KIRD
1st analysis competed
The Impact of Past Achievements and Career Stagnation on the Vitality of Public Science and Technology R&D Personnel

Citation
Abstract
Previous reserach abstract is the following, “This study empirically investigates the impact of past performance and career plateau on the vigor of public R&D personnel within a performance management system focused on quantitative research achievements. In public science and technology research institutions, researchers’ vigor serves as a source of creativity and innovation, playing a crucial role in the nation’s sustainable development and enhancing its scientific and technological competitiveness. While past performance can positively stimulate psychological resources and motivation, boosting vigor, career plateau—both structural and job content plateau—may negatively affect vigor by lowering expectations for growth opportunities. This study aims to clarify the specific effects of past performance and career plateau on vigor and examine how past performance influences vigor through career plateau. The findings reveal that past job performance positively impacts researchers’ vigor, showing that factors such as task accomplishment, self-efficacy, positive reinforcement, and challenge can foster vigor. Furthermore, past performance was found to reduce both job content and structural plateaus, though the effect size was relatively modest. Among the two dimensions of career plateau, structural plateau was shown to have a negative impact on vigor, highlighting how structural factors—such as limited promotion opportunities in public science and technology institutions—can diminish researchers’ vigor. Conversely, job content plateau did not have a statistically significant negative effect on vigor, suggesting that the impact of job challenges or changes on vigor may be relatively minor in the context of domestic public research institutions. Finally, structural plateau demonstrated a negative mediating effect in the relationship between past performance and vigor, indicating that increased quantitative achievements can alleviate structural plateau, thereby mitigating its adverse effect on vigor. These results suggest that public research institution researchers who achieve higher performance may develop greater expectations for career advancement, allowing them to maintain or enhance their vigor. Thus, past performance plays a crucial role in fostering researchers’ vigor, offering important implications for the motivation and career management of R&D personnel. This study provides practical insights into career management strategies aimed at enhancing the vigor of public R&D personnel. Given that high performance increases vigor and alleviates career plateau, organizations should consider implementing various support systems and actively introducing reward systems to encourage performance achievement.”
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