Millennial knowledge workers

Abstract

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to examine the potential effects of Millennial knowledge workers’ emotional intelligence (EI) on their subjective career success (SCS) through their protean career attitudes (PCAs) and psychological empowerment (PE). Design/methodology/approach Survey methodology was used to collect data from 623 Millennial knowledge workers in 42 Turkish Information Technology companies. Participants answered the surveys at three different points within a 12-week period. Measures of EI, PCAs, PE and SCS were analyzed using structural equation modeling and the bootstrapping method. Findings The empirical results provide support for the author’s proposed model that positive relations between EI and Millennial knowledge workers’ SCS are mediated by their PCAs and PE. Research limitations/implications To generalize the study findings, future research should be conducted for Millennial knowledge workers in different cultures and countries. Practical implications Particularly for Millennial knowledge workers, managers need to be aware of positive influence of EI on employees’ SCS and should consider implementing policies and procedures that recognize EI as a key ingredient for their SCS. Additionally, human resource professionals should aim to create an organizational culture around career development, in addition to career attitudes trainings, and provide career growth opportunities to retain Millennial talent. Finally, organizational development professionals should establish work environments that increase employee empowerment and thus improve SCS. Originality/value The findings advance the understanding of how Millennial knowledge workers’ EI can influence their SCS through focusing on PCAs and PE. The results underpin the self-determination theory, contextualist action theory of career development and job design theory.

Employee engagement: Emerging insight of the millennial manufacturing workforce

“…The participants seemed to have a shared opinion that education was important for growth, both within the organization and for oneself. These comments seemed to align with the thought that education and career development are important to millennials (Aydogmus, 2019).…”

Trust in the Diffusion of Professional Knowledge

“…As the core of a modern enterprise's personnel (Aydogmus, 2019;Kianto et al, 2019;Toth et al, 2020), professionals using, and operating on knowledge, occupy various functions and positions in organizations. Therefore, there is an ongoing dispute of the knowledge worker term and concept.…”

“…These groups have different knowledge bases depending on the extent to which the knowledge is technical, abstract, codified, etc., (Olsen, 2016). Currently, it is emphasized that professionals form unique cohorts (Aydogmus, 2019), e.g., liquid-knowledge workers (Jha et al, 2019) or digital nomads (Al-Hadi and Al-Aufi, 2019).…”

How do self-direction and values-drive of protean career orientation determine career outcomes?

“…According to the literature review, implementing PCO delivers career outcomes (Fugate, Kinicki, & Scheck, 2004;Waters, Briscoe, Hall, & Wang, 2014) valuable for the employee and the organization alike, such as OCS (Baruch, 2014;Rodrigues, Guest, de Oliveira, & Alfes, 2015), CS (Heslin, 2005;Gubler, Arnold, & Coombs, 2014;Herrmann, Hirschi, & Baruch, 2015;Aydogmus, 2019) and increased employability (Vos and Soens, 2008;Veld, Semeijn, & van Vuuren, 2015;Lin, 2015;Cortellazzo, Bonesso, Gerli, & Batista-Foguet, 2020;Nimmi, Zakkariya, & Nezrin, 2020). On the other hand, research findings indicate that the impact of PCO on career outcomes may be negative (Supeli & Creed, 2016), positive but mediated (Vos and Soens, 2008;Lin, 2015), or different for each of the PCO dimensions (Enache, Sallan, Simo, & Fernandez, 2011;Volmer & Spurk, 2011;Briscoe, Henagan, Burton, & Murphy, 2012;Lo Presti, Pulviano, & Briscoe, 2018).…”