The Impact Of Mentoring On Career Plateau And Turnover Intentions Of Management Accountants

Abstract

The presence of frustrated employees in an organization is likely to have a significant adverse effect on the organization’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.  Using Canadian Certified Management Accountants (CMAs), as subjects, this study examined the effect of mentoring on employee career plateau tendencies and turnover intentions.

Survey questionnaires were mailed and responses obtained from 235 CMAs.  Subjects’ responses were factor analyzed to develop composite scales about CMAs’ perceptions for mentoring (MENTOR), career plateau (PLAT), turnover intentions (EXIT), positive job attributes (PJA), and job satisfaction rate (JSR).   For hypotheses testing, the means of the scaled values were used in statistical tests of relationships between the measures.

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’s operations. For example, CMAs are often involved in, among other matters, the operational information and financial reporting process.  Therefore, reducing CMAs’ career plateau tendencies and turnover intentions could improve the quality of an organization’s financial reporting process.