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Current leadership theories and millennials need for change

Based on the article:
Anderson, H. J., Baur, J. E., Griffith, J. A. & Buckley, M. R. (2016). What works for you may not work for (Gen)Me:
Limitations of present leadership theories for the new generation. The Leadership Quarterly, 28, 245-260.
Millennials is the new generation that in 2015 took over the Generation X as the biggest age group in the work force
(Brownstone, 2014, as cited in Anderson et al. 2016). It has been studied that this new generation differs from workers
in previous generations in many ways and this poses challenges for organizational leaders in different fields. Judge
and Piccolo (as cited in Anderson et al. 2016) said that leadership style has a huge effect on employees and their job
satisfaction, motivation and performance, and needs to be applied properly in order to influence employees to meet the
organizational goals. Thinking of the wide tourism sector; no hotel, destination or DMO can work effectively without
all employees working for the same goal. Recent article by Anderson, Baur, Griffith and Buckley (2016) underlines
the differences between these two generations, examines five current leadership theories in a context of Millennials as
employees and also gives recommendations how to adapt these current theories.
Millennials, referring to people born between 1982 and 1999, are often seen as the selfie generation, a generation
who loves to use social media but dont care about the contributions they make at work. On the other hand,
Millennials can be seen very creative and with high technical abilities (Anderson et al. 2016). Alongside these
perceptions, recent studies (e.g Lyons &Kuron, 2014) have proved that there are significant changes in working
attitudes and values between Generation X and Millennials (as cited in Anderson et al. 2016). These changes include
the importance of leisure activities and work-life balance, increased individualism, different motivational drivers
(extrinsic rewards), greater sense of entitlement and desire of feedback from their supervisors. There were five
leadership theories chosen in the paper (Anderson et al. 2016). First, transformational leaders are inspirational leaders
with a clear vision. They find it hard to motivate and encourage todays employees to achieve the organizational goals
together because they are more individualistic and want to achieve their own goals (Twenge, 2010 as cited in
Anderson et al. 2016). However, Millennials crave for challenging work and feedback from their supervisors. Second,
information processing perspective focuses in the social context where followers make attributions about their leaders
(House & Aditya, 1997, as cited in Anderson et al. 2016). Hansen & Leuty (2012) stressed that t odays employees put
high importance on extrinsic rewards and are more likely to see a person who has power to give rewards and
punishments as a leader (as cited in Anderson et al. 2016).
Third, Leader-Member exchange (LMX) is based on social exchange where there are one-on-one relationships
between leaders and followers (in-groups and out-groups) (Dansereau et al. 1975 as cited in Anderson et al. 2016).
Pearson (2010) argued that being in the in-group requires more interaction between leader and follower and this poses
a challenge because Millennials prefer using new, computer-aided or text-based, forms to communicate (as cited in
Anderson et al. 2016). Fourth, authentic leadership is a process where the leader reflects his or her internal values and
beliefs and at the same time inspires followers to examine their own. The generations before have always valued work
centrality but Millennials are less work oriented and value work-life balance. This strong work ethic can cause
incongruity and damage the leader-follower relationship (Avolio & Gardner, 2005, as cited in Anderson et al.). Finally,
ethical leadership encompasses ethical and moral behavior and the promotion of this behavior among followers
(Brown & Trevino, 2006, as cited in Anderson et al. 2016). As already mentioned, Millennials are more driven by
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extrinsic rewards and might act unethically if the rewards is bigger than the consequence of acting ethically (Hansen
& Leuty, 2012, as cited in Anderson et al 2016). All of these changes in workforce are very visible in the tourism
industry because it is the fastest growing industry in the world and also worlds largest employer with 292 million employees
(Economic Impact of Tourism, 2017). However, also the employee turnover is really high in the hospitality industry
and organizational commitment is not as high among Millennials as it was for Generation X (Anderson et al. 2016).
This is one of the biggest reasons why it is really important to understand Millennials and what they want from a job.

REFERENCES:
Anderson, H. J., Baur, J. E., Griffith, J. A. & Buckley, M. R. (2016). What works for you may not work for (Gen)Me:
Limitations of present leadership theories for the new generation. The Leadership Quarterly, 28, 245-260.
Avolio, B. J., & Gardner, W. L. (2005).Authentic leadership development: Getting to the root of positive forms of
leadership.The Leadership Quarterly, 16, 315-338.
Brown, M. E., & Trevio, L. K. (2006).Ethical leadership: A review and future directions.The Leadership Quarterly,
17, 595-616. Brownstone, S. (2014). Millennials will become the majority in the workforce in 2015. Is your
company ready? Retrieved from http://www.fastcoexist.com/3037823/millennials-will-become-the-majority-in-
the-workforce-in-2015-is-your-company-read
Dansereau, F., Graen, G., & Haga, W. J. (1975).A vertical dyad linkage approach to leadership within formal
organizations: A longitudinal investigation of the role making process.Organizational Behavior and Human
Performance, 13, 46-78.
Hansen,J.I.C.,&Leuty,M.E.(2012).Work values across generations.Journal of Career Assessment, 20, 34-52. House, R.
J., & Aditya, R. N. (1997).The social scientific study of leadership: Quo vadis?Journal of Management, 23, 409-
473.
Judge, T. A., & Piccolo, R. F. (2004).Transformational and transactional leadership: A meta-analytic test of their
relative validity.Journal of Applied Psychology, 89, 755-768.
Lyons, S., & Kuron, L. (2014).Generational differences in the workplace: A review of the evidence and directions for
future research.Journal of Organizational Behavior, 35, 139-157.
Pearson, J. C., Carmon, A., Tobola, C., & Fowler, M. (2010).Motives for communication: Why the Millennial
Generation uses electronic devices.Journal of the Communication, Speech & Theatre Association of North
Dakota, 22, 45-55.
Twenge, J. M. (2010).A review of the empirical evidence on generational differences in work attitudes.Journal of
Business and Psychology, 25, 201-210.

World Travel & Tourism Council (2017). Economic Impact of Tourism. Retrieved from
https://www.wttc.org/research/economic-research/economic-impact-analysis/