A Phenomenological Study of Leadership's Perceptions on Effectively Managing Millennials in an Engineering Workplace Environment

Managers must consider appropriate strategies to address the needs and generational work-value differences of millennial employees entering the workplace. An engineering workplace environment was chosen for the study. With a rising percentage of millennial employees in the workforce and a corresponding decrease in previous generations, it is imperative for leadership to understand how to motivate and retain millennial employees. There are ample studies examining leaderships' perception of the millennial, characteristics of the millennial, and how management can motivate and retain them but there is very little research on the impact of applying new management styles to address these needs and differences. The purpose of this qualitative, phenomenological study is to assess the lived experiences held by leadership in exploring the effectiveness of managing millennial employees in a research and development workforce. The approach was a qualitative research methodology using open-ended questions during face-to-face and telephone interviews. The participants for the study were leadership who directly manage millennial employees within a research and development workforce. Findings show that leadership attention and feedback contributes to millennial motivation; personalization of the millennial employee's work area and creating a pleasant work atmosphere contributes to employee retention; and having the ability to adjust the millennial employee's work schedule has an impact on motivation. The researcher recommends that future research on this topic include different demographics, disciplines such as social sciences, and possibly conduct research from a quantitative approach.