An exploratory study of gender and motivation to lead in millennials

What's the point in even trying? Women's perception of glass ceiling drains hope

In this study, we focus on glass ceiling perceptions, characterized by women's subjective feelings about their ability to move upward in their organization. Drawing on social information processing and hope theory, we propose that glass ceiling perceptions decrease women's citizenship behaviors and increase their turnover intentions by draining their hope in the workplace. Moreover, we suggest that the strength of the association between glass ceiling perceptions, drained hope in the workplace, and these two outcomes is conditional upon women's perceptions of their work-family conflict. Using a two-study design, we tested our hypothesized relationships. We found a mediating effect of drained hope in the workplace between glass ceiling perceptions and (a) turnover intention and (b) organizational citizenship behaviors. This effect is significant when work-family conflict is high. Finally, we discuss the implications of our findings regarding the tensions that women experience with simultaneously managing their careers and conflict in the family.

Motivation to lead in Japan: validation of a Japanese version of the motivation to lead scale

Introduction

This study aimed to develop a Japanese version of the motivation to lead (MTL) scale consisting of three factors-affective-identity MTL, non-calculative MTL, and social-normative MTL-and examine its construct validity and reliability.

Methods

The participants comprised 500 university students and 500 employees aged 20-29 years registered with a Japanese research company.

Results

Based on a confirmatory factor analysis, the three-factor model was found to be appropriate for the Japanese context. The measurement invariance analyses indicated scalar invariance between students and employees and between men and women. Finally, the correlation analysis with the Big Five personality traits conducted to examine construct validity indicated that affective-identity MTL and social-normative MTL had significant relationships with all five traits (extraversion, agreeableness, conscientiousness, open-mindedness, and negative emotionality). Although non-calculative MTL was not significantly correlated, it can be interpreted in the Japanese context.

Discussion

The results indicate the adequate construct validity and reliability of the Japanese version of the MTL scale. These findings hold significant implications for leadership development and selection in Japan, highlighting the motivational factors that drive effective leadership.

Millennials and the motivation to lead: is a transformational leader a catalyst or barrier?

Purpose

Leaders influence individuals to understand and agree upon goals and methods to accomplish shared objectives. However, how leaders motivate others to assume a leadership role is an open question. This paper aims to examine how employee perceptions of their supervisors’ transformational leadership behaviors might affect a millennial and their motivation toward leadership. This paper also investigated the relationship within a spiritually based organizational context since workplace spirituality has become increasingly popular within contemporary corporate cultures.

Design/methodology/approach

This conceptual paper offers propositions, which examine two areas: first, the impact of a spiritual work context on a millennial’s motivation to lead and, second, the proposed moderating impact of a transformational leader on these relationships.

Findings

These linkages are important for organizational leaders to examine, as millennials will be the largest portion of the workforce by 2025. In addition, the influence of a transformational leader may not be as powerful as previous research has demonstrated. This difference is based on aspects of millennials, which are different from previous generations. Organizations spend thousands of dollars on the development of transformational leaders and spiritual (meaningful) workplaces; however, this may not be useful in the future.

Originality/value

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, to date no research has examined the impact of a transformational leader on a millennial’s motivation toward leadership in a spiritual work context.

Challenges and Strategies for Employee Retention in the Hospitality Industry: A Review

Despite the issues that the hospitality industry encounters in retaining talented employees, little attention has been paid to the development of retention strategies, resulting in poor organizational performance and sustainable growth. The current study, therefore, aims to review and discuss the employee retention strategies in the hospitality industry in order to keep talented employees for a longer period of time. The study is based on past literature and peer-reviewed articles published between 2010 and 2020. The databases Web Knowledge, Emerald, Google Scholar, and Science Direct were used to find the relevant papers using the key words such as “Hospitality Industry”, “employee retention”, “employee turnover”, and “employees”. The findings of this study suggest that employee retention is contingent on employee satisfaction, which is comprised of four factors: sustainable positive work environment; sustainable growth opportunities; sustainable & effective communication; and sustainable & effective recruitment and selection practices. The paper contributes to a comprehensive review of the literature on employee retention strategies in the hospitality context. The study proposes a model for the hospitality industry to revamp its recruitment and selection practices in order to retain its employees. Furthermore, the study provides a focused directions that will aid in the establishment of employee retention strategies and practices. It was concluded that satisfied employees are less likely to leave their current job, while unsatisfied employees are expected to leave their current job for a better career opportunity. Managerial implications were also discussed.

Drivers or Drifters? The "Who" and "Why" of Leader Role Occupancy-A Mixed-Method Study

This study investigated the reasons that leaders have given for their leader role occupancy. By using a mixed-method approach and large leader data, we aimed to provide a more nuanced picture of how leader positions are occupied in real life. We examined how individual leadership motivation may associate with other reasons for leader role occupancy. In addition, we aimed to integrate the different reasons behind leader role occupancy into the framework of sustainable leader careers and its two indicators: leader's health (occupational well-being) and performance (measured indirectly as followers' occupational well-being). The survey data consisted of 1,031 leaders from various sectors of working life. Qualitative analysis revealed that leaders mention various factors behind their leader role occupancy, resulting 26 themes. After inductive investigation of the data, theory-driven analysis focused on the sustainable career components (person, context, time) and agency vs. non-agency. Qualitative data was quantitized based on the theory-driven categories for statistical analysis. Based on the these analysis, we found out that only Affective-Identity MTL predicted all of the studied reasons behind leader role occupancy, whereas the other motivation types (Non-calculative MTL and Social-Normative MTL) did not. All of the reasons for leader role occupancy except non-agentic ones were related to both leaders' own and their followers' occupational well-being. Leaders with more person-related and agentic reasons for leader role occupancy experienced better occupational well-being. Person- and context-related and agentic reasons behind leader role occupancy associated also with followers' occupational well-being, but the associations differed from those of leaders' well-being: person-related and agentic reasons associated with followers' exhaustion, but this association was not found among leaders. Our study provided important information for practitioners in the field of human resources and development, as it has shown that if the reasons for leader role occupancy mainly reflect circumstances or other non-person-related reasons, the experienced occupational well-being and person-career fit may remain weak. It is necessary to try to support the leadership motivation for those leaders, or to shape the job description in such a way that it can also offer the experiences of meaningfulness from aspects other than self-realization through a managerial role.

Millennial research on fleek: Suggestions for improving generational research design

This special issue will examine and embrace the uniqueness of millennials. We look at a number of issues related to this generational cohort, examining what makes them unique, challenging and even assets to those they come into contact with in their lives. In our opening article we discuss the unique attributes of millennials, provide researchers a framework for generational research best practices, and provide an overview of the articles featured in this special issue.