This study appears courtesy of the authors Justin Walden, Ph.D., North Dakota State University, Eun Hwa Jung, Ph.D., National University of Singapore, Catherine Y.K. Westerman, Ph.D., North Dakota State University. For the full study, please visit here.
New research shows that the Millennial Generation in the United States’ commitment to their organization is higher when they are engaged in their work.
A recent study measures the relationship between job engagement and two critical components of employee-organization relationships. In this study, the term job engagement is used to differentiate the concept from organization engagement.
The study surveyed 539 millennials who were either employed full- or part-time. Millennials are defined as being born before 1982 or after 2004, according to a study called The Millennial muddle: How stereotyping became a thriving industry and a bundle of contradictions
Key Takeaways:
- When employees are engaged in their work, their commitment to the company is strengthened
- When employees are engaged, it is less likely for them to leave their job
- Job engagement mediated the relationship between employee communication
- Information adequacy appeared to have the strongest association with participation, followed by interaction supportiveness and information flow
Employees are a crucial stakeholder for their organizations
Many companies implement a communication program including frontline managers, executives and corporate communication teams to provide transparency and updates to all employees. When an organization offers more information to their employees, the employees are more likely to vouch for their company.
Job engagement is a predictor of longer-term organizational commitment
Being engaged in a job is when the employee is invigorated by their work. Research best demonstrates that job engagement is a predictor of a long-term commitment to the company.
Millennials are at the early-to-mid points of their careers
Millennials are a significant business concern due to the generation’s vast influence. Examining Millennials in workplace communication can advance the understanding of what shapes an organization’s relationship efforts.
Job engagement involved an employee’s work role and their task orientation
Research shows that the more employees are absorbed in their work, the more likely they are to maintain relationships with their employer over time.
Information-flow quality will be positively related to job engagement
Millennials are defined by their expectation that all information should be shared with them. They expect to see information regardless of their position in the organization. They desire frequent feedback from peers and mentors. Millennials expect to be engaged when they experience a good amount of information flow at work. This information ties back to one of the studies hypotheses: information-flow quality will be positively related to job engagement.
Information adequacy will be positively related to job engagement
Interaction supportiveness involves the shared perceptions of how people openly support each other. This term could be relevant to Millennials due to their preference to participate in workplace communication and to be recognized by their peers.
Millennials are more inclined to seek job stability
Open communication strengthens employees’ commitment to their organization. This would reduce the likelihood of a Millennial going out and looking for a new job.
When companies are transparent to their employees and and provide them information, there are two outcomes:
- Employees will focus on the task
- They will be committed to their relationship with their employer
To read the full study, please visit: https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/1062726X.2017.1329737
Jeana Fraser is a writer for the IPR Street Team. She is a junior majoring in public relations at the University of Florida. Follow her on Twitter @jeana_fraser.
