More than one-third (35 percent) of executives are dissatisfied with their current positions, and nearly 30 percent say they will leave their current jobs as soon as they find a better one, reports a study by Cornell and Paul Ray Berndtson, an international executive recruiting firm.
According to the study, 69 percent of executives polled reported sending résumés to prospective employers (compared with 58 percent in 1993) and 64 percent said they have gone on a job interview in the past year (compared with 53 percent in 1993). The survey also shows that executives are being actively courted. On average, each was contacted 6.3 times during the year about job opportunities. At the same time, the average executive made contact with 29 organizations about possible job opportunities.
"The biggest predictor of whether executives will search for a new job or leave their current one is job satisfaction," said study co-author John Boudreau, associate professor in the Center for Advanced Human Resource Studies (CAHRS) at Cornell's School of Industrial and Labor Relations. "The less satisfied one is with his or her work, the more likely he or she is actively searching for new employment."
Boudreau said the study indicated that many executives are dissatisfied with their jobs because of increased stress linked to job insecurity and workload.
"Many executives feel that the current business environment is not good for the company and that prospects for their future growth and that of the company's is not good," he said. "Whether it's layoffs or the rapid pace of change in the corporate structure like removing various management layers and functions we tend to see more and more people becoming less and less secure about their jobs."
Layoffs and downsizing may be leading to an increase in workload for executives, which the study cites as another indicator of increased stress and job dissatisfaction. The study notes that executives spend an average of 57 hours at work each week and are away from home on business five nights a month.
The survey was conducted among 1,885 respondents who hold executive positions with U.S. companies. The average respondents were 47 years old, married with one child, age 13, at home. They had worked for their current employers an average of six years and had been in their current positions for three years.
CAHRS is the leading research partnership in human research management, bringing together top executives from over 50 worldwide companies with leading scholars to investigate key issues in enhancing how people work in organizations
Paul Ray Berndtson, a major international executive recruiting firm, serves clients around the world through a network of 36 offices in North and South America, Europe and the Pacific Rim. Ranked sixth in size among executive search firms in the United States, Paul Ray Berndston is one of the 10 largest recruiters worldwide.