Colombian millennials at the workplace

Abstract

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to present a study on the antecedents of turnover intentions (TOI) of millennial Colombian employees. A theoretical model in which positive work-family interaction, professional respect (PR) and meaning predicted TOI is simultaneously tested in Millennials and Xers. Design/methodology/approach The authors used a multigroup structural equation approach to analyze the data provided by 2,157 Millennials and 279 Xers. Participants work in 11 companies from five Colombian cities. City, age, sex, tenure and wage are included as control variables to respond to some limitations of previous research and isolate the effects of age cohorts. Findings The results show differences in terms of some of the variables under study. Further, the effects of positive work-family interaction and PR on TOI were different from one age cohort to the other. The influence of meaning on the outcome variable was equal in Millennials and Xers but resulted positive. Research limitations/implications The authors studied an under-researched population, used rigorous analytical procedures to simultaneously test the hypotheses across generations, analyzed data from a large sample size and control for confounding variables identified by researchers inquiring generational differences at the workplace. By these means, the study contributes to literature on millennial employees and age diversity. Originality/value By studying an under-reseach population and using suitable analytical techniques, the study contributes to literature on millennial employees and age diversity.

Decent work and healthy employment: a qualitative case study about Colombian millennials

“…This involves indefinite- or long-term contracts that ensure a greater synergy and strength amongst work teams, as well as a return on investment in human capital: “The more you're trained for the company, the more you'll have to offer it” (ARLAE). The trend towards indefinite- or long-term contracts is confirmed in the survey conducted to 2,110 millennials, according to which the average length of service is 3.1 years (Roman-Calderon et al ., 2019, p. 78). Similar aspects have been studied in Colombia, but not from a qualitative perspective (García et al ., 2019; Roman-Calderon et al ., 2019).…”

“…The trend towards indefinite- or long-term contracts is confirmed in the survey conducted to 2,110 millennials, according to which the average length of service is 3.1 years (Roman-Calderon et al ., 2019, p. 78). Similar aspects have been studied in Colombia, but not from a qualitative perspective (García et al ., 2019; Roman-Calderon et al ., 2019).…”

“…1. The results of other questions about millennials posed by the research team are currently evidenced in the following publications: (Gonzales-Miranda et al , 2019; Roman-Calderon et al , 2019). …”

Examining employee retention and motivation: the moderating effect of employee generation

“…As motivating and retaining employees becomes more challenging and workforces become more diverse in terms of generation, understanding generational differences in employee motivation and retention becomes a very important topic to explore. Only a few studies looked at generational differences in either employee motivation (Andrade and Westover, 2018) or employee's retention (Roman-Calderon et al. , 2019) and no studies have examined the different effects of transformational leadership, CSR, autonomy, WLB and technology on employee motivation and retention spanning three different generations.…”

Millennials and the gender wage gap: do millennial women face a glass ceiling?

“…The nonprobabilistic convenience sample used in this study may be a limitation on the external validity of the results. However, this type of sample is the standard within developmental science because it is not as expensive and prohibitive as probabilistic samples and allows identifying the target variables and the main relationships among them inferred in prior theory (Landers and Behrend, 2015;Jager et al, 2017;Roman-Calderon et al, 2019). Furthermore, according to Jager et al (2017), when the convenience sample is intentionally limited to specific sociodemographic subgroups, the results could be generalizable in a clearer way, and provide more accurate information on subpopulation effects.…”