Meet the New Millinials Responses

Please reply to the following 2 responses of your classmates.. Use one reference for each response.

Levan’s response:
1. How do organizations motivate this new generation?
According to Kroth & Young (2014), during a survey conducted by Turban, Eyring, & Campion, it found that a majority of Millennials desire a healthy and diverse social work environment and a good leader. They expressed the importance of having good coworkers and supervisors. Since this generation grew up working in teams during their educational experiences, they seek collaboration and teamwork and believe that their collective actions can generate positive changes. Therefore, it is understandable that they want coworkers and leaders that will have a positive impact on their job satisfaction (Kroth, A. & Young, S., 2014). Also, according to Sammer (2018), these workers want a work environment that allows them to grow professionally and personally. When they join an organization, they want to be assured that it provides career movement and experimentation. Therefore, by supplying job and career rotation programs, initiatives that allow contribution, and an abundance of training and development programs and resources, an organization can motivate these workers (pg. 1).
Finally, in an article written by Benson (2016), the author cites a 2015 report on Millennials from the U.S. Chamber of Commerce that found that three out of four Millennials reported that a work-life balance was an essential driver for motivation. In recognizing this, many employers have implemented flexible work schedules, work from home policies, and job appraisal formats based on outcomes and deliverables rather than traditional methods of evaluation (pg. 1).

Aprill’s Response:
2. Critics of the new millennials have argued that this is an “entitled” generation. Do you agree or disagree? Why?
Entitlement is a collective term associated with the Millennial generation. Seventy-one percent of American adults think of Millennials as selfish, and sixty-five percent think Millennials are entitled (Jenkins, n.d.). Based on my personal work experiences, and as a mother of a Millennial, I tend to find merit with the observation of the entitlement and somewhat spoiled generation. Such right may be partially due to those parents, termed helicopter parents, who continue to hover over their children well after their children should be taking responsibility for their behavior (Redeker, 2007). Hence, these young people often have unrealistic expectations about where they stand with others and what they can hope to achieve and receive in the first years of employment (Wilkie, 2019). Also, I feel there is another group of parents who lack involvement and guidance of this generation and fail to instill appropriate work ethics, values, and accountability.
Over-parenting may be a leading cause behind today’s entitled workers, but there is also technology (Redeker, 2007). The rapid technological growth over the past several decades has unlocked a globally connected era. The evolvement of the internet has allowed Millennials a worldview to extend outside local communities, increasing transparency about social, economic, and environmental awareness. Whereas previous generations have a then-and-now basis for comparison, Millennials have never known anything but a world where they can communicate almost any time, practically anywhere (Mery, 2019). This characteristic is a product of Millennials extensively being aware of the readily available technology that enhances their work skills. I believe when organizations understand where this viewpoint comes from, they can utilize it to assist Millennials with finding meaning in their work.
Entitlement is also a human condition that is not exclusive to the Millennial generation. Humans tend to be selfish by nature and egocentric. In many cases, it is natural for Millennials to exude entitlement because they are immature in their grasp of workplace dynamics (Wilkie, 2019). The development of the human brain continues until a person is around the age of twenty-five. Millennials are waiting longer than previous generations to enter life stages of responsibilities such as buying a home, getting married, and having kids, which accelerate maturity. Organizations and employees must learn to negotiate the balance between the need to feel entitled and the need for connection to others.
I feel the most significant issue of dealing with Millennials’ entitlement perspective is management’s ability to adapt to the changing workforce. Companies and HR must continue to be innovative and redesign business models aligned to engage the consistently changing work pool of generations over time. Developing leadership skills such as emotional intelligence, creative acumen, digital capabilities, and instilling a culture of collaboration among Millennials will transition traditional hierarchal structures to a more flexible organization that allows them to feel empowered, drive efficiency, and job satisfaction (Singh, 2019).