The Impact Of Mentoring On Career Plateau And Turnover Intentions Of Management Accountants
Authors: Foster Benjamin P. , Shastri Trimbak , Withane Sirinimal 
Published: February 2016

<p class="MsoBodyText2" style="text-align: justify; line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0.5in 0pt; tab-stops: .5in;"><span style="font-family: &quot;Times New Roman&quot;,&quot;serif&quot;; font-size: 10pt;">The presence of frustrated employees in an organization is likely to have a significant adverse effect on the organization&rsquo;s operations. Employees faced with a career plateau are likely to exhibit feelings of frustration. Such employees may have a higher tendency to leave the company, increasing employee turnover.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp; </span>Using Canadian Certified Management Accountants (CMAs), as subjects, this study examined the effect of mentoring on employee career plateau tendencies and turnover intentions. </span></p><p class="MsoBodyText2" style="text-align: justify; line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0.5in 0pt; tab-stops: .5in;"><span style="font-family: &quot;Times New Roman&quot;,&quot;serif&quot;; font-size: 10pt;">&nbsp;</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; margin: 0in 0.5in 0pt; tab-stops: 0in .5in 1.0in 1.5in 2.0in 2.5in 3.0in 3.5in 4.0in 4.5in 5.0in 5.5in 6.0in 6.5in;"><span style="font-family: &quot;Times New Roman&quot;,&quot;serif&quot;; font-size: 10pt;">Survey questionnaires were mailed and responses obtained from 235 CMAs.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp; </span>Subjects&rsquo; responses were factor analyzed to develop composite scales about CMAs&rsquo; perceptions for mentoring (MENTOR), career plateau (PLAT), turnover intentions (EXIT), positive job attributes (PJA), and job satisfaction rate (JSR).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp;&nbsp; </span>For hypotheses testing, the means of the scaled values were used in statistical tests of relationships between the measures.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; margin: 0in 0.5in 0pt; tab-stops: 0in .5in 1.0in 1.5in 2.0in 2.5in 3.0in 3.5in 4.0in 4.5in 5.0in 5.5in 6.0in 6.5in;"><span style="font-family: &quot;Times New Roman&quot;,&quot;serif&quot;; font-size: 10pt;">&nbsp;</span></p><p class="MsoBodyText2" style="text-align: justify; line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0.5in 0pt; tab-stops: .5in;"><span style="font-family: &quot;Times New Roman&quot;,&quot;serif&quot;; font-size: 10pt;">Tests indicated that mentoring reduces plateau tendency significantly and significantly lowers turnover intentions even after controlling for career plateau, job satisfaction, and positive job attributes. The results imply that fostering a mentoring environment can reduce career plateau attainment and turnover intentions. Reducing career plateau in turn is likely to have positive impact on organization&rsquo;s operations. For example, CMAs are often involved in, among other matters, the operational information and financial reporting process.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp; </span>Therefore, reducing CMAs&rsquo; career plateau tendencies and turnover intentions could improve the quality of an organization&rsquo;s financial reporting process.</span></p>