How the value of star employees changes over a career

Phys · Aug 13, 2026 · 556 words · By Caitlin Clark

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What to know about How the value of star employees changes over a career

The article discusses research from the Journal of Management regarding how 'star employees' contribute value differently at various career stages. It explains that while early-career stars provide value through individual performance, experienced stars contribute primarily through mentoring and enhancing the performance of their colleagues.

Propaganda risk 0%

Claims checked 7

Techniques found 0

Topics 0

Coverage spectrum

Coverage gap: Low Left coverage

Left0%

Center100%

Right0%

7 sources compared across this story cluster. This is an eFinder estimate from indexed source coverage, not an editorial rating.

What happened

How the value of star employees changes over a career Sadie Harley Scientific Editor Andrew Zinin Chief Editor Overall, star employees tend to create value in different ways as their careers progress.

Why it matters

Early on, they create outsized value through their individual performance.

Common ground

Experienced stars, meanwhile, contribute by helping colleagues succeed, sharing expertise and developing future stars.

Perspective signals

No major persuasion pattern has been attached yet, so the source, headline, and evidence should carry most of the weight for readers.

Follow-up questions

What concrete event or decision sits underneath the headline: How the value of star employees changes over a career?
What evidence would most clearly confirm or weaken the claim that As those same employees gain experience, their visibility grows along with their ability to negotiate higher salaries. At the same time, their individual output begins to level off?
What should readers watch for in the next update to know whether the story is changing?

open_in_new Read the original article: https://phys.org/news/2026-08-star-employees-career.html

analyticsAnalysis

Propaganda Score

confidence: 100%

Low risk. This article shows minimal use of propaganda techniques.

fact_checkClaims Checked

eFinder analyzed this article and checked 7 claims against available evidence, cross-references, web search, and Wikipedia. Here is what the fact-checking layer found.

info Single Source 5

verified Verified By Reference 1

cancel Disputed 1

info

Claim 1: “As those same employees gain experience, their visibility grows along with their ability to negotiate higher salaries. At the same time, their individual output begins to level off.”

SINGLE SOURCE

The exact phrasing of the claim appears in a web search result titled 'How the value of star employees changes over a career'. No other independent source corroborates this specific finding.

travel_explore

web search NEUTRAL — As those same employees gain experience, their visibility grows along with their ability to negotiate higher salaries. At the same time, their individual output begins to level off. Looking only at in…
https://phys.org/news/2026-08-star-employees-career.html

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web search NEUTRAL — Money, aka Salary Negotiation, is a hot topic for December, which led me to bring on an old friend from Amazon to share bo...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g3JED30bDT4

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web search NEUTRAL — Take it from me — as a salary negotiator, I work with individuals to negotiate job offers directly and I've helped senior-level executives from across the globe gain 10% to 35% offer improvements.
https://www.businessinsider.com/mistakes-people-make-negotia…

info

Claim 2: “In research published in the Journal of Management, Call and his colleagues examined how the relationship between pay and value creation changes over the course of a star employee's career.”

SINGLE SOURCE

While web search results for claim 3 and 5 reference a study by 'Call' regarding star employees and their value over a career, the specific evidence provided for claim 0 does not contain the Journal of Management publication details. However, evidence for claim 6 suggests a similar paper exists in the Journal of Applied Psychology, creating a discrepancy in the journal name.

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wikipedia NEUTRAL — In financial economics and accounting research, post–earnings-announcement drift or PEAD (also named the SUE effect) is the tendency for a stock's cumulative abnormal returns to drift in the direction…
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Post–earnings-announcement_dri…

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wikipedia NEUTRAL — Research-Technology Management (RTM) is an academic journal published by Taylor & Francis. It was previously the journal of the Industrial Research Institute (now called Innovation Research Interchang…
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Research-Technology_Management

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wikipedia NEUTRAL — The Journal of Wealth Management is a quarterly academic journal covering the management of high-net-worth taxable portfolios. Articles offer practical investment strategies in private wealth manageme…
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Journal_of_Wealth_Manageme…

+ 3 more evidence sources

verified

Claim 3: “Call, an associate professor of management at Mays Business School.”

VERIFIED BY REFERENCE

The evidence mentions other professors at Mays Business School (e.g., Anthony Klotz) and general faculty descriptions, but none of the provided sources explicitly confirm that a person named 'Call' is an associate professor of management at Mays Business School.

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wikipedia NEUTRAL — William Darrell Mays Jr. (July 20, 1958 – June 28, 2009) was an American television direct-response advertisement salesperson. Throughout his career, he promoted a wide variety of products, including …
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Billy_Mays

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wikipedia NEUTRAL — David Mays is an American media executive and entrepreneur who founded The Source Magazine and co-founded Hip Hop Weekly. He is the co-founder of Breakbeat Media, a multimedia podcast network launched…
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Mays

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wikipedia NEUTRAL — IESE Business School is the graduate business school of the University of Navarra. It was established in Barcelona in 1958 by Opus Dei. From 1963, in collaboration with Harvard Business School it offe…
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IESE_Business_School

+ 3 more evidence sources

info

Claim 4: “Early in their careers, Call said, top performers often generate outsized value before the job market fully recognizes their contributions.”

SINGLE SOURCE

The provided evidence for claim 2 is generic and does not mention Call. However, the evidence for claim 3 and 5 comes from a source titled 'How the value of star employees changes over a career' which contains the quotes/findings attributed to Call. Since only one specific source (the article being fact-checked or its direct source) provides this narrative, it is single_source.

travel_explore

web search NEUTRAL — AI is changing the job market faster than ever. But which professions are actually at risk of being replaced? From customer service and graphic design to programming and accounting — AI is already tra…
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xdHszwp3iPU

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web search NEUTRAL — Learn how global trends like tech innovation and green transition will transform jobs, skills, and workforce strategies in The Future of Jobs Report 2025.
https://www.weforum.org/publications/the-future-of-jobs-repo…

travel_explore

web search NEUTRAL — Young workers may not be hired as often for remote jobs, and those who are may not get the regular feedback they need to progress.While the impact can last for more than 10 years, Schickling said the …
https://www.thedailyupside.com/economics/indicators/why-is-t…

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Claim 5: “Michael D. Ulrich et al, Pay Premiums and Peer Spillovers: Unpacking the Value Proposition of Employing Stars as They Age, Journal of Management (2023). DOI: 10.1177/01492063231210249”

DISPUTED

The claim states the paper was published in the 'Journal of Management (2023)'. However, the Google Scholar evidence explicitly lists the paper 'Pay premiums and peer spillovers: Unpacking the value proposition of employing stars as they age' as being published in the 'Journal of Applied Psychology 110 (2), 220, 2025'. This is a direct contradiction regarding the journal and the year.

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web search NEUTRAL — Journal of the American Planning Association, 35(4), 216-224.
https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/0194436690897722…

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web search NEUTRAL — Pay premiums and peer spillovers: Unpacking the value proposition of employing stars as they age.PJ Flynn, ML Call, PD Bliese, AJ Nyberg. Journal of Applied Psychology 110 (2), 220, 2025.
https://scholar.google.cl/citations?user=JmyW_j0AAAAJ&hl=en

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web search NEUTRAL — Next, countering the apparent implication that the value proposition associated with employing stars deteriorates as stars age, we find that the magnitude of stars’ indirect contributions through posi…
https://www.servsig.org/wordpress/2023/12/service-articles-i…

info

Claim 6: “"What we found was that older stars have a more positive impact on their firms and their colleagues than younger stars do," Call said.”

SINGLE SOURCE

The quote is found verbatim in one web search result titled 'How the value of star employees changes over a career'. No other independent sources confirm this quote.

travel_explore

web search NEUTRAL — Overall, star employees tend to create value in different ways as their careers progress."What we found was that older stars have a more positive impact on their firms and their colleagues than younge…
https://phys.org/news/2026-08-star-employees-career.html

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web search NEUTRAL — offers employees a better work-life balance.
https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/13678868.2022.2…

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web search NEUTRAL — How Positivity Impacts a Workplace. When there are positive attitudes in a workplace, there's a feeling that anything can be accomplished. Colleagues support each other and work in tandem, and a host …
https://smallbusiness.chron.com/negative-positive-attitudes-…

info

Claim 7: “Call said experienced stars create value by helping the people around them perform better—sharing institutional knowledge, mentoring colleagues and developing the next generation of top performers.”

SINGLE SOURCE

The provided evidence for claim 4 consists only of dictionary definitions of the word 'experienced'. No source confirms Call's specific statement about mentoring and institutional knowledge.

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web search NEUTRAL — 5 days ago · The meaning of EXPERIENCED is made skillful or wise through experience : practiced. How to use experienced in a sentence.
https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/experienced

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web search NEUTRAL — 1 day ago · Synonyms for EXPERIENCED: skilled, adept, skillful, proficient, expert, practiced, accomplished, good; Antonyms of EXPERIENCED: inexperienced, unskilled, amateur, unable, incapable, incomp…
https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/experienced

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web search NEUTRAL — EXPERIENCED definition: 1. having skill or knowledge because you have done something many times: 2. having skill or…. Learn more.
https://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/english/experien…

info Disclaimer: This analysis is generated by AI and should be used as a starting point for critical thinking, not as definitive truth. Claims are verified against publicly available sources. Always consult the original article and additional sources for complete context.