Honors College Theses

Publication Date

2017

Major

Management (BBA)

Document Type and Release Option

Thesis (open access)

Faculty Mentor

Steven Charlier

Abstract

This project focuses on how Millennials (born between the early 1980s and early 2000s) perceive and value the implicit leadership traits of managers in today’s business environment. The goal is to show that millennials perceive several implicit leadership traits such as Relationship-Oriented Leadership, Trust, Knowledge Demonstration, and Individualism as favorable while perceiving Justice Orientation and Confrontation as traits that bear negative consequences for job effectiveness and satisfaction. The research was done by distributing a survey to the National Millennials Community, a national organization comprised of over 200 members that span across the entire country, as well as a Georgia Southern Organizational Behavior undergraduate class and any persons that the Qualtrics survey was shared with using the URL provided at the end of the survey. The survey was designed based on traits learned by managers through education and experience rather than inherited, human traits that are derived from personality or personal life experiences. Through the findings of this survey, the research shows that Millennials have more complicated, diverse perspectives on each of these traits, however, they do value Relationship-Oriented and Trust-based relationship more so than Justice Orientation and Confrontation practices. This creates large implications for how managers are taught to execute human capital activities and gain job satisfaction and effective leadership from the Millennial generation.

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