Career success of immigrant professionals: stock and flow of their career capital

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to investigate how the interplay between individual and organizational human capital investments may impact on immigrant career success Design/methodology/approach – Analysis is based on the 2003 Canadian Workplace and Employee Survey (WES) in order to determine the impact of training (both self‐funded and employer‐sponsored) and other human resource practices (such as training expenditure per employee, membership of a team, and job rotation) on employee career outcomes. The most basic estimate is a linear function based on immigrant and non‐immigrant sub‐samples of the WES. Findings – A positive relationship was found between employers' investment in training and development (as indicated by their training expenditure per employee), and objective career success indicators (wage and promotions) for non‐immigrants but not for immigrant professionals (IPs). Practical implications – The topic is timely, given the growing need to explore the relationship between the existing labour shortages emerging under the forces of globalization and the talent flow of internationally mobile and experienced professionals. In particular, as organizations strive to become more global, their ability to integrate and leverage the international expertise, language knowledge, and networks that IPs bring with them is paramount. Originality/value – The study is original and makes a unique contribution because it combines the individualistic and organizational perspectives concerning the stock and flow of human capital with regard to immigrant professionals. While most research to date has focused on the individualistic approach and on capital investments made by the immigrant, the study addresses the equally important organizational perspective.