The reasons why people procrastinate when pursuing career advancement relate as much to elements that organisations can influence as they do to personality.

This is according to a research paper in Human Resource Development Quarterly based on the thesis of Lin Zhu, a master’s graduate of John Molson School of Business’ management department. “Procrastination in a career advancement context happens when people postpone, delay or avoid the pursuit of promotions at work – whether it is active or passive,” Zhu explained.

Based on a survey of 201 people, the research shows that organisations can help reduce career advancement procrastination by eliminating the contextual barriers affecting it, including discrimination based on demographic characteristics such as gender, race, religion, sexual identity and age.

“We looked at two questions about procrastination in a career context: what are the things inside a person that might lead them to procrastinate and what are the things outside them, in their environment,” said paper co-author Tracy Hecht, an associate professor of management at John Molson and Zhu’s MSc thesis supervisor.

“Contextual factors are as important as personality traits. This means that organisations have a major role to play in terms of removing the barriers in people’s paths,” Hecht added.

Organisations can also provide career resources and access to training that help build people’s confidence in their ability to achieve their career goals. “It may sound like common sense, but self-confidence is really powerful and it drives a lot of our behaviour. When we feel confident that we can do things, we do them without delay,” reasoned Hecht.