However, their responses indicate that many organizations are not doing an adequate job of creating clear advancement opportunities for professionals, with 56 percent of respondents who did not get a promotion within the last 12 months citing "bottleneck or nowhere to go" as the main reason. Nearly a fifth (19 percent) say office politics got in the way of advancement.

"Study after study shows the incredible importance of recognition for one's contribution is a key driver in job satisfaction, while salary is rarely near the top," Dennis Baltzley, Korn Ferry senior partner and the firm's global head of leadership development, said in a statement. "To retain the best and the brightest, organizational leaders need to put development and clear career pathing plans in place, not just for top leaders but for those across the organization."

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Along those lines, 84 percent of respondents say that if passed over for a promotion, the first action they would take would be to identify the reason and work to improve. The vast majority (88 percent) say that if they wanted a promotion, the top action they would take would be to have a conversation with their boss and identify growth areas that would enable them to move into the next role.

According to the survey, when asked on average how long they should stay in a role before being promoted, the top response (38 percent) was two to three years.

However, 5 percent of respondents say they expect to be in a role for a year or less before being promoted and 5 percent say they would expect to stay in a role for more than five years before being promoted.

Related: Companies to average 3 percent pay bump