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Interest in generational research has garnered a lot of attention, as the workplace is seeing multiple generations (i.e., the Silent Generation, Baby Boomers, Gen Xers, and Millennials) working side-by-side for the first time. However, it is unclear how multiple generations of workers interact with each other and affect the workplace. Although there is extant literature on generational differences, some scholars have argued that the effect sizes are small and the differences are not meaningful. The focal aim of this chapter is to present the current state of literature on generational research. We present the relevant conceptualizations and theoretical frameworks that establish generational research. We then review evidence from existing research studies to establish the areas of differences that may exist among the different generations. In our review, we identify the issues arising from generational differences that are relevant to human resource management (HRM) practices, including new workforce entrants, aging workers, the changing nature of work and organizations, and leadership development. We conclude with several directions for future research on modernizing workplace policies and practices, ensuring sustainability in current employment models, facilitating future empirical research, and integrating the effects of globalization in generational research.

This study aims to measure the gender wage gap among millennial workers in Colombia and determine if there is a marked wage difference between millennial women and men. Furthermore, this study analyzes whether millennial women face a glass ceiling, that is, whether there is a larger gender wage gap among workers earning relatively high wages.

The study data included a sample of 2,144 millennial workers employed in 11 organizations located in the five main cities of Colombia. Oaxaca–Blinder econometric methods of wage decomposition were used to calculate both raw and adjusted gender wage gaps. The latter results in estimating the gender wage gap while controlling for observable characteristics related to individual, family, and labor. In addition, wage decompositions by education levels were carried out to approximate the extent of the glass ceiling among young workers.

The results show that millennial workers in Colombia face gender inequality in the labor market and that professional millennial women experience a distinct glass ceiling. The adjusted gender wage gap is 9.5%, and this gap increases with education level, increasing to nearly 14% among college-educated workers.

The empirical results are supported by a self-report survey of millennial workers. An important limitation is that the data include millennial workers employed in the formal sector and exclude the informal sector (activities not regulated or protected by the state), which represents an important part of the economy in developing countries.

This paper contributes to the empirical literature on gender wage inequality for younger workers. This paper is original in reviewing the gender pay gap in Colombia using a primary dataset. Most of the work in this area has been done in developed countries and this research adds to the findings that have had focused on those nations.

The purpose of this study was to understand if productivity and turnover of the female millennial knowledge workers was influenced by participative management theory. Developing a greater understanding for maximizing the productivity and minimizing turnover risks associated with the significant population of female millennial knowledge workers could contribute towards business success.

This qualitative embedded single-case study used triangulation to develop a more complete look at the female millennial knowledge worker within an organization while utilizing a method that allowed for maximizing the understanding of a common case.

While triangulating across three modes of data collection “employee development” was identified in connection with both productivity and turnover. “Timely communication” was associated with productivity, and both “feedback” and “working environment” triangulated with turnover.

This study extends existing participative management theory, limited by a majority focus, to include the female millennial knowledge worker.

The results of this study showed that managers should provide development opportunities and timely feedback to female millennial knowledge workers in support of their productivity. In addition, employee development, timely feedback and a positive work environment could be used by managers to minimize turnover in this population.

The risk of alienating the population of female millennial knowledge workers could result in turnover and productivity challenges for businesses. The results of this study showed that managers should engage in employee development, timely feedback and cultivate a positive work environment to minimize turnover and increase the productivity of this population.

The purpose of this study is to synthesize the current turnover literature that has investigated the nonfinancial antecedents of turnover intention across generations. This paper provides an integrative and analytical review of prior empirical studies with two research questions: What nonfinancial factors influencing employee turnover have been empirically identified across different generations? and What generational commonalities and uniqueness exist among the turnover antecedents?

To identify nonfinancial antecedents of employee turnover, an integrative literature review that allows a systematic process of searching and selecting literature was conducted. While synthesizing the antecedents identified in the articles, the authors were able to categorize them at three different levels: individual, group and organizational

The authors discuss each antecedent according to three categories: individual, group and organizational levels. Based on the findings from the first research question, the authors further explore the commonalities and uniqueness among three generations (i.e. Millennials, Generation X and older workers).

This study found both generational commonalities and uniqueness in terms of turnover intention antecedents. Based on the findings of the study, the authors discuss how to facilitate these common factors across all generations as well as considering the factors unique to each generation. Differentiation within organizations regarding retention strategies should yield positive results for both employees and organizations.

The purpose of this paper is to empirically study the effect of employee involvement in the workplace on job satisfaction for millennial workers in Colombia.

Data were obtained from a sample of 2103 millennial employees working in 11 companies of different sectors located in the five main cities of Colombia. Ordered probit models were estimated to study the effect of employee involvement on job satisfaction, in general, and how different forms of participative decision making in the workplace produce different impacts on individual satisfaction with objective and intrinsic aspects of the job, in particular.

The empirical results show that, for millennial workers, there is a positive link between employee involvement and job satisfaction. Moreover, there is a higher positive impact on job satisfaction when millennial workers participate in decisions on general aspects of the company than when they participate in specific decisions such as those concerning teamwork or main tasks at work. Another interesting result is that millennial workers attach high importance to intrinsic aspects of their jobs (such as the possibility to use their knowledge in the work), which may improve their satisfaction in a higher participative environment.

The results can present bias due to the use of self-report data from millennial workers. Another potential limitation is the cross-sectional nature of the data, which does not control for unobserved individual effects. The study may be extended to other developing countries to help identify results more precisely for different contexts.

The value lies in exploring the relationship between employee involvement and job satisfaction for millennial workers in the context of a developing country. The paper simultaneously considers different types of employee involvement and estimates their effects on different facets of job satisfaction.

The broader challenges of youth employment and ageing population have collectively received global attention in the Sustainable Development Goals. Under the assumption that there are fertile opportunities to judiciously address the youth unemployment and labour shortages within the aged care sector, the purpose of this paper is to draw on the experiences of millennial aged care workers (MACWs) in Western Australia (WA).

The paper makes use of an exploratory research approach which involved three aged care facilities in WA. A total of 19 semi-structured interviews with MACWs (n=14), human resources managers of aged care facilities (n=3), government official (n=1), and a union representative (n=1) were carried out.

The results revealed that millennials prefer positive working relationships with managers, co-workers and residents, flexible work schedules and value the altruistic nature of the profession. In addition, unsupportive work environment and workplace pressure to satisfy the needs of elderly residents reduced millennials’ desire to remain in the industry.

These findings have the potential to inform human resources managers, aged care service providers and policy makers to formulate strategies to retain the millennials, especially the unemployed, considered vital to the vitality of the Australian aged care industry.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the relationship between gratitude and workplace friendship with affective well-being (AWB) at work amongst millennial employees. Specifically, it details the mediating effect of workplace friendship in explaining the linkages between gratitude and AWB at work.

This study used a sample of 272 millennial workers in this study. A survey invitation was sent out to all of the respondents through email. A 20-item job-related AWB (Van Katwyk et al., 2000) scale was used to measure AWB. Workplace friendship was measured using six-items of the workplace friendship scale (Nielsen et al., 2000) and gratitude was measured using McCullough et al.’s (2002) six-item gratitude questionnaire (GQ-6).

The study found that gratitude and workplace friendship enhanced workplace AWB among millennial workers. Workplace friendship functioned as a mediator, which delivered the effect from gratitude towards workplace AWB. Gratitude was found to positively predict workplace friendship and subsequently workplace friendship positively predicted workplace AWB.

Nurturing positive feelings at work through excellent psychosocial resources and healthy work friendships would improve millennial workers well-being. Henceforth, encouraging millennial employees to cultivate workplace friendships, can help the manager to enhance millennial employees’ feeling of belongingness, and thus, promote better AWB.

Investment on employee’s human capital and values can be valuable resources to increase millennial employees’ performance at work. Millennial workers are a unique generation that put emphasis on the subjective experience. Hence, capitalising on their subjective experience can be one of the keys to better increase their well-being and performance at work.

This paper aims to hypothesize on the relationship between the Millennial workforce and US firms’ response to the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act (TCJA) of 2017. The authors postulate that societal pressure from the younger generational cohorts will motivate socially cognizant corporations to share their newly acquired tax benefits with their workforce to attract, retain and inspire employee productivity and retention, as well as customer loyalty.

The authors empirically examine work-related cultural attitudes of the Millennial generational cohort in the USA, and by exploring related literature on organizational management and supply side economics, the authors aim to connect them to firms’ response to tax cut windfall in a simple theoretical model. The authors complement their methods by using descriptive statistics on firm tax responses that followed the 2017 TCJA.

The authors offer support for the notion that companies are behaving rationally by providing short-term benefits to employees when employees are, on average, younger. The competitive nature of the global market acts as an incentive to avoid permanent obligations such as wage and benefits increases. The data reveal that a significant number of companies had a transitory reaction to the latest tax cut.

The authors encourage future research, once sufficient time elapses, to exploit the time periods before and after the tax cut to provide a better assessment of the empirical impact of the 2017 tax cut on firm responses, conditional on workforce makeup.

The authors examine whether and how the Millennial cohort might shape firm behavior following changes in tax policy.

The purpose of this research was to explore managers' perceptions related to the emerging needs, roles, values, responsibilities and commitments of millennials in the multi-generational workplace, and to determine how managers may effectively recognize and use millennial contributions to enhance the organizational culture and infrastructure.

This qualitative, narrative inquiry study utilized semi-structured interviews to capture collective insights of managers who lead millennials within multi-generational teams. All researchers used an interview protocol with each participant to maintain integrity. Data analysis included the creation of a code manual which was developed utilizing the first five interviews. The code manual included definitions, descriptions and exemplar text and was then used to code all remaining interviews.

Data are presented through three key areas of exploration: The contributions of millennials in multi-generational workplaces, the evolution of managerial views of millennials and the tactics managers use for millennial management in multi-generational teams.

Scholarly literature has clearly presented perceived qualities millennials bring to the workplace, including poor communication, advanced technology skills, overconfidence, and a need for work–life balance. This study seeks to provide an understanding of the generation, through the lens of their managers.

Growing up in the technology era and heavily invested in longer full-time education, the millennial workforce holds unique characteristics that may influence important job outcomes. Building on the recent research on workforce generations, this paper aims to investigate not only the overall effect of the millennial generation on organizational citizenship behavior (OCB) but also the nuanced effect of how workforce generations may interact with two factors in career development (i.e. job crafting and career anchor) in predicting OCB.

An online survey was conducted among full-time workers in the USA, 321 (64 per cent) of whom were millennials. Hierarchical regression was used to test the hypotheses.

Results indicated that millennials appeared to be less interested in OCB compared to earlier generations in the workforce. Nevertheless, some dimensions of OCB increased when millennials conducted resource-related job crafting or when they held a career anchor on service. In addition, both of these career development factors were positively correlated with OCB.

This study offers important implications to researchers as well as practitioners and highlights the significance of career development factors in motivating millennials toward desired job outcomes.

This research is among the initial attempts to assess the impact of job design and career factors on OCB among millennial workers. The findings highlight millennials’ unique perspectives toward OCB and how job crafting and career anchor may play influencing roles on OCB. With millennials becoming the largest generation in the workforce, such knowledge is critical.