and career plateau is expected to determine employees' reactions Tremblay & Roger, 2004). Some studies also inv estigated the impact of indiv idual factors such as stage of life, career aspiration, career motiv ation, perceiv ed superv isor support and mentoring (Jung & Tak, 2008;Lentz, 2004;Milliman, 1992). I ndiv iduals react in different w ays w hen they are on a career plateau but some factors are expected to limit a fair number of the negativ e consequences associated w ith reaching that stage. This study thus examined the moderating role of mentoring experience on the relationship betw een career plateauing and w ork attitudes. The purpose of this study w as to examine the relationship betw een career plateauing and w ork attitudes (job satisfaction, organizational commitment and turnov er intention). Also this study w as designed to examine the effects of mentoring on the relationship betw een career plateauing and w ork attitudes.
Career plateauing and w ork attitudes A number of theoretical arguments and related empirical findings reinforce the contention that a direct link exists betw een career plateauing and w ork attitudes.
Career plateauing has both negativ e effects and positiv e effects on w ork attitudes.

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Circumstances under w hich negativ e effects are found for career plateauing are w hen an employee feels he or she has the talent, skills, experience and initiativ e to adv ance beyond the current position but the company or establishment has no av ailable positions or lacks equal confidence in the employee's ability in order to promote the employee. Such situation may lead to stress, frustration, dissatisfaction, intention to leav e the organization and absenteeism (Jung & Tak, 2008). Career plateau has been found to be significantly associated w ith reduced job performance (Lentz, 2004), decreased job satisfaction (Jung & Tak, 2008;Lee, 2004;Lentz & Allen, 2009;McCleese & Eby, 2006;Palmero, Roger & Tremblay, 2001;Xie & Long,2008), reduced organizational commitment (Jung & Tak, 2008;Lentz, 2004;McCleese & Eby, 2006) and increased turnov er intentions (Heilmann, Holt & Rilov ick, 2008;Lentz, 2004). Despite the dysfunctional effects of career plateauing, there is ev idence to suggest that such negativ ities may lead to optimism from the perspectiv e of employees. For example, some researchers hav e found that some plateaued employees maintain the same lev el of productiv ity, do not appear bored and hav e high satisfaction w ith their jobs because acquiring new skills places them in a better position for other career opportunities elsew here (Ongori & Agolla, 2009). Positiv e effects of career plateauing are found w hen an employee no longer faces the problems of changing and/or increased responsibilities. Such a position may lead to contentment and security. For example, an employee w ho perceiv es low needs for career mobility may be afraid of the lifestyle required from someone at a higher lev el of management or the employee may underestimate the v alue of promotion regardless of his or her aptitude. Employees may be satisfied w ith their present positions in the organization and as such may prefer to improv e the security of their present job and prefer it to the challenge of a higher lev el. The lifestyle of the community the employees belong to -that is friends, relativ es or spouses (in the case of w orking couples) -may hamper the employees' aspirations. Relativ es liv ing in the same area or the career of the spouse could hav e a significant negativ e impact on the career mobility of an indiv idual (Feldman & Weitz,198 8). I n addition, career plateaued employees could striv e to improv e their skills, acquire new qualifications and look for a higher position job outside their current organization. Also, career plateaued employees may hav e higher job performance and job satisfaction w hen they do not see themselv es as plateaued (Ettington, 1998). Ettington (1998) defined successful career plateauing as effectiv e job performance and high satisfaction despite a low likehood of promotion. She found that objectiv ely plateaued managers w ere more successful i.e. had higher job performance and higher job satisfaction w hen they did not see themselv es as plateaued. They w ere more satisfied w hen they had challenging w ork but did not Career plateauing and work attitudes 75 see themselv es as technical or functional specialists. Furthermore, Maimunah (2008) reported that some employees hope to attain career plateau because they could not cope w ith constraints and stress that adv ancement imposes. The period of plateau can also be a highly desirable period of rest and security t hat prov ides an opportunity to recharge the energy and digest new ideas. Some employees believ e that a plateau can be healthy for professionals, particularly those w ho hav e not attained a breakthrough in their careers (Kreuter, 1993).
Empirical studies rev iew ed abov e show ed that the effects of career plateauing on the employees' w ork attitudes could be both positiv e and negativ e. As such, research on this issue is not concluded and should continue. There is need for further research on the relationship betw een career plateauing and employees' w ork attitudes. This is w hy the present study becomes w arranted. Based on the empirical studies rev iew ed, it is expected that career plateauing w ill be negativ ely related to job satisfaction, and organizational commitment, and positiv ely related to turnov er intentions.

Mentoring and w ork attitudes
The mentoring relationship can be defined as an interpersonal experience betw een a junior and a senior employee, in w hich the senior employee (mentor) supports, guides, and orients the junior employee (protégé) through the v arious tasks, functions and culture w ithin the organization (Kram,1985). The benefits of hav ing or being a mentor hav e receiv ed ample attention in research (Lankau & Scandura, 2002). For example, studies show ed that employees w ho hav e mentors or w ho are mentors report more promotions, hav e higher motiv ation, earn higher incomes, and score higher on w ork satisfaction than employees w ithout a mentor or w ho are nonmentors (Ragins, Cotton & Miller, 2000). Other studies rev ealed that employees w ith mentoring experience show ed higher organizational commitment (Allen, Eby, Proteet, Lentz & Lima, 2004;Lankau & Scandura, 2002;Lentz, 2004;Ragins et al., 2000), decreased intention to turnov er (Lentz, 2004;Lentz & Allen, 2009) and increased job performance (Lentz,2004;Lev enson, Van der Stede & Cohen,2006).
Research on the benefits of the mentoring relationship for mentors has not been as extensiv e as for mentees (Ragins & Scandura, 1999). According to Fow ler (20 02), benefits for mentors w ere professional enhancement, organizational and peer recognition, interpersonal relationship, meaningfulness and fulfillment and productiv ity. Other benefits for mentors include: career enhancement, increased intelligence/information, hav ing the mentee as a trusted adv isor and feeling of pride (Zey, 1991). Allen, Poteet and Burroughs (1997) identified some benefits of mentoring for mentors w hich comprise: building support netw orks, self-satisfaction and satisfaction in seeing others grow and succeed and also general satisfaction in helping others; helping the mentor do his or her job, increasing the mentor's ow n learning/know ledge, and increasing the mentor's organizational v isibility; ensuring the passage of know ledge to others and building a competent w orkforce. Ragins and Scandura (1999) identified rew arding experience, job performance, loyal base of support, recognition by others and generativ ity as benefits of mentoring for mentors. Lev inson (1978) discussed the grow th and dev elopment that occurred for mentors. Recently, Allen, Ev ans, Ng and Dubios (2008) and Underhill (2008) conducted meta-analytic studies on the effectiv eness of mentoring and found that mentoring had significant fav ourable effects on behav ioural, attitudinal, healthrelated, relational, motiv ational and career outcomes. Burke (1984) and Burke and Mckeen (1997) w ere of the v iew that increased self-confidence, personal insight, learning how to deal w ith people and problems and fulfillment of psychosocial needs w ere some v aluable outcomes. Allen, Lentz and Day (2003) and Bozionelos (2004) found that indiv iduals w ho prov ided mentoring experience reported a higher current salary, greater rate of promotion, and higher perception of career success.
How ev er, some researchers found no significant relationship betw een mentoring and intentions to turnov er (Allen et al., 2004) and job performance (v an Emmerik, 2008). The inconsistencies in the results of studies that inv estigated the relationship betw een mentoring and w ork attitudes make this study w arranted.
Moderating effects of mentoring Ettington (1998) indicated that only a small number of studies hav e been conducted to examine moderators on the relationship betw een career plateau and outcome v ariables. Some of the studies found that challenging job, perceiv ed support from superv isors and cow orkers (Chay, Aryee & Chew , 1995;Ettington, 1998;MatSani, Maimunah & Jegak, 2006), emotional intelligence and organizational support (Park & Yoo, 2005), career motiv ation (Jung & Tak, 2008), job characteristics (job autonomy and enrichment; Roger & Tremblay, 1998) and mentoring others (Lentz & Allen, 2009) acted as moderators of the relationship betw een perceiv ed career plateau and outcome v ariables. I n this study, mentoring others w as selected as a moderator. Mentoring others is likely to play a moderating role in the relationship betw een career plateauing and w ork attitudes.
The moderating effects of mentoring in the plateauing -w ork attitude link is based on the career and life stage literature especially Lev inson's life cycle theory. Lev inson (1978) proposed four eras in the male life cycle: childhood and adolescence, early Career plateauing and work attitudes 77 adulthood, middle adulthood and late adulthood. Within each era is a period of transition or adjustment that indicates the ending of an era and beginning of the next. I n this study, the middle adulthood and mid-life transition w ere the focal point.
Mid-life transition can be described as a period of change and reappraisal. I t is a period w hen one examines one's contributions to the first half of the journey of life. I t is a period that parallels the concepts of hierarchical and job content plateauing (Lev inson, 1978). According to Lev inson (1978), mid-life transition is a time for an employee to become a mentor and pass on a legacy in the form of family, w ork, or other subjectiv ely v alued contributions. The legacy fosters adult dev elopment and serv es the purpose of enrichment and personal fulfillment (Lentz, 2004). (1977)  Third, solid citizens are those w ho perform v ery w ell the bulk of organizational tasks but hav e little chance for future adv ancement due to v ery limited career path in the organization unless they opt for another career path after equipping themselv es w ith other professional qualifications (Maimunah,2008). They form the majority in an organization. They are needed in organizations for stability and continuity. I f social citizens are treated passiv ely or are denied access to dev elopment or challenging tasks, they w ill become de-motiv ated and become plateaued.

Reference, Stoner and Warren
Finally, the deadw oods are indiv iduals w ho perform below the acceptable standards. These employees hav e problems for reasons of motiv ation and personal difficulties. Their number is v ery small in organizations but problems created by deadw oods could jeopardize the ov erall quality of serv ice in organizations. Deadw oods are targets for remedial actions or risk of dismissal. They are also career plateaued. Solid citizens and deadw oods are plateaued employees. Solid citizens are effectiv e w hile deadw oods are ineffectiv e. Organizations should prev ent solid citizens from slipping into the deadw ood category.
Duffy (2000) applied chaos theory to conceptualize plateaued w orkers in order to reframe dominant issues faced by counsellors and clients. Chaos theory has been applied in career counselling organizational studies among career-w orkers. Chaos theory points to a period of transition in w hich change occurs in unpredictable, irregular and uncertain w ays. The essence of chaos is change and it is not a stable condition or fixed state. I t is a dynamic process that explains the changing relationship betw een entities in the organization. Duffy (2000)  Mid-life transition can mark a career plateau for many w orkers but mentoring can be an effectiv e solution and coping mechanism that rev italizes and redirects one's know ledge and focus (Lentz, 2004;Rotondo & Perrew e, 2000). Few studies hav e examined the moderator effects of mentoring others in plateauing-w ork attitudes link (Lentz, 2004;Lentz & Allen, 2009;Jung & Tak, 2008). Results of these studies hav e show n that mentoring others w as associated w ith higher w ork satisfaction, commitment and job performance among plateaued employees. I t is, therefore, expected that mentoring others w ill interact w ith career plateauing to predict positiv e w ork attitudes among employees. Thus, mentoring others w ill likely mitigate the negativ e effects of career plateauing, w hich may lead plateaued employees to higher job satisfaction and organizational commitment and reduce turnov er intentions compared to employees w ith low lev els of mentoring.

Hypotheses
The follow ing hypotheses w ere tested, H1: Career plateauing w ill be negativ ely related to (a) job satisfaction and (b) organizational commitment.
H2: Career plateauing w ill be positiv ely related to intentions to turnov er. Six researchers assisted the present author in administering the questionnaire to the respondents during office hours. The purpose of this questionnaire w as explained after the consent of the participants w as obtained. The respondents w ere told not to write their names on the questionnaire to guarantee anonymity. They w ere assured that the information collected w ould be treated confidentiality. I nitially, 300 questionnaires w ere distributed throughout the organizations that participated in the study. How ev er, 280 questionnaires were properly filled and found useable for data analysis giv ing a response rate of 93.3%. The data for this study w as collected from the respondents betw een May and August 2008.

Measures
Demographic information w as obtained from the participants through a form that requested for their ages in years (ordinal data), gender (nominal data) coded as male = 0, female = 1, job position (interv al data) w as coded as senior nursing/midw ifery officers = 1, principal nursing/ midw ifery officers = 2, chief nursing officers = 3, senior education officers = 2, principal education officers = 3, chief education officers= 4, Vice-Principals = 4, Principals= 5. Lev el of education included Europe's Journal of Psychology 80 Diploma = 1, first degree = 2, Master's degree = 3, Ph.D degree = 4. Participants w ere asked for how long they hav e w orked in their present job to get their tenure.
Career plateau. Career plateau w as measured as a continuous multidimensional construct consisting of job content and hierarchical forms of plateauing. Job content plateauing w as measured by means of six items from Milliman's (1992) career plateau scale. Responses w ere scored on a five-point scale ranging from Strongly Disagree = 1 to Strongly Agree = 5. Responses w ere scored such that higher scores indicated higher lev els of job content plateauing. Examples of mentoring items are -job content plateauing -"I hav e an opportunity to learn and grow a lot in my current job"; "I expect to be constantly challenged in my job". Milliman (1992) reported an internal consistency of 0.87. I n the present study, the Cronbach's coefficient alpha for job content plateau w as 0.86. Six items from Milliman's (1992) career plateau scale w ere used to measure hierarchical plateauing. Responses w ere scored on a fiv e point scale ranging from Strongly Disagree = 1 to Strongly Agree = 5. Responses w ere scored such that higher scores indicated higher lev els of hierarchical plateauing. Hierarchical plateauing -"I expect to adv ance to a higher  Noe's (1988) mentoring scale constructed by Lentz (2004). The items w ere modified to reflect the mentor's perspectiv e. Participants w ho indicated hav ing experience as a mentor w ere instructed to respond to these items based on their current or most recent mentoring relationship. Fiv e items w ere used to assess career related mentoring. Examples of mentoring items are: As a mentor I "help my protégé finish assignment/tasks/projects or meet deadlines that otherw ise w ould be difficult to complete", "help my protégé meet new colleagues", "giv e assignments that giv e my protégé the opportunity to learn new skills", "encourage my protege to prepare for adv ancement". Cronbach's alpha for these fiv e items w as 0.75. Ten items w ere used to assess psychosocial mentoring. The Cronbach's alpha w as 0.83.
A fiv e-point Likert scale w as used w ith responses ranging from strongly disagree = 1 to strongly agree = 5. Higher scores indicated more mentoring prov ided. Noe (1988) reported internal consistency of .89 and .92 for career and psychosocial mentoring respectiv ely. For this study, both career and psychosocial mentoring scales w ere summed together and used as an unidimensional scale. The Cronbach's alpha for the tw o scales used in the present study as a unidimensional scale w as 0.78.
Job satisfaction. Job satisfaction w as measured by three-item scale dev eloped by Cammann, Fichman, Jenkins and Klesh (1983). This scale adopted a fiv e-point scale w ith responses that ranged from Strongly Disagree = 1 to Strongly Agree = 5.
Cronbach's alpha for this scale in this study w as 0.85. Higher scores indicated higher job satisfaction.
Organizational Commitment. Organizational commitment w as measured w ith the attitude commitment component, consisting of eight items dev eloped by Allen and Meyer (1996). The scale w as scored on a fiv e-point scale that ranged from Strongly Disagree = 1 to Strongly Agree= 5. I n this study, the Cronbach's alpha w as 0.84.
Higher scores indicated higher lev els of organizational commitment.
Turnover Intentions. Four items dev eloped by Lentz (2004) w ere used to measure turnov er intentions i.e. intentions to leav e the organization. Responses w ere score d on a fiv e-point scale that ranged from Strongly Disagree = 1 to Strongly Agree = 5.
Sample items w ere "I am currently looking for another organization to w ork for", "I often think of leav ing this organization". Cronbach's alpha for this scale w as 0.86.
Higher scores indicated higher intentions to leav e the organization.

Control v ariables
Prev ious research has show n that gender, age, job tenure and job position may impact the mentoring relationship (Ragin & Cotton, 1999) and plateauing (Stout, Slocum & Cron, 1988). Therefore gender, age, tenure and job rank or positions w ere considered as potential control v ariables.

Data analysis
Correlation analyses w ere conducted to examine the intercorrelations among all the v ariables included in the study. Hierarchical regression analyses w ere also conducted to test the moderating effect of mentoring on the relationship betw een perceived career plateau and the three dependent v ariables. To control the effects of demographic v ariables on the dependent v ariables, age, gender, tenure and job rank position w ere put into the regression equation at the first step. At the second step, perceiv ed career plateau (job content and hierarchical plateaus) and mentoring w ere included in the regression equation. Finally, at the third step, the cross-product term of perceiv ed career plateau and the moderator w ere put into the regression equation. Table 1 show s the means, standard dev iations and intercorrelations among the v ariables used in this study.  Results on Table 1 indicate that job content plateauing w as negativ ely related to job satisfaction (r=-.26, p<.05), and organisational commitment (r=-.30, p<.05).
Hypothesis 3a-b predicted that mentoring w ill be positiv ely related to job satisfaction and organisational commitment. Results indicated that mentoring w as significantly related to job satisfaction (r=.19, p<.05), organisational commitment (r=.20, p<.05) and negativ ely related turnov er intentions (r=-.21, p<.05). Therefore, hypotheses 3 and 4 w ere fully supported.
One explanation for the findings from this study could be that career plateaued employees became frustrated and they are not motiv ated to continue to w ork harder. They might hav e reasoned that the efforts they put into their w ork in the organization w ere not rew arded and as such their w ork may not be interesting to them, w hich leads to job dissatisfaction. They may not be committed to the cause of the organization as they w ere before being plateaued and they might be prepared Career plateauing and work attitudes 85 to take up jobs w ith ranks higher than their present ranks any time the opportunity presents itself.
Results from this study also indicated that mentoring others w as significantly and positiv ely related to job satisfaction and organization commitment but negativ ely related to turnov er intentions. These results are in agreement w ith the w ork of other researchers w ho reported similar findings (Allen et al., 2004;Len tz, 2004;Lentz & Allen, 2009;Lev enson et al., 2006;Ragins et al., 2000). An explanation for these findings is that mentoring others has some benefits such as hav ing higher motiv ation and selffulfillment for seeing someone guided or coached by us grow ing. This assists the mentor in dev eloping more positiv e w ork attitudes.
Findings from this study show ed that mentoring others play a significant role in moderating the relationship betw een career plateauing and job satisfaction and turnov er intentions. These findings support the w ork of prev ious researchers w ho obtained similar results (Lentz, 2004;Lentz & Allen, 2009;Rotondo & Perrew e, 2000).
Reasons for these findings could be that the period of career plateauing parallels that of middle adulthood and the mid-life transition w hen the indiv idual w ishes to pass on a legacy in the form of w ork, family or other subjectiv ely v alued contributions. When a plateaued employee is able to pass on his/her contributions to others in the form of mentoring he/she becomes satisfied. This legacy fosters adult dev elopment and serv es the purpose of enrichment and personal fulfillment.
Mentoring others is a coping response to plateauing and it contributes to limit the negativ e consequences associated w ith career plateauing.
That mentoring others did not moderate the relationship betw een career plateauing and organizational commitment w as surprising and contradicted the w ork of prev ious researchers w ho found, on the contrary, that mentoring others moderated the relationship betw een plateauing and organizational commitment (Jung &Tak, 2008;Lentz, 2004). This result means that w ith mentoring others the negativ e relationship betw een career plateauing and organizational commitment still exists.
That is, the negativ e effect of plateauing has not been allev iated by mentoring others. The reason for mentoring others not moderating the negativ e relationship betw een career plateauing and organizational commitment could be because the employees had become frustrated, disinterested and dissatisfied w ith their w ork.
They might also hav e felt that an organization that has depriv ed them of promotion or adv ancement in their w ork does not deserv e being committed to or attached to.
As such, the negativ e relationship betw een career plateauing and organizational commitment is not affected by mentoring others.

I mplications of the findings
Findings from this study hav e theoretical and practical implications. The theoretical implications are in terms of show ing that career plateauing has a negativ e impact on job satisfaction and organizational commitment and aids turnov er intentions and that mentoring others can allev iate the negativ e impacts of career plateauing on w ork attitudes. Therefore, more research should be conducted on identifying the symptoms of career plateauing and moderating v ariables to reduce the negativ e impact of career plateauing on w ork outcome v ariables.
This study has practical implications for motiv ating career plateaued employees in the organizations. Since career plateauing has a negativ e impact on w ork attitudes such as job satisfaction and organizational commitment and encourages turnov er intention, organizations should reduce the lev el of career plateauing by transforming or enriching jobs, facilitating lateral or cross-functional mov es and prov iding honest feedback to employees. This w ill enable the employees to acquire the necessary know ledge and skills for them to position themselv es for opportunities elsew here if promotion is blocked in their present organization. Because mentoring others helps in allev iating the negativ e effect of career plateauing on job satisfaction and turnov er intentions, organizations should dev elop formal mentoring programmes to increase indiv iduals' career motiv ation, job satisfaction and organizational commitment.
Employees may report more organizational commitment w hen the mentor role is sponsored by the organization. Organizations sho uld identify causes of career plateauing and dev elop appropriate interv entions to manage it at the infancy stage. I n addition, employees should be counselled by counselling psychologists and made aw are that in this era of globalization, "career adv ancement" is being replaced w ith "career achiev ement". Also management should prov ide counselling and placement serv ices for those employees w ho decide to quit the organizations.

Limitations and Future Research
Some limitations of this study should be mentione d. Firstly, this study is cross-sectional in nature and as such it is not possible to infer causality. A longitudinal study design in future research w ould allow cause-and-effect relationship to be established and w ould allow us to examine changes in the study v ariables across time. A second limitation is that the present study used gov ernment employees because of the prev alence of plateau in gov ernment agencies. Future research could include employees in the priv ate sectors to confirm the generalizability of the findings in priv ate organizations. This could allow researchers to compare gov ernment and Career plateauing and work attitudes 87 priv ate sector employees on the relationship betw een career plateauing and w ork attitudes.
A third limitation of this study is that self-report measures w ere used in obtaining data from the respondents. There could hav e been some response biases w hen the respondents w ere filling the questionnaires. I n order to check for these response biases future research could include interv iew information. Furthermore, no performance data w as collected from respondents. This has limited the information about w ork outcomes to attitudinal dimensions leav ing out behav ioural aspects. As such, future research should include w ork performance data.
Also, there is need to carry o ut more research on w hy indiv iduals w ould w ant to engage in a mentor role because mentoring could be seen as a type of organizational citizenship behav iour. Furthermore, future research should try to determine the perception of career plateaued employees on the reasons for w hich they think they hav e been plateaued. This could allow future researchers to find out employees for w hom career plateauing effects had been positiv e or negativ e.
These effects could be used as moderator v ariables in the relationship betw een career plateauing and w ork attitudes. Moreov er, job autonomy and job enrichment could be used as moderator v ariables in the inv estigation of the relationship betw een career plateauing and w ork outcomes.

Conclusion
Despite these limitations, this study has prov ided ev idence that relationships exist betw een career plateauing and w ork attitudes and that mentoring others serv es as a significant moderator of the relationships. The unique contribution of this study is that it is the first to examine empirically the moderating role of mentoring others in the relationship betw een career plateauing and w ork attitudes among civ il serv ants in Nigeria. This study prov ided ev idence for the benefits of mentoring for the mentors because the findings rev ealed that, by mentoring others, career plateaued employees had increased job satisfaction and reduced turnov er intentions. This study also contributed to the literature on career plateauing and mentoring because it has show n an important method of improv ing the w ork attitudes of career plateaued employees through mentoring others.