Effects Of R & D Staff Career Plateau On Turnover Intention

In recent years, more and more employees experience a career plateau phenomenon due to the flatting of the organizational structure and intensification of labor competition. Career plateau has become a major issue for theory and practice, but domestic and foreign scholars have not yet reached an agreement over the impact of career plateau on turnover intention. Companies must think and solve the key issue about how to attract and retain R&D personnel as a source of business innovation and competitiveness, and thus the exploration of the impact of R&D personnel career plateau on turnover intention also becomes the important issues that must be addressed in management theory and organizational practice.The study takes R&D personnel as the research object, puts forward relevant hypothesis and constructs the research model. There are four components in the model:the independent variable career plateau, dependent variable turnover intention, moderate variable peer support and a non-work orientation. Career plateau includes hierarehical plateau, content plateau, centralizing plateau. A total of230copies are distributed,180questionnaires are returned, and156questionnaires are effective. Using SPSS statistical methods, such as correlation analysis and regression analysis, the study discussed the impact of career plateau on turnover intention, and proved the moderating effect of peer support and a non-work orientation between career plateau and turnover intention.Through the empirical research, this study concludes the following conclusions:(1) At this stage, overall career plateau of R&D staff reaches a moderate level; hierarehical plateau reaches the highest level which reflects promotion issues within the organization of R&D employees; centralizing plateau also reaches a moderate level; content plateau is a lower middle level.(2) R&D personnel career plateau has a significant positive impact on turnover intention; centralizing plateau has the most predicted effect on turnover intention, followed by content plateau, and the lowest level of hierarehical plateau.(3) Peer support moderates differently the relationship between career plateau and turnover intention. Specifically, peer support plays a negative moderating role in the content plateau-turnover intention linkage and centralizing plateau-turnover intention linkage; peer support doesn’t moderate the hierarehical plateau-turnover intention linkage.(4) A non-work orientation also moderates differently the relationship between career plateau and turnover intention. Specifically, a non-work orientation plays a negative moderating role in the hierarehical plateau-turnover intention linkage and centralizing plateau-turnover intention linkage; a non-work orientation doesn’t moderate the content plateau-turnover intention linkage.(5) Demographic characteristics of R&D personnel have a different effect on career plateau. Gender, marital status, the size of an firm, type of enterprises and the industry have a different impact on some dimensions of career plateau; both education and age have no significant impact on career plateau and its dimensions; years of working on overall plateau, content plateau and centralizing plateau has a negative predictive power; job tenure on the overall career plateau and content plateau has a positive predictive power.Based on the research conclusions, the study puts forward that enterprises should pay attention to R&D personnel career plateau and offers a range of management measures. This paper not only enriches career plateau theory, but also provides reference for the corporate human resource management practices.