Maier tavanti bombard gentile bradford 2015 points

Maier, Tavanti, Bombard, Gentile, & Bradford (2015) points out that millennials detest having to
deal with mistrust between the leader and the follower. Hence, they want their leaders to
understand them, and work with them in developing solutions to challenges at the workplace. For
the other generations, there is a sense in which a clear demarcation between the leaders and
followers regarded highly. It appears that having more millennials into the leadership teams may
tend to tinker with the way leaders approach or relate with their followers. Hence, the
expectation leaders have of their followers may be a bit different when more millennials are
occupying leadership positions. The impact this may have on the effectiveness of the leaders is
another thing to consider.
Millennial leaders are also likely to bring about a new understanding of the needs of their
employees, and therefore a change in the approach in which organization motivates their staff.
Espinoza & Ukleja (2016) points out that leaders from the generation X and Baby Boomers
generation have tended to lay a premium on extrinsic motivation. Therefore, the staff is assumed
to be motivated by pay increases, leave days, bonuses among others. However, the expectations
of millennials of their leaders tend to significantly aligned towards having intrinsic motivation.
Therefore, millennials are less interested in what they get from the organization, and more

Millennial Leaders’ Understating of their Roles and Impact on Leadership Style 4
interested in how the working environment is structured so that they can realize their internal
satisfaction. It is a problematic area for many managers who struggle to enforce organization's
routine and rules. For instance, Maier, Tavanti, Bombard, Gentile, & Bradford (2015) are of the
view that millennials are quickly disillusioned by routines activities and favor stimulating and
challenging situations. Given this, having more millennial leaders ascending into positions of
leadership is likely to disrupt the organizational processes due to alternative perspectives brought
about by the new crop of leaders.
There is no doubt that millennials grew up in significantly different situation compared to
the earlier generations, and therefore may have a different understanding and expectations of
their leaders. For that reason, having more millennial leaders into a position of authority is likely
to disrupt cultures and beliefs that have long shaped organizational processes. Organizations
should, therefore, prepare for such an eventuality.
Statement of the Problem
The purpose of this study was to identify how millennial leaders definition of leadership,
the understanding they have about their roles and how all these impacts the leadership style they
adapt to meet those responsibilities that come with those roles. The study appreciates that the
number of millennials joining the workforce has been growing, and as Baby Boomers head into
retirement, the proportion of millennials in leadership positions would grow substantially (Chou,
2012). The point of concern is how this growth in the number of millennials is likely to impact