Stagnation of employees in organizations especially in the civil service in developing countries is an existential issue, that is a potential determinant of intent to quit and actual turnover. Hence, the need to specifically determine the relationship between structural career plateauing (SCP) and turnover intentions of civil servants in South-East Nigeria. Herzberg’s Motivation-Hygiene Theory was used in anchoring the work. The study adopted a survey research design with a population of 2318 civil servants working in the selected States Secretariats. A sample of 328 was arrived at through the application of Krejcie and Morgan sample size determination formula. The instrument for data collection was a structured questionnaire, whose reliability was ascertained using Cronbach Alpha statistics, with a coefficient of .872. The analysis of data was done using a combination of descriptive statistics and inferential statistics. The result indicated that SCP was significant in predicting turnover intentions (R-Squared = 0.916679; p-value = 0.0000< 0.05). The study concluded that turnover intention is a phenomenon that is influenced by SCP, as plateauing of employees increase, so also does the intention of the employees to quit. Sequel to this, among others, it was recommended that heads of civil service need to ensure that there is equity, fairness and consistency in the promotion of workers, to avoid a feeling of inequity and injustice, which might make the workers less committed and more inclined to leave.
Keywords: Career Plateauing, Employee Turnover Intentions, Structural Career Plateauing, Content Career Plateauing and Civil Service.
The Analysis of Social Welfare Civil Servants’ Turnover Intention