Content area
Abstract
The phenomenon under study is work engagement in the Millennial generation. Low employee/work engagement and Millennials in the workplace have become “front and center” as topics in many research studies and scholarly articles. Low work engagement is a problem that has significant implications for the economy and the individual performance of American companies. Thus, this qualitative case study builds on work engagement theory by investigating whether positive psychology and positive leadership styles may positively impact employee engagement for Millennial generation workers. Millennials embody a shift in today’s workplace and are motivated by a desire to transform themselves, their colleagues, and the world around them (Williams, 2015). Motivating, engaging, and retaining workers will never cease as managerial priorities, and employers will have to carefully consider what strategies they will use to cultivate and retain valuable millennial employees now and into the future (Gilbert, 2015). This study integrates literature on positive leadership, positive psychology and employee/work engagement to identify key leverage points that leaders may utilize to increase employee engagement in Millennial generation workers. Leaders from small, mid-size and large organizations in Atlanta, Georgia were recruited to participate in the multi case study. Several themes emerged from the appreciative inquiry based interviews that helped to develop a theory of Millennial work engagement. Recommendations for leaders resulting from a thematic analysis of the exploratory case study data include: working with Human Resources to design positive leadership training, altering work roles using job crafting strategies, and continually seeking input on work expectations from Millennial employees.
