Introduction

Canada is increasingly facing a shortage of skilled workers. This situation is certainly not unique to Canada as countries around the world face similar talent shortages in their respective markets. Combined with an accelerating demand for skilled workers, this shortage may impede opportunities for organizational growth (Manpower Group 2012). In today’s globalized economy, competition for skilled labour is becoming a concern for organizations as they continue to strive for economic growth and maintain competitive advantage in the world economy. One of the ways to offset this impending shortage of skilled workers is through immigration. Indeed, immigration is expected to account for a full 100 % of Canada’s net labour force growth in the not-too-distant future (Citizenship & Immigration Canada 2012). The proportion of immigrants who self-identify as visible minorities is also increasing. In Canada, the term visible minority is defined as “persons, other than aboriginal peoples, who are non-Caucasian in race or non-white in colour.” Compared to earlier waves of immigrants who arrived primarily from European countries and tended to be white, recent immigrants are increasingly arriving from China, India and the Philippines (Statistics Canada 2008a, 2012). More specifically, 75 % of immigrants who arrived in Canada between 2001 and 2006 identified as visible minorities (Statistics Canada 2008b). In addition, projections estimate that 19 to 23 % of Canada’s population will be composed of visible minorities by 2017, up from 16.2 % in 2006 (Statistics Canada 2006, 2011).

Moreover, in recent years, more than 40 % of the immigrants admitted to Canada were categorized under the skilled worker category (Citizenship and Immigration Canada 2008). In 2006, immigrants who were 25 to 54 years of age were more likely to have a university degree than Canadian-born men and women. While 36 % of immigrants in this age group had at least a bachelor’s degree, the proportion among those born in Canada was only 22 % (Statistics Canada 2007). However, there is evidence that many immigrants face barriers that prevent them from integrating equitably into the Canadian labour force (Li 2000; Zietsma 2007), and they face multiple barriers in the labour market in terms of income attainment, career development, occupational rank and salary (Abbott and Beach 2011; Aydemir and Skuterud 2008; Balakrishnan and Hou 1999; Commission on the Reform of Ontario’s Public Services 2010; Gosine 2000; Greenhaus et al. 1990; Howland and Sakellariou 1993; Li 2000; Nakhaie 2006; Swidinsky and Swidinsky 2002; Teelucksingh and Galabuzi 2005; Zietsma 2007, 2010). Despite the fact that the average immigrant has more education than the average native-born Canadian, their education and work experience have not been translated into a commensurate level of earnings (Bloom and Grant 2001; Bloom and Gunderson 1991; Li 2000; Statistics Canada 2011; Teelucksingh and Galabuzi 2005; Zietsma 2007). For example, previous studies found that it takes between 10 and 40 years for immigrants’ pay and benefits satisfaction to converge with those of their native-born counterparts (Chowhan et al. 2012; Frenette and Morissette 2003; Hum and Simpson 1999).

Why Career Satisfaction?

All workers, immigrants or otherwise, want to have the opportunity to fully utilize their skills, knowledge and expertise and be successful in their careers. Much of the research to date has focused on the integration of new immigrants to the workforce, but few studies have addressed the experience of immigrants as they progress through their careers. Career success has been defined to include both objective (pay, promotions) and subjective (job satisfaction, career satisfaction) elements (Heslin 2005). Studies have been conducted to explore the factors which predict career success relating to both the subjective and objective components (Abele et al. 2011; Abele and Spurk 2009; Nabi 2001).

Career satisfaction is an important perceptual measure as it not only captures an individual’s self-referent definition of career success but it also has implications for employers. For example, Cowin et al. (2008) and Egan et al. (2004) found that job satisfaction positively impacts employee retention, while Poon (2004) found that career satisfaction was positively associated with career commitment. Overall, employees who are satisfied with their careers are more engaged and thus more likely to actively contribute to the organization’s success (Harter et al. 2002; Harter et al. 2009; Koyuncu et al. 2006). Harter et al. (2009) found that work units with higher levels of employee engagement significantly increased their odds of success. Response to career dissatisfaction can take the psychological form of employees’ disengagement. When dissatisfied employees are less engaged in their work, they will likely exhibit greater intentions to leave their organizations (Koyuncu et al. 2006).

Some of these studies have explicitly considered demographic variables such as race (white/non-white) in their analysis, but the results are mixed. In their study of more than 1,300 US executives, Judge et al. (1995) suggest that demographic, human capital, motivation and organizational variables explained significant variance in career success and satisfaction. The authors found that while level, quality, prestige of education and degree type predicted financial success, only motivational and organizational variables explained significant variance in job satisfaction. The authors conclude that the variables affecting “objective” career success are very different from those producing “subjectively” defined success. Interestingly, their study shows that despite earning more and receiving more promotions (objective measures), white executives tended to be less satisfied with their jobs (subjective measures) than “minority” executives. Similarly, Koyuncu et al. (2006) found that work situation characteristics as well as work life experiences had a direct impact on the job satisfaction, career satisfaction and intent to quit of employees. In contrast, Greenhaus et al. (1990) studied 828 manager/supervisor pairs and found that blacks reported having less job discretion and lower feelings of acceptance than whites. They also reported receiving fewer promotions and being less satisfied with their careers and were more likely to report negative organizational experiences than whites. Focusing on the IT sector, Igbaria and Wormley (1992) found evidence that Blacks receive less career support and tended to have lower levels of met expectations and career satisfaction than whites. Deshpande and Deshpande (2012) also found that visible minorities had lower levels of career satisfaction than white/Caucasians. Shields et al. (2010) also found that it took just over 10 years for immigrants to reach a level of satisfaction with their pay and benefits similar to that indicated by Canadian-born individuals.

Others have considered the role of gender. Armstrong-Stassen and Cameron (2005) looked at career satisfaction of older managerial and professional women and found that both individual and organization-related characteristics account for over 40 % of the variance in career satisfaction of both professional and managerial women. In contrast to the extent of information on immigrants’ demographic, human capital and objective workplace experiences, there is a lack of information on immigrants’ perceptions of their workplace experiences. Similarly, a review of the literature indicates that there is a need to examine immigrants’ work experiences (Bell et al. 2010) and more specifically, their career satisfaction levels (Lopes 2006) and the factors that affect those levels (Greenhaus et al. 1990). Studies relating to the impact of immigrant status on career success found that “foreign-born academic scientists and engineers are more productive than their U.S.-born peers in all areas but their average salaries” and “their work satisfaction levels are lower than those of US-born scientists” (Corley and Sabharwal 2007; Sabharwal 2011). Others have examined the impact of acculturation and acculturation stress on career outcomes, arguing that immigrants’ intercultural effectiveness, coping skills and career motivation are important moderators between acculturation stress and career outcomes (Bhagat and London 1999). However, in general, there is limited research comparing immigrant and non-immigrant career outcomes, particularly career satisfaction.

Considering that 75 % of Canada’s recent immigrants are members of visible minority groups (Statistics Canada 2008b) and the limited literature on the career success of immigrants in the Canadian labour force, our paper will explore the subjective component of career success in order to identify some of its correlates and assess the level of career satisfaction of both visible minority and non-visible minority immigrants. The next section presents a proposed theoretical framework of the correlates of career satisfaction. The third section discusses the method and sample used in this study, followed by empirical findings from analyses of the survey data.

Conceptual Framework

Auster (2001) developed a conceptual framework to measure the career satisfaction of midcareer professional women. Auster’s framework examines the impact of five dimensions on career satisfaction. The framework proposes that career satisfaction is impacted by (1) individual characteristics, (2) career characteristics, (3) organizational characteristics, (4) job characteristics and (5) stress factors. The framework was used in Auster and Ekstein (2005) to examine the career satisfaction levels of 125 professional engineering women. They found that career characteristics and organizational variables had insufficient impact on career satisfaction; the greatest impact on career satisfaction was derived from job characteristics.

This paper uses an augmentation of the framework in Auster (2001). We posit that the career satisfaction of professional immigrants will be related to the following categories: (1) employee characteristics, (2) employer characteristics, (3) objective employment outcomes and (4) subjective workplace perceptions. Employee characteristics include gender, visible minority status, membership in the LGBT community, disability, marital status and the human capital they bring to the workplace including tenure, age and education. Employer characteristics include industry sector, occupation, rank in organization and region of work. Objective employment outcomes include compensation and whether the employees had received any developmental opportunities or promotions in the 3 years prior to completing the survey. Subjective workplace perceptions include the employees’ relationship with their managers and their colleagues, the degree of skill utilization and the extent to which employees feel that their organization’s career advancement processes are fair. Each of the four key factors discussed above are elaborated upon below.

Employee Characteristics

Our model considers a range of personal characteristics including gender, visible minority, disability, LGBT status and whether the person is an immigrant. Previous studies have found that women were less satisfied with their careers than men (Ayers et al. 2008; Buddeberg-Fischer et al. 2010; Hofmans et al. 2008), that visible minorities were less satisfied than white/Caucasians (Deshpande and Deshpande 2012) and that immigrants were less satisfied than Canadian-born respondents (Igbaria and Wormley 1992). Although we were unable to locate empirical studies that looked at career satisfaction levels of people with disabilities, and those identifying as LGBT, studies have examined job satisfaction. Uppal (2005) and Gazioglu and Tansel (2006) found that employees with disabilities are less satisfied at work, and Drydakis (2012) found that employees identifying as gay were less satisfied with their jobs than heterosexual respondents. Based on these findings, we would expect these groups to be correlated with lower career satisfaction.

  • H1a: Women are less satisfied with their careers than men.

  • H1b: Visible minorities are less satisfied with their careers than white/Caucasians.

  • H1c: Immigrants are less satisfied with their careers than Canadian-born respondents.

  • H1d: LGBTs are less satisfied with their careers than heterogeneous respondents.

In addition to personal characteristics, our analyses also consider a range of human capital variables. Education, age and tenure are part of an employee’s human capital, acting as proxies for their abilities, skills, qualifications and expertise. If the person-job match is optimal, then one would expect employees with higher educational attainment to be involved in more interesting work and therefore enjoy a higher level of career satisfaction. On the other hand, if employees are placed in jobs that did not utilize their education or if these employees have higher expectations from their careers, they may feel less satisfied. Previous studies have found that higher educational attainment is often associated with lower job satisfaction (Gazioglu and Tansel 2006; Long 2005). Older employees may feel less satisfied with their careers than younger employees if they feel their opportunities for further professional growth were limited (Armstrong-Stassen and Ursel 2009; Korman et al. 1981; Lyons et al. 2012, Templer et al. 2010). Clark et al. (1996) found that job satisfaction has a u-shaped correlation with age, which we would posit will also be found with career satisfaction. Finally, long tenure has been found to be associated with a lower level of satisfaction (Gattiker and Larwood 1988; Lee 2003).

  • H2a: More educated employees will be less satisfied with their careers.

  • H2b: Age will have a u-shaped relationship with career satisfaction.

  • H2c: Tenure will have an inverse relationship with career satisfaction.

Employer Characteristics

The employer characteristics investigated in our analyses include ranks within the organization and controls for industries and place of work. Our sample includes employees from managerial, professional and executive roles in various industries across Canada. Previous studies have found that employees occupying higher ranking positions will experience higher levels of career success and satisfaction (Eyupoglu and Saner 2009; Zussman and Jabes 1989). Therefore, we hypothesize that employees occupying roles in higher ranks in the organizational hierarchy will be more satisfied with their careers.

  • H3: Higher ranking respondents will be more satisfied with their careers.

Objective Employment Outcomes

Challenging jobs have been associated with higher levels of career satisfaction in both managerial and professional women (Burke 2001). We posit that employees who received promotions or developmental opportunities will be more satisfied with their careers, as has been illustrated by previous research (Armstrong-Stassen and Ursel 2009; De Vos et al. 2011). Promotions account for significant variance in career satisfaction levels (Seibert and Kraimer 2001).

  • H4a: Respondents who have received promotions will be more satisfied with their careers than those who have not.

  • H4b: Respondents who have received developmental opportunities will be more satisfied with their careers than those who have not.

Subjective Workplace Perceptions

Employees’ perceptions of the workplace affect their effectiveness in carrying out their work (Armstrong-Stassen and Cameron 2005; Armstrong-Stassen and Ursel 2009). This paper looks at four perceptual measures: relationship with manager, relationship with colleagues, perception of fairness of the organization’s career advancement processes and degree to which respondents feel their skills are being utilized in their current jobs.

An employee’s relationship with their manager is critical to their career satisfaction. Studies have shown that a lack of career and leadership support can lead to dissatisfaction (Igbaria and Wormley 1992; Romle and Shamsudin 2006) and that a good relationship with one’s supervisor is associated with higher career satisfaction (August and Waltman 2004). Conversely, effective communication and supportive relationships where managers provide feedback, guidance and career-related information can enhance an individual’s career (Baird and Kram 1983; Romle and Shamsudin 2006).

  • H5a: Respondents who indicate a positive relationship with their managers will be more satisfied with their careers.

An employee’s relationship with their colleagues can affect their access to job/career information. Studies have shown that informal social networking, an important venue where information about advancement and promotion opportunities are discussed (Tsui and Gutek 1984), has a positive effect on career success (Wolff and Moser 2009) Although women engage in formal and informal networking more than men, the positive relationship between networking and career satisfaction is higher for men (Emmerik et al. 2006). However, visible minorities usually receive support from fewer networks (McGuire 2012).

  • H5b: Respondents who indicate a positive relationship with their colleagues will have greater career satisfaction.

Igbaria and Wormley (1992) found that fair assessment of an employee’s performance by their managers is associated with positive advancement prospects, and hence, fairness is related to higher career satisfaction. More recently, Alansari (2011) found that fair performance evaluations were ranked among the top most important aspect of job satisfaction. Therefore, we expect employees’ perceptions of fairness in their organization’s career advancement process to be related to higher levels of career satisfaction.

  • H5c: Respondents who perceive their performance evaluations to be fair will have greater career satisfaction.

Finally, Aryee (1993) found that skill utilization is positively associated with career satisfaction. In a review of literature by Feldman (1996), it was found that underemployment negatively effects career satisfaction. More recently, Lai and Kapstad (2009) found that competence mobilization is positively related to career and pay satisfaction. Armstrong-Stassen and Ursel (2009) also found higher levels of career satisfaction for those respondents who felt that their work was valued. Accordingly, we posit skills utilization will have a positive association with career satisfaction. Employees who are able to utilize their expertise at work will have a sense of achievement and personal satisfaction that will result in a higher level of career satisfaction.

  • H5d: Respondents who perceive their skills to be used to their full potential will have greater career satisfaction.

Overall, we propose that employees who scored higher on these perceptual measures will experience a higher level of career satisfaction.

Data and Method

Sample

This paper utilizes survey data collected as part of a larger study that examined career advancement of visible minorities in corporate Canada (Diversity Institute and Catalyst Canada 2007). Financial Post 500 organizations were invited to participate in this research project. The Financial Post identified the biggest 500 corporations based on their previous year’s revenues. Over 60,000 senior employees from 43 organizations and firms across Canada that agreed to participate were invited to complete an online survey. Over 17,000 pre-managers, managers, professionals and executives responded to the survey between October 2006 and February 2007 at a response rate of 29 %. Of the full-time employees who responded, 54 % were male and 50 % possessed some form of university education. The average tenure with their respective organizations was 11.4 years, at an average age of 41.7 years with an average salary of $90,775.

Case-wise deletion, a method of sample selection whereby an employee is excluded if there are any missing values in any of our variables of interest, yielded a final sample of over 13,000 respondents who were full-time employees. Of the employees included in our final sample, 54 % were male and 52 % possessed some forms of university education. The average tenure with their respective organizations was 11.3 years, at an average age of 40.7 with an average salary of $90,645.

There are no discernible differences based on the demographic characteristics between the selected sample and the employees who completed the survey with the exception of salary. About 60 % of the respondents included in the final sample earned $40,000 or more, compared to only 55 % of all the respondents to the survey. Table 1 summarizes the objective variables used in this paper.

Table 1 Variable definitions
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Perceptual Measures

The subjective perceptual measures used in this study are described in more detail below. A five-point scale was used for each measure, ranging from strongly disagree to strongly agree. Responses to the items used in each measure were averaged and converted to a 0 to 100 scale.

For the purposes of this paper, the dependent variable was assessed with a four-item career satisfaction scale which asked respondents how satisfied they were with their progress toward meeting their overall career goals, their goals for income, advancement and the development of new skills (Greenhaus et al. 1990). This scale has also been used in other studies that looked at career satisfaction (Igbaria 1991; Judge et al. 1995; Seibert and Kraimer 2001; Armstrong-Stassen and Cameron 2005). The reliability coefficient (Cronbach alpha) was 0.85.

The employees’ relationship with their managers was assessed using a seven-item scale (Greenhaus et al. 1990). This measure accesses the support and sponsorship offered by managers and the extent to which managers facilitate career and personal development of their employees. Items include: “My manager makes an effort to learn about my career goals and aspirations”; “My manager keeps me informed about different career opportunities for me in my organization”; “My manager provides appropriate recognition when I accomplish something substantial in the job”; “My manager gives me helpful feedback about my performance”; “My manager supports my attempts to acquire any addition training/education that I need to further my career”; “My manager provides assignments to develop new strengths and skills” and “My manager assigns special projects to me that increase my visibility in the organization”. The reliability coefficient (Cronbach alpha) was 0.95.

The employees’ relationship with colleagues was assessed using five items from the survey (Diversity Institute and Catalyst Canada 2007). This measure captures feelings of respect and inclusivity shown by colleagues. Items include: “My colleagues treat me with respect”; “My colleagues treat each other with respect”; “I receive the support that I need form other co-workers to meet my work objectives”; “My colleagues keep me informed on matters that may impact my work”; “My colleagues include me in informal networking”. The reliability coefficient (Cronbach alpha) was 0.86.

Perception of Career Advancement Processes was assessed using six items from the survey (Diversity Institute and Catalyst Canada 2007). This measure involves access to career development and advancement opportunities and also beliefs about the fairness of current talent identification and promotion practices. Items include: “I believe my organization does a good job of promoting/admitting into partnership the most competent people”; “I believe I have the opportunity for personal development and growth in my organization”; “I believe I have as equal a chance of finding out about career advancement opportunities as my colleagues do”; “I believe ‘who you know’ (or ‘who knows you’) is more important than ‘what you know’ when deciding who gets career development opportunities in my organization (reverse)”; “I am aware of how talent is identified in my organization”; “I believe my organization’s talent identification process is fair”. The reliability coefficient (Cronbach alpha) was 0.83.

Skill utilization is measured using one item from the survey: “I feel that I am able to utilize my skills in my current position”. Means, standard deviations, coefficient alphas and correlations for the perceptual measures are reported in Table 2.

Table 2 Means, standard deviations and correlation coefficients for subjective perceptual measures
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Empirical Findings—Correlates of Career Satisfaction

Using the ordinary least squares multiple regression technique, we assess the importance of employee characteristics (Model 1 and 2), employer characteristics (Model 3), objective employment outcomes (Model 4) and subjective workplace perceptions (Model 5) on explaining career satisfaction of managers, professionals and executives. We utilize a set of hierarchical models in order to measure the variance explained by each group of our independent variables.

  • Model 1 in Table 3 shows the results from regressing the employee characteristics on career satisfaction. Women are three percentage points more satisfied than men, and those who are married are two percentage points more satisfied than respondents who were single supporting H1a. Respondents who identified as members of visible minority groups are six percentage points less satisfied than white/Caucasian respondents, supporting H1b. Similarly, immigrants are 3.18 percentage points less satisfied with their careers than native-born Canadians, supporting H1c. Individual characteristics, however, explain less than 4 % of the variation in the overall career satisfaction scores for the respondents in our sample.

    Table 3 Correlates of career satisfaction
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  • Model 2 builds on Model 1 and includes the human capital employees bring to their organizations. Higher educational attainment correlates with lower career satisfaction, supporting H2a. Both age and tenure exhibit a curvilinear relationship with career satisfaction, supporting H2b, and partially supporting H2c. Although Gattiker and Larwood (1988) and Lee (2003) found a negative relationship between tenure and career satisfaction, we found a curvilinear relationship. Respondents who have work experience outside of Canada are less satisfied with their careers than those without foreign work experience. This model, which includes all employee characteristics, explained only less than 5 % of the variation in the overall career satisfaction scores of the respondents in our sample.

  • Model 3 further included employer characteristics. Organizational rank was found to be positively associated with career satisfaction, supporting H3. Although ranks and industries are significantly correlated with career satisfaction levels, these variables account for an additional 3.7 % of the variance.

The significant correlates of career satisfaction are the objective employment outcomes and the subjective workplace perceptual measures. The objective employment outcomes account for an additional 8.19 % of the variance—see Model 4 in Table 3. Respondents with higher salaries and those who received promotion or developmental opportunities in the last 3 years are more satisfied with their careers, supporting H4a and H4b. The subjective workplace perceptual measures account for an additional 34.83 % of the variance in respondents’ career satisfaction scores—see Model 5 in Table 3. Higher scores on each of the perceptual measures correlate with higher career satisfaction levels, supporting H5a, H5b, H5c and H5c.

In the final column of Table 3 (Model 5), a visible minority respondent is less satisfied with his/her career, whereas the reverse is true for women. The possession of foreign credentials and foreign work experience, two variables that were significantly correlated with career satisfaction in Model 4, are no longer significant after the inclusion of objective employment outcome variables and subjective workplace perceptual measures. Age and tenure continue to have a curvilinear relationship whereby career satisfaction levels of older and longer tenure employees decline and then revert to an upward trend. Higher educational attainment is associated with lower levels of career satisfaction. In the final analysis, employee characteristics, employer characteristics, objective employment outcomes and the subjective workplace perceptual measures account for 51.5 % of the variance in career satisfaction levels.

Using our career satisfaction composite, the overall mean career satisfaction score for the respondents in our sample is 66.2 on a 100-point scale. However, the mean career satisfaction scores for immigrant respondents (mean = 61.2, SD = 25.2) are lower than those who were born in Canada (d = 6.8, p < 0.01). In addition, there is also a discrepancy in the career satisfaction scores of visible minority immigrants (mean = 59.0, SD = 25.5) as they are much lower than that of non-visible minority immigrants (d = 7.2, p < 0.01)—see Table 4.

Table 4 The declining CSAT continuum (overall average = 66.2)
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The Immigrant Experience

Employee and Employer Characteristics

As shown in Table 5, about 70 % of the visible minority immigrants possessed a university education, compared to 46 % of non-visible minority native-born and 54.5 % of non-visible minority immigrants. Although the average age is similar across the three groups, visible minority immigrants had been with their employer for only 8.4 years; and further, only 5.4 %of the visible minority immigrants were in executive roles. Potentially due to their low representation in executive and managerial roles, visible minority immigrants earned an average annual salary of $83,100, compared to $92,100 for non-visible minority native-borns. Conversely, average earnings for non-visible minority immigrants are higher than that of non-visible minority who were born in Canada.

Table 5 Selected descriptive statistics by immigrant and visible minority status
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Objective Employment Outcomes

Similar proportions in each of the three groups were promoted; however, only 62.8 % of visible minority immigrants received developmental opportunity in the last 3 years, compared to 75.0 % of the non-visible minority native-born and 69.8 % of the non-visible minority-immigrants. Immigrants are more likely to possess foreign credentials (38.5 % for visible minority immigrants and 19.1 % for non-visible minority-immigrants) compared to only 1.0 % of non-visible minority native-born. Only 12.7 % of non-visible minority native-born possessed foreign work experience, compared to 46.4 % of non-visible minority immigrants and 54.8 % of visible minority immigrants.

Subjective Perceptual Measures

In terms of the subjective workplace perceptual measures, visible minority immigrants scored two to four percentage points lower than the non-visible minority groups (whether native-born or immigrants).

Immigrant Regression Results

Table 6 shows the partial results from the career satisfaction model for each of the three groups: non-visible minority who were born in Canada, non-visible minority immigrants and visible minority immigrants. The overall power of the model for explaining the variance in career satisfaction was similar for the three groups (adjusted R-squared = 49.6 % for non-visible minority who were born in Canada, 50.7 % for non-visible minority immigrants and visible minority immigrants). We postulate that the reason why rank was significant for non-visible minority native-born respondents, but not for non-visible minority respondents could be due to a lesser concern with rank but a greater concern for income and promotion for visible minority respondents (Table 6); however, this is an area requiring further research.

Table 6 Correlates of career satisfaction by immigrant and visible minority status
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Employee and Employer Characteristics

With respect to gender, women in all three groups are more satisfied than their male counterparts. Age and tenure still exhibit the same curvilinear relationship with career satisfaction for the non-visible minority native-born Canadians and visible minority immigrants, but tenure is no longer significantly associated with career satisfaction of the non-visible minority immigrants. Education is associated with career satisfaction of non-visible minority who were born in Canada but not for the non-visible minority immigrant group. Although non-visible minority native-born Canadian pre-managers are less satisfied with their careers than managers, organizational rank is no longer significantly associated with career satisfaction levels for the immigrant groups.

Objective Employment Outcomes and Subjective Perceptual Measures

All of the objective employment outcome variables and subjective workplace perceptual measures are positively associated with career satisfaction level. For example, a visible minority immigrant who received a promotion in the last 3 years has a career satisfaction score that is 4.3 % higher than those who did not receive a promotion.

Conclusion

Given the imminent talent shortage facing Canadian organizations, it is important that managers understand the factors that influence career satisfaction levels of their employees. Between now and 2016, immigrants are expected to account for a full 100 % of Canada’s net labour force growth (Citizenship and Immigration Canada 2012). These skilled immigrants are selected on their skills and expertise but often face barriers to fully utilize their potential when they enter the professional arena.

Few studies exist that look at employment outcomes of immigrants. The analyses in this paper contribute to the literature on career satisfaction among managers, professionals and executives in large Canadian for-profit and private organizations, in particular by their immigrant and visible minority status. Career satisfaction, a subjective and self-referent definition of career success, has been shown to be associated with lower turnover and higher employee engagement which has a direct impact on an organization’s success and growth.

Previous literature has shown that employee and employer characteristics are associated with employees’ career satisfaction level. Our analyses confirmed this finding. More importantly, our findings show that objective employment outcomes and subjective workplace perceptual measures are inextricably linked to career satisfaction. The explanatory variables included in our final model explained over 50 % of the variance in career satisfaction levels, with the majority of the explanation being derived from objective employment opportunities and, to a greater degree, subjective perceptual measures. It is possible that perceptual measures account for a greater explanation of career satisfaction due to the ability of the perceptual measures to capture work experiences. Other studies have found that positive work experiences such as the opportunity to utilize skills (Armstrong-Stassen and Ursel 2009; Aryee 1993; Lai and Kapstad 2009), positive relationships with colleagues (Wolff and Moser 2009) and managers (Romle and Shamsudin 2006; August and Waltman 2004), and fair assessment of work (Igbaria and Wormley 1992), all have a positive impact on an employee’s career satisfaction.

Although the overall career satisfaction score of our sample was an average of 66.2, there is a discernible difference when we look at the career satisfaction level by immigration and visible minority status. Native-born Canadians scored higher than immigrants (68.1 versus 61.2), and in each category, those who self-identified as visible minorities scored lower than those who did not (68.8 for non-visible minority native-born versus 62.6 for visible minority native-born; 66.2 for non-visible minority immigrant versus 59.0 for visible minority immigrant). These findings are consistent with those found in Deshpande and Deshpande (2012) and Igbaria and Wormley (1992).

The ability of our model to explain the variation in career satisfaction levels for non-visible minority native-born, non-visible minority immigrant and visible minority immigrants is similar. Factors considered in our model are associated with career satisfaction levels of each of these three groups.

The findings also present a number of significant implications for management. An understanding of the factors that correlate with career satisfaction enables organizations to focus their efforts on creating an inclusive and productive work environment where all employees can excel. Based on the findings, the creation of policies, programs and practices that facilitate fair and equitable rewards and career advancement and development processes will be beneficial to both organizations and employees as higher levels of career satisfaction are associated with lower levels of turnover intention (Joo and Park 2010).

One of the most important assets of an organization is the talents of its employees. With the imminent talent shortage, recruitment and retention of skilled and committed employees have become most organizations’ top priorities in maintaining competitive advantage. Diverse groups have been found to enhance access to global markets (Adler et al. 2001), increase creativity and innovations (Dalton 2006), enable ‘out-of-the-box’ ideas (Certo et al. 2006) and increase financial performance (Conference Board of Canada 2008).

Under the old employment contract, once employees are hired, they could be expected to stay with the firm for some time. However, with the increasing volatility of the talent market, organizations would be wise to engage in re-recruiting their existing employees on an on-going basis. One place to start could be to include career satisfaction scores as one of their key performance indexes on their organization’s balanced scorecard.

Despite the contribution made by this paper, there are certain limitations that constrain us from generalizing our results to the overall Canadian labour force. As mentioned earlier, our data only include managers, professionals and executives who occupy the upper echelon of large Canadian corporations. Large corporations are more likely to have established human resources processes and the financial resources to ensure the appropriate infrastructure is in place. As such, our findings may not apply to entry-level employee in small- and medium-sized organizations, the public service or non-profit organizations. Also, because the visible minority immigrant and non-visible minority respondents have been with their organizations for 8 and 11 years, respectively, the findings may not speak to the experience of new immigrants. Future research should attempt to examine why the greatest explanatory power for career satisfaction is derived from perceptual measures. The reason for differences between women in the three groups (visible minority, immigrant visible minority and immigrant-non visible minority), and the differences between recent and tenured immigrants, should also be examined in further detail in future studies.