CAREER PLATEAU AND TEACHER PRODUCTIVITY IN RIVERS STATE SECONDARY SCHOOLS

The study was designed to identify the causes and influence of career plateau on teachers in Rivers State secondary schools. The population was 8480 teachers from 257 government secondary schools in Rivers State, a sample of 1698 representing 20% of the total population was drawn using proportionate stratified random sampling technique. The research design was descriptive survey and a self-structured questionnaire titled ‘Managing Career Plateau for Quality Administration" (MCPQA) was used as the instrument for data collection. Cronbach Alpha was used to establish the reliability of the instrument at 0.84. Data collected were analyzed descriptively using mean and rank order for the research questions and ztest for the hypotheses at 0.05 level of significance. Findings revealed that career plateau could be caused by lack of skills and ability, change in technology, stress and burnout, lack of motivation and incentives. We recommended among others that different types of reward system, sensitization programs, honest feedback, training, mentoring programs be provided to enhance effective performance of teachers in Rivers State secondary schools. INTRODUCTION In many organizations the school inclusive, the workforce is one of the most significant contributors to the efficiency and effectiveness of the organization, the school as a social organization of people and each individual has different interest and is assigned with different roles within the organization. In the educational system, it is an indisputable fact that the teachers hold the key to the success of any educational programme; hence Nigeria 1969 curriculum conference described the teachers as the ‘key man’ in Nigeria’s Educational Industry. However, plateauing among the secondary school teachers may pose formidable obstacles to the realization of educational the goals and objectives of the secondary education. Career plateau is immobility of one’s career in an organization. It is a situation where an employee remains in one job grade for a long period due to one reason or the other. This in some cases, could be as a result of lack of skills and ability, lack of career advancement opportunities caused by implementation of downsizing and restructuring. Feldman and Weitz (1988) argued that individuals who continue to stay in an organization with limited career advancement first plateau and eventually becomes disengaged with their efforts and less compelled to exert efforts and show concern for their customers. In essence, when secondary school teachers experiences career plateau, they show less concern to the students and their productivity in terms of impacting knowledge and discipline to the students’ drops. No wonder Jelinek (2006) stated that employees who face this ugly phenomenon often exhibit various non-productive mental states and behaviors which can impact upon their effectiveness. These conditions include high degree of stress, (Messmer, 2002) role conflict (kickull & Posig 2001), low selfesteem and mental exhausting (Moore, 2000) lack of ability to cope with change (Judge, Thorsen, Pucik & Welbourne, 1999), small level of job involvement (Allen et al 1999) reduced job satisfaction (Books, 1994; Lee 2003), inadequate job performance, initiative and morale (McCleese & Eby, 2006) and excessive absenteeism and tardiness (Schisks, 1991). This paper focuses on the causes & effects of the concept of career plateau. Definition of Career Plateau Career plateau is defined as the condition in which the likelihood of receiving further assignment of increased responsibility in low (Feldman and Weitz ,1988). For Ference, Stoner, and Warren (1977) career plateau is defined as the point or time in a career when hierarchical advancement is unlikely to occur. Also, in the same vein Harvey and Schultz (1987) distinct plateuing as the career point at which an employee is unlikely to receive promotion, unless the individual changes organization. For Veiga, (1981), career plateau is seen as a point in which further career mobility including both upward and lateral moves are in reasonable doubt because the length of time in the present position is unduly prolonged. This implies that if a secondary school teacher remains in a job grade more than necessary, career plateau set in. Types of Career Plateau Bardwick (1986) described three types of career plateau fond in organization as thus: 1. Content Plateau happens when an employee becomes saturated with all available job related information and consequently lacks further challenges to expand vocational expertise. 2. Structural Plateau which results from the combined effects of the original structure and birthrate fluctuations and is largely beyond the control of the employee. 3. Personal Plateau centers on an employee’s personal life and often corresponds to a period in one’s life stage development.