Mitigating Multigenerational Conflict and Attracting, Motivating, and Retaining Millennial Employees by Changing the Organizational Culture: A Theoretical Model

For the first time in U.S. history there are five generations in the U.S. workforce, with more than 60 years separating the oldest and youngest employees. Organizations that fail to adjust their culture to meet the challenges of cross-generational workforces face employee retention issues, disruption of knowledge transfer, and a reduced competitive advantage. This qualitative grounded theory study examined how a hierarchical organization leads multigenerational workforce members and how they attract, motivate, and retain Millennials, defined as those born after 1980. The resulting subthemes enabled the development of a theoretical model that highlights the integral nature of executives, managers, and human resource professionals in addressing multigenerational conflict and attracting, motivating, and retaining Millennials while focusing on performance success. The model, which may be generalizable to diverse organizations, depicts specific actions for each of these key stakeholders and also discusses Millennials’ responsibilities for their own success in the workplace.