Millennial Leaders’ Display of Generational Cohort Stereotypes: A Qualitative Research Approach

Abstract

This paper investigates how Millennial leaders perceive themselves in their leadership role and whether generational cohort stereotypes prevail with ascending hierarchy levels. There is a lack of research, which applies generational cohort stereotypes to Millennials in a leadership context. This limits our understanding of this generational cohort and how its members can benefit organizations in their role as leaders. Millennials in leadership positions are a new and underresearched phenomenon. Therefore, an explorative, qualitative research approach was followed, including interviews at 15 organizations from different industry segments in Germany. The data was analyzed through a qualitative content analysis. The study shows that Millennial leaders displayed generational stereotypes, but also adapt their behavior to corporate structures. This is problematic since it can limit Generation Ys’ value creating potential for organizations (e.g. driving innovation). This study contributes novel insights on Millennial leadership and organizational challenges in integrating this generational cohort within corporate structures. Organizations are advised to support the development of structures and processes that allow Millennials to unfold their potential. Directions for future research are outlined to further investigate this new phenomenon.

Millennial’s Leadership Development: A Systematic Literature Review

“…Based on this perception, it is concluded that there could be other various classifications of the workforce, not only based on the cohort year range, which could be changed as time goes on regarding the context. as the USA (Anderson et al, 2017;Archibald, 2013;Bennett, 2020;Cohen, 2019;Ferri-Reed, 2014;Ferris et al, 2018a;Kim, 2018;Kosterlitz & Lewis, 2017;Scott, 2017;Stewart et al, 2017) Germany (Grotkamp et al, 2020;Percy-Smith et al, 2019;Rudolph et al, 2018) and other Europe countries: UK (Baum, 2020;Geerts et al, 2020;Thompson & Gregory, 2012),…”

A decade later: exploring managerial insights on millennials

“…Through their study, Ng and Perry (2016) note the need for a comprehensive review, understanding and interpretation of the millennials' professional career explorations and expectations. These components also help managers respond to the millennials' personal priorities, formulate unique career opportunities, and create productive work settings with a stronger propensity to attract, engage and retain millennial workers (Grotkamp et al. , 2020; McNally, 2017; PriceWaterhouseCoopers, 2016).…”

“…Through their study, Ng and Perry (2016) note the Managerial insights on millennials need for a comprehensive review, understanding and interpretation of the millennials' professional career explorations and expectations. These components also help managers respond to the millennials' personal priorities, formulate unique career opportunities, and create productive work settings with a stronger propensity to attract, engage and retain millennial workers (Grotkamp et al, 2020;McNally, 2017;PriceWaterhouseCoopers, 2016). Acknowledging and responding to the differences in generations in the workplace may enhance the perspectives of managers and their understandings of millennial workers and how to develop them to meet organizational objectives (Hoffman, 2018;Volini et al, 2020;Wood, 2019).…”