Abstract

This study employed a secondary data analysis of publicly available survey data from the Workplace Equity Project to investigate factors influencing workplace happiness among employees in North America earning $50,000 or more annually. While proactive career behaviors were hypothesized to correlate with greater career satisfaction, the analysis revealed that leadership recognition, organizational support, and perceptions of fairness were more significant contributors. Findings underscore the importance of managerial practices in fostering employee satisfaction and highlight actionable areas for organizational improvement. 

Research Question

This analysis examines the relationship between proactive career behaviors, organizational support, and perceived career satisfaction among full-time employees in the scholarly publishing industry. Specifically, it investigates whether proactive behaviors (e.g., self-advocacy, networking) lead to greater satisfaction and how organizational factors like leadership recognition and workplace culture moderate this relationship. By addressing these questions, this study aims to provide actionable insights for improving employee satisfaction and organizational outcomes. 

Findings

There are seven variables identified to have a meaningful impact on respondents’ career satisfaction. Below, primary conclusions of the analysis are outlined.

The respondents’ level of personal proactivity did not have a meaningful impact on their career satisfaction as compared to the other factors.

This said, when proactivity measures were compared to only each other, those that had the larger impact (albeit modest) were Seek and Pursue Advancement (career opportunities) and Self-Advocate when Appropriate (salary opportunities). The first being a positive correlation and the second being a negative one. 

Respondents receiving more work-life balance benefits from their employers had higher satisfaction scores, up to a point.

Analysis revealed that respondents with 2 or fewer benefits from their employer had the lowest career satisfaction scores while those with 4-10 had the highest. Interestingly, those with 6-10 were slightly lower than those with 4-6, however, the satisfaction was still much higher than the groups with few/no benefits.

Respondents’ experience of their workplace's values around DEIB and Support showed a positive impact to career satisfaction.

When comparing the impact of an organization making clear its values, and how respondents experienced those values, the two most prominent were DEIB and a “Culture of Support”.

Additional analysis is necessary to fully understand the impact of training and development (T&D) opportunities on career satisfaction. 

When comparing respondents with T&D opportunities to those without, a difference in career satisfaction was seen. However, this difference was not notable when comparing other factors. It should be noted that most respondents had T&D opportunities available and so the results can be skewed as a result.

Recognition from leadership, appropriate compensation, and access to management were among the most impactful for respondents.

When comparing the impact of various career success measures (largely recognition-based in nature), a few stood out from the rest. Those factors included recognition from leadership, appropriate compensation, and access to management. For managers, this means employee satisfaction is largely within their own control. 

Respondents' perception of fairness was substantially correlated with overall career satisfaction.

Factors such as fair pay, fair promotional opportunities, and fair career opportunities within the industry for those of all ethnic groups, age groups, and sexual orientations made a difference to respondent satisfaction.

Leaders wishing to drive greater employee satisfaction should focus on fostering a culture of employee support, recognize their employees often, and advocate for fair opportunities within the industry among diverse populations – particularly ethnic groups, age groups, and LGBTIA+.

This analysis categorized the largest potential drivers of career satisfaction as alignment with company culture, company-sponsored work-life benefits, company-sponsored training and development, mentorship, and individual career proactivity. Analysis of these factors culminated in a review of individual variables and the impact they may have. After extensive review, the variables identified as having the greatest impact to respondent career satisfaction were:  

Final Regression Analysis: Overall Career Satisfaction = 0.8621 + 0.1074 Exp. Of Org’s Culture of Support + 0.1242 Recognition from Leadership + 0.0434 Mgmt Access + 0.0592 Stretch Assignments + 0.0735 Fair Opps for all Ethnic Groups + 0.0750 Fair Opps for all Ages + 0.0974 Fair Opps for all Orientations 

Methodology

Dataset
The study utilized publicly available survey data from the 2018 Workplace Equity Project (WE), initially designed to examine workplace diversity in scholarly publishing. This secondary analysis repurposed the dataset to explore a distinct research question: What factors impact perceived workplace happiness and career satisfaction?

Sampling and Inclusion Criteria
The analysis focused on responses from full-time employees based in North America earning at least $50,000 annually. This refined dataset consisted of 479 participants.

Data Cleaning
Transformed qualitative Likert-scale responses into quantitative scales, standardized labels, and filtered relevant variables. This preparation ensured consistency for statistical modeling.  

Analytical Techniques
Univariate, bivariate, and multivariate statistical methods, including histograms, correlations, and regression analysis, were employed to identify trends and relationships among variables. 

Discussion

In my professional career, particularly during company-wide satisfaction surveys, there was a popular conversation among managers regarding the role that proactive behaviors of employees played in their own career satisfaction. The underlying message was that those that scored the company, or its leadership poorly, were doing so as a moral failure of their own – that they did not take personal responsibility for their career outlook.  

Entering this effort, I sought identify if proactive behaviors had a stronger impact on career satisfaction than company-sponsored activities. I theorized that it may, providing those employees had adequate support and resources. This was debunked as the analysis revealed little to no impact of proactive behaviors on overall career satisfaction. In fact, evidence supported that the perception of treatment of the employee by their leadership had a stronger influence.  

Practical Implications

For Organizations
This analysis provides executives a window into the experiences of their employees and how this experience shapes career satisfaction levels offering controllable opportunities to enhance that experience. 

Executives should consider their strategy for company-sponsored benefits for work-life balance and T&O while placing their largest focus on driving diversity in recruitment, a culture of support, and accessibility of management staff. 

Potential Applications
This analysis suggests several practical actions managers can take to improve employee satisfaction within their teams. Examples include: 

Limitations

Potential Limitations to Data 

Conclusion

In conclusion, this study revealed that employees’ career-driven actions (e.g., networking, salary negotiation) were not significant predictors of career satisfaction, that leadership recognition, accessibility, and equitable stretch assignments had the largest positive impact on satisfaction, that perceptions of fairness regarding diversity (e.g., ethnicity, age, sexual orientation orientation) correlated with higher satisfaction scores, and that employees with 4–6 work-life benefits had the highest satisfaction while diminishing returns were noted beyond 6 benefits. Findings align with and extend prior management theories, suggesting that organizational culture and leadership support are more critical to satisfaction than individual proactivity alone.