Managing Millennials in the African Workplace: What the Millennials Need

Abstract

Increasing interests in organizational implications of millennials amid generational shift within the African setting heralded the need for this study. Adopting an exploratory design, we assess the suitability of custom-made approaches for managing millennials. We inquired to what extent managers understand key needs for managing African millennials, using a tailor-made instrument to collect exploratory data-sets from 502 participants at Lagos Business School, Nigeria. We found significant environmental implications as impacting on the behavioral dispositions of millennials. Grounded on the social exchange theory, we hypothesize millennials’ need for significant mentoring and coaching through personalized interventions of older managers for optimal functioning.