Leaders' Perspective of Millennial Employees in the Central & Eastern European Advertising Industry

This study focuses on leaders’ perception of their Millennial employees in advertising agencies within Central and Eastern Europe. Millennials are popularly associated with laziness, entitlement and narcissism, which can seemingly manifest in undesired attitudes to work. A qualitative research, based on semi-structured interviews with leaders in advertising agencies provided rich data to confront the perceived stereotypes from their perspective. Young individuals in advertising are predominantly well-informed and ambitious, benefiting from their technological savvy as digital natives. In this self-selected group their work informs the lifestyle, and success seems to be manifested through social media rather than the display of material goods. The study challenges simplified stereotypes and contributes to under-researched segments of Millennials in the advertising industry and CEE.