Keywords

Introduction

In contemporary dynamic, turbulent. and ever-competitive environment, firms worldwide are facing a major challenge to develop and retain high potential employees (Schuler et al. 2011; Tarique and Schuler 2010). The unprecedented influx of Millennial employees into the workforce has catalysed the growing workforce mobility and diversity , which further contribute to the talent management challenge. As a result, three different Generations are working simultaneously, namely, Baby boomers (1946–1960), Generation X (1961–1980) and Millennials (1981–2000) (Naim and Lenka 2018, in press). Notably, members of these generations are reported to exhibit idiosyncratic work values and preferences (Ng et al. 2010). Of these, Millennial employees needs most attention as they are the future face of the workforce. To an estimate, they will constitute roughly fifty percent of workfoce population by 2020 (Saxena and Jain 2012). However, they are shown to be less loyal towards their employer and frequently hop jobs to explore advancement and developmental opportunities (Cennamo and Gardner 2008; Ng et al. 2010). A recent study by Deloitte found that nearly one-third Millennial workers are planning to leave their employer (Talent Edge 2020 2011).

This is largely attributed to their strong preference for continuous learning and development avenues (Terjesen et al. 2007). In addition, learning and development help improve employees’ retention and motivation (Cook and Macaulay 2009). Thus, it is imperative that HR policies should emphasize on learning and development and therefore, organizations must invest in learning and developemnt. Besides, one of the main attributes that Millennials seeks is a supportive environment wherein managers facilitate mentoring and follow an inclusive style of management and offer creative freedom and decision-making powers (Lowe et al. 2008).

This distinctive needs render HRM practices as ineffective to appeal Millennial employees. Therefore, there is a need to formulate generation-specific approach to manage Millennial employees. In so doing, we propose mentoring to be an ideal initiative to induce personal learning of Millennial employees through dissemination of work-related knowledge, insights, and experiences. Mentoring facilitates employee development by offering valuable support and opportunities of competency development to inexperienced Millennial employees. Further, studies reveal that mentoring is an ideal intervention to develop Millennial members and also suggested to be studied for retaining them (Holt et al. 2012; Stahno and Yang 2014; Weyland 2011). We analyze psychological profile of Millennial members by capturing their idiosyncratic work-related values and preferences in the context of talent management . Grounded on social exchange perspective, when Millennial employees realize their career growth and employability skill enhancement, they develop a sense of affective commitment to the organization, which in turn, translates to lowering the turnover intentions . On this backdrop, this article aims to map a social-exchange based conceptual framework that examines the relationship between mentoring and Millennial employees’ turnover intentions . This article responds to call for unraveling the underlying mechanism of the effect of mentoring relationships on individual employees’ attitudinal outcomes (Hezlett and Gibson 2007).

The major contribution of this paper is that we contribute to the literature on mentoring and employee attitudinal outcomes from a Generational perspective. In so doing, grounded on psychological-contract theory, we incorporated mentoring , personal learning, leading to affective commitment and finally, reduced turnover intention. The paper is structured as follows; first section highlights the review of literature on Millennial employees’ profile and mentoring , second section presents the conceptual framework along with propositions. It is followed by discussion and implications for practice, and future scope of research.

Literature Review

Millennials’ Description

Millennials are otherwise termed as Generation Y. The name ‘Generation Y’ is first appeared in the literature in a US magazine Advertising Age in 1993 to denote the last generation of the twentieth century. Although there is no consistency in the literature with regard to birth years of Millennial cohort, most authors have used 1981–2000 as the time-frame for this Generation. They represent the most recent entrants to the workforce globally.

Literature reveals that Millennials are inherently different in workplace values and behavior from its predecessors (Naim and Lenka 2017b; Ng et al. 2010). This is largely due to changing socio-demographic factors and unique life events that Millennial employees have witnessed during their developmental times. Their formative years are characterized by a fast-paced, instant world catalyzed by the technological revolution, economic liberalization and knowledge-based economy. They are raised in a technologically advanced era; hence they are techno-savvy and most adept users of technology (Lowe et al. 2008). However, despite their techno-savvy nature, Millennial employees crave meaning and fulfillment in their work. They seek challenge and variety in the work to overcome monotony. In general, Millennial members have strong social tendencies i.e. they value relationship building with supervisors and peers (Twenge 2010). They enjoy working in collaborative environments as they have grown up working in teams on projects at school and college. Moreover, they are entrepreneurial by nature and display high expectations from organizations regarding support for innovation, risk-taking, autonomy, intrinsic rewards and the challenging nature of work This has given them the name ‘High maintenance generation’ (Martin 2005).

Besides, they desire a flat hierarchy where they can get access to senior leadership in organizations. They are repotted to display a preference for an inclusive style of management; and supportive and approachable supervisors, who act as mentors and treat them as individual partners (Lowe et al. 2008). They prefer orderly work environments and dislike ambiguity of any kind i.e. desire well-defined roles and clear expectations. They prefer open and honest communication with open sharing of ideas. In addition, they crave quick promotions and immediate performance feedback . This ‘impatience to succeed’ attitude reflects the sense of immediacy, which is the product of their hyper-connected lifestyle achieved through use of instant technologies. Millennial employees value timely recognition for their accomplishments and consistent feedback makes it possible. Regular feedback opens avenues for taking corrective measures to rectify the mistake and develop skills and knowledge (Lowe et al. 2008; Martin 2005; Naim 2014).

They are reported to have the dispositional characteristics particularly, a high growth need, learning-orientation, a need for achievement, self-actualisation and self-esteem . As a result, they place high value on nurturing and supportive work environment, where they foresee avenues of development (Terjesen et al. 2007). Further, extant research reveals that Millennial employees crave mentoring (Cunningham 2007). This explains their quest for continuous learning in order to make a positive impact on the organizational leadership and to stay self-marketable in the talent market (Cennamo and Gardner 2008). Therefore, organisations committed to invest in their development appeal highly to Millennial employees.

Mentoring

Over the years, mentoring has been the subject of widespread academic interest; as such different scholars have defined mentoring through their own conceptualization. However, most definitions are derived from Kram’s (1985) seminal work on mentoring . Mentoring is a developmental relationship between a more experienced or skilled mentor and a less experienced or less skilled protégée whereby both benefit from the relationship (Johnson and Ridley 2015; Kram 1985). It is a process where a more experienced member of the organisation called mentor guides and assists the development of skills and abilities of a less experienced member called mentee. In other words, it is a developmental relationship wherein people help people; by means of counseling, teaching, advising, instructing and guiding. Bozeman and Feeney (2007) define mentoring as “a process for the informal transmission of knowledge, social capital and psychosocial support perceived by the recipient as relevant to work, career, or professional development” (p. 731). It involves informal communication, usually face-to-face occurring over time “between someone perceived to have greater relevant knowledge, wisdom, or experience (the mentor) and a person who is perceived to have less (the protégé)” (p. 731).

Kram (1985) identified a two-dimensional concept of mentoring , Vocational (career support ) and psycho-social (social support ). Career support function includes making challenging assignments, promoting job related behaviors, fostering career development , enhancing their sense of competence through mentor functions of exposure, sponsorship, visibility, protection and challenging assignments. Exposure, sponsorship and visibility provide public support to mentee. To do so, mentor offers guidance and direction towards developmental avenues such as lateral moves within organizations, role-hopping, new learning opportunities through stretch roles. While by introducing mentees to significant senior employees of the organizations, mentor enhances their network and recognition thereby increasing exposure and visibility. Besides, protection involves the mentor shields the mentee in situations of high risks of failure which might limit their career progress. Challenging assignments support career development by providing opportunities to learn from new roles and responsibilities. Psychosocial support function serves to develop a sense of belongingness, professional identity and effectiveness. Mentor serves a source of social support and offers friendship, acceptance, confirmation, counseling and role modeling. Friendship leads to positive experiences and allows them to be at ease with a senior employee. Acceptance and confirmation build a sense of positive self-regard among mentees. Counseling support promotes positive self-views through self-exploration. Kram (1985). Role modeling helps mentees to identify with the mentor and providing the opportunity for the mentee to observe others and learn from their actions, particularly in relationship to the application of personal values in work settings and strategic tactics used to address problems. Thus, career support improves mentees’ professional lives whereas psychosocial support improves personal lives. However, further studies conceptualized role modeling as a distinct mentoring function (Johnson and Ridley 2015; Scandura and Ragins 1993).

The extant literature on mentoring mainly focuses on its beneficial outcomes such as greater career satisfaction and commitment , lower turnover intentions , increased, compensation and promotions, self-confidence and career development of mentees; personal satisfaction of mentorand higher organizational performance (Craig et al. 2013; DeCastro et al. 2014; Kammeyer-Mueller and Judge 2008; Kirchmeyer 2005; Kram 1985). Also mentoring has been shown to improve job involvement, engagement and affective commitment of employees through satisfaction of need for belonging and acceptance (Allen and Meyer 1990; Lynn Stallworth 2003; Payne and Huffman 2005). However, this study opens new vistas on exploring mentoring effect on mentee affective commitment and turnover intentions via personal learning. On this backdrop, mentoring is an ideal intervention to support Millennial expectations by providing informational and emotional support and satisfying their higher order needs of self-esteem and self-actualisation . The subsequent section discusses the theoretical underpinnings of the role of mentoring to retain Millennial employees.

Conceptual Framework and Propositions

This study presents a conceptual framework for Millennial retention through the lens of Social Exchange theory (SET). This theory purports that all social relationships are formed, sustained or severed based on the perceived cost benefit analysis. It suggests that when an individual receives something beneficial in a relationship with the other one, it develops a sense of reciprocity. As a result, the individual on the receiving end reciprocates in order to repay the received benefit (Emerson 1976). Therefore, in response to received benefits from others, employees tend to oblige by exhibiting positive psychological responses, including commitment and turnover intentions (Eisenberger et al. 1990) (Fig. 18.1).

Fig. 18.1
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The Conceptual framework

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Mentoring and Personal Learning

Personal learning is defined as “knowledge acquisition, skills or competencies contributing to individual development, including interpersonal competencies of self-reflection, self-disclosure, active listening, empathy, and feedback . Such development invokes a greater understanding of oneself as increasingly connected to others” (Kram 1996, p. 140). In broad terms, it encompasses two facets: job-related learning defined as “understanding about the interdependence or connectedness of one’s job to others”; and personal skill development defined as “acquisition of new skills and abilities that enable better working relationships” (Lankau and Scandura 2002, p. 6). Job-related learning involves acquiring technical knowledge, understanding of work context, business kills, and procedural information about the organization. While, personal skill development involves interpersonal skills, self-efficacy, self-perception, self-confidence, and self-direction. Stated differently, job-related learning has important implications for professional development and career success, while, personal skill development promotes personal growth and competency enrichment. Consequently, personable learning is indispensable for Millennial employees to succeed in their career.

Mentoring is a learning intervention involving pairing of an experienced mentor to a novice mentee. It also helps them navigate the learning curve for professional growth and enable development of new professional relationships within the organization (Dow 2014). More importantly, “mentoring influences advancement of protégés by developing their social skills, serving as contacts with the social system and sending signals of ability, reputation and organizational” (Kirchmeyer 2005: p. 641). In context of Millennial employees, mentoring is more significant as they lack experience, however are ambitious and eager to learn and develop. Millennial employees enter the workforce with enthusiasm, energy and expectations; yet require consistent support , guidance, and feedback to ascend the career ladder. Therefore, mentoring is a vital HR intervention harnessing mentor’s knowledge and extensive experience, for overall development of Millennial employees by facilitating their competency building (Naim and Lenka 2017a). To achieve this purpose, mentor would often assign challenging tasks to mentees to create learning opportunities, assist in goal setting, provide career guidance by depicting clear picture about their career, support the advancement of job position, expand their networks, help in resolving task-related problems and provide developmental feedback (Eby et al. 2015; Johnson and Ridley 2015). It involves consistent interaction with mentees and sharing of insights, experiences, tried-and-tested best work practices and mishaps or failures. In particular, such interactions between mentor and mentee involve dialogue and enquiry as mentees ask questions and knowledge interflow from mentor results in informal learning opportunities (Gong, Chen and Yang 2014; Hamburg 2013). This leads to development of social and personal competencies such as networking, internal locus of control, self-efficacy, self-confidence, achievement motivation , risk-taking, interpersonal skills, negotiation, persuasion, interpretation, initiative taking, collaborative potential and leadership competencies such as self-management (Eddy et al. 2003; Stead 2005). Further, knowledge transfer achieved through mentoring in itself facilitates competency development as Millennial mentees learn and acquire organizational knowledge, in turn fostering professional competencies such as technical skills (product or process related, customer relationship skills, client management, project management), managerial skills, organization-specific norms, strategic thinking, decision making, opportunity identification (Browne-Ferrigno and Muth 2004; Ehrich et al. 2004; Naim and Lenka 2016b). Furthermore, mentoring builds a culture of organizational learning and knowledge creation and sharing and in turn, creates a learning organization (Hamburg 2013; Karkoulian et al. 2008). It hastens the process of tacit knowledge sharing by allowing mentees to have an easier access to internal experts. Thus, it enables discovery of tacit knowledge of mentors which otherwise, is difficult to explore. It is also positively linked to talent development and leadership development by influencing competency enhancement in mentees (Eddy et al. 2003; Gannon and Maher 2012). In addition, mentoring creates an environment of trust, support and belongingness. It gives employees an outlet to voice their concerns by encouraging self-expression, dialogue and inquiry, in turn, reinforcing social competencies.

Further, considering Millennial employees’ quest for continuous learning and development, mentoring will have a profound positive influence on their perception of personal learning. In similar vein, it can be proposed that Millennial employees are more likely to perceive personal learning within the organisation that practice mentoring . Thus, there is a positive relationship between mentoring and personal learning. Thus, we propose

Proposition 1

Participation in mentoring program is positively related to Millennial employees’ perception of personal learning.

Personal Learning and Affective Commitment

Affective commitment is one of the widely studied constructs in positive organizational psycholog. It is significant for this study due to the emotional reactions employees may experience in response to perceived learning. Affective commitment is denned as “an affective or emotional attachment to the organization such that the strongly committed individual identifies with, is involved in, and enjoys membership in, the organization” (Allen and Meyer 1990, p. 2). It acts as a binding force and affectively committed employees want to remain employed with the same organization. In this study, we focus on how affective commitment arises from personal learning and development achieved through mentoring .

Organisations offering developmental opportunities to enhance employees’ competencies, earn a sense of emotional bonding, resulting in feeling of affective commitment . In particular, personal learning and development of employees is one of the most significant factors influencing their turnover intentions (Chikumbi 2012). This factor is most relevant to Millennial employees who harbor an ambition to succeed and have learning goal orientation; hence they are more likely to participate in developmental initiatives (Aryee et al. 1999). Likewise, there is compelling evidence in the literature that mentoring is positively related to affective organizational commitment , and in turn, negatively predicts turnover intentions (Joo 2010; Payne and Huffman 2005; Lapointe and Vandenberghe 2016; Reid et al. 2008; Stahl et al. 2009). This is consistent with Affective events theory, which states that affective work events result in affective reactions, which in turn, shape employees’ work attitudes and behaviors (Weiss and Cropanzano 1996). In this vein, personal learning achieved through mentoring is also an affective experience, which Generation rate affective reactions in the form of affective commitment . This is supported by Lynn Stallworth (2003) who noted, “mentoring relationships fit the definition of affective commitment antecedents as work experiences ‘that satisfy employees’ needs to feel comfortable in their relationship with the organization and to feel competent in the work-role’ (Allen and Meyer 1990, p. 4)” (p. 407). Moreover, when an organisation exhibits care and concern for employees and offer avenues for development in a compelling Employee value proposition, it satisfies their higher order needs of self-esteem and self-actualisation and generates reciprocal positive outcome such as affective commitment . Therefore, we assume that mentoring facilitates perceived learning of Millennial employees, which results in generating an emotional connect with the organization. Thus, we propose:

Proposition 2

Millennial employees’ perception of personal learning is positively related to their affective commitment with the organization.

Affective Commitment and Turnover Intentions

In accordance with the theory of reasoned action (TRA), intentions are the best predictors of actual human behavior (Ajzen and Fishbein 1980). However, there is lack of consistency in the literature on what determines such intentions. Although, predictors of turnover intentions have been the subject of considerable attention in academic domain, stull there is little research done in the context of Millennial employees’ turnover intentions . The extant literature reports several factors for these intentions including perceived stress, management support , commitment , job satisfaction, job characteristics, justice, and organization culture (Griffeth et al. 2000; Maertz et al. 2007). However, in accordance with their distinct psychological contract , Millennial strongly values learning and career development and has no room for job security and life-time employment, therefore drivers of above-noted turnover are irrelevant (Sonnenberg et al. 2011; Twenge 2010). The effective fulfillment of psychological contract through learning and development is indispensable to evoke reduced turnover intentions among Millennial employees.

In broad terms, turnover intentions is an employees’ perceived desirability to terminate his/her relationship with the employer. It can also be viewed as the individual‟s intention to voluntary quit the organization (Fox and Fallon 2003). It is a complex psychological process constituted by a sequence of thinking of quitting, intentions to search, intention to leave , and finally quitting (Mobley et al. 1979). Hence, turnover intention is the last cognitive step employees make in the voluntary turnover process and considered to be the stongest factor influencing the turnover decision (Fox and Fallon 2003; Mathieu and Zajac 1990).

For Millennials , access to learning and development opportunities is the most critical factor to reduce their turnover intention (Ng et al. 2010). In other words, when the organisation offers developmental opportunities to enhance employees’ personal learning by developing their personal, social and professional competencies, it exhibits organziation’s care and concern for employees’ wellbeing. This nurtures a sense of realisation of emotional belonging; leading to building affective commitment , which in turn results in reducing turnover intentions .

Furthermore, provision of learning can be a strategy to retain talent (Cole 1999), as Millennial employees have a strong learning orientation; there will be a profound impact on their affective commitment . This affective commitment mediates the influence of such events on employee attitudes and behaviors, including turnover intentions (Stahl et al. 2009). Hence, we expect a significant positive influence of perceived personal learning on affective commitment leading to reduced turnover intentions of Millennial employees. In addition, organisational commitment is shown to be a strong determinant of turnover intentions , particularly affective commitment (Joo 2010). Likewise, another study reports a mediating role of affective commitment on relationship of between mentoring with turnover intention (Payne and Huffman 2005). Thus, we propose:

Proposition 3

Development of affective commitment is negatively related to Millennial employees’ turnover intentions .

Discussion and Implications for Retention Practice

In the present turbulent environment, talent retention has become a significant challenge for organisations. In particular, Millennial employees, by their inherent nature are more prone to job-switching. The extant research reports that employees with high need for growth and achievement, have ambition to succeed and are more inclined towards mentoring (Aryee et al. 1999). In similar vein, Millennial employees want to upgrade their skills to remain employable and sought-after in the talent market and they do not want to be deemed ignorant and failures. Therefore, Millennial employees crave mentoring and continuous learning (Cunningham 2007). In this vein, organization’s human resource practices including mentoring are likely to result in stimulating affective commitment of these employees, which then influence their turnover intentions (Bawa and Jantan 2005).

This chapter sought to explore mentoring to retain Millennial employees. To achieve this, the study presents a conceptual framework to link constructs namely mentoring , perceived learning, affective commitment , and turnover intentions . This study is based on the underlying principle of social exchange theory to explore this phenomenon. The extant literature provides support to the notion that mentoring has a negative relationship with turnover intentions (Kammeyer-Mueller and Judge 2008; Kram 1985; Lankau and Scandura 2002; Payne and Huffman 2005). The research however is scarce on how mentoring influences employees’ turnover intentions and hence further exploration is required (Hezlett and Gibson 2007). This paper fills this gap by examining the role of mentoring in facilitating personal learning of Millennial employees thereby satisfying their their higher order needs (self-worth, self-development, recognition , feedback , and socialization) resulting in affective commitment and ultimately lowering their turnover intentions (Naim and Lenka 2016a).

As such, it is consistent with social learning theory, which states that individuals learn in a social context via interactions with others (Bandura 1977). People also learn by observing other people through role modeling called vicarious learning. In mentoring relationships, mentees learn from their mentors through interacting with and observing them, whereby mentors act as role models. This theory explains how mentoring facilitates personal learning. Mentors provide challenging assignments to mentees to improve their personal or professional competencies. Through friendship, counseling and acceptance the mentor also helps the mentee´ develop the sense of professional competence (Kram 1985). In line with this theory, mentoring provides an opportunity for mastery experience, vicarious experience (i.e. observing mentors being role models)and verbal persuasion (e.g., encouragement and feedback ) to mentees. Therefore, mentees are offered learning opportunities and support , which in turn improve their absorptive capacity i.e. their ability and motivation to learn. This results in learning behavior and acquisition of competencies. In this view, perceived learning is an outcome of mentoring received. Thus, the more mentoring functions mentees receive, the more competencies they develop, resulting in perception of personal learning. Moreover, social interactions between mentor and mentees further enhance learning behaviors, ultimately leading to expansion of competencies namely personal, social, and professional.

The present day organisations are relying on their employees more than ever. The conceptual framework of this study showed that organisations need to nurture mentoring to foster learning in the organisation. The perception of learning and competency development in Millennial employees will give them increased assurance of a more profitable future with the organisation. This in turn will result into positive psychological responses leading to reducing their turnover intentions . The present study has significant implications that extend to both industry and academia. From an industry standpoint, the study offers insights on Millennial needs and motivators. Managers gain the understanding on how members of Millennial cohort are inherently different from more experienced employees, which facilitate developing suitable policies. In addition, HR managers can fine-tune their retention strategy for Millennial employees. The insights will encourage them in adopting mentoring to expand Millennials ’ competencies, not only to reap dividends of improved organizational performance and competitive edge but also to boost retention rates. To achieve contextual operationalization of this framework, organization must be cognizant of national and regional culture . However, it is applicable and valid across the national boundaries including US, Europe, and Asian countries, as Millennial members, form across the globe are shown to be oriented towards learning and development, and career advancement opportunities (Ng et al. 2010; Holt et al. 2012; Cooke et al. 2014). More importantly, in today’s mutigenerational workforce, mentoring has become even more beneficial as it fosters healthy relationships resulting in workplace harmony.

From an academic standpoint, this study contributes to the literature on linkage between mentoring and turnover intentions . To the best of our knowledge, so far no academic work examines mentoring in context of Millennial employees’ turnover intentions . In other words, this paper is first of its kind to examine mentoring effect on affective commitment and turnover intentions through satisfaction of cognitive or developmental needs of Millennial mentees via personal learning. This study will help close the gap between mentoring relationships and how it relates to Millenials’ attitudinal outcomes such as turnover intentions .

Limitations and Future Scope

Despite its academic and managerial implications, the study being theoretical in nature has some limitations. The article is grounded on a literature review and secondary data. Future work should conduct the empirical validation of the proposed conceptual framework . Mentoring acts as an enabler of personal learning in the framework; however future study may add to this stream by incorporating other enablers such as learning climate , job satisfaction, knowledge sharing culture , supportive leadership to reduce Millennial turnover intentions The framework is designed for Millennial cohort irrespective of national culture ’s effects on Millennials ’ chracteristics. It will be prudent, therefore to explore the competencies required to be developed in country-specific Millennial employees. In this vein, investigating workplace needs and values of Millennials from emerging economies will be a notable contribution (Fang 2010). Personal learning is the central element of the framework; however various competency types such as generic, technical, functional or social competencies are not differentiated. Therefore future studies should acknowledge the specific competencies held valuable by Millennial employees.

The framework may or may not be effective in context of other Generational groups such as Generation X or Baby boomers. This can be evaluated in future work through a comparative analysis using heterogeneous sample form different generations. Meanwhile, we have to acknowledge that other measures, such as gender, trust, and organizational structure may have moderating effect on outcome variables. Moreover, research should continue to examine different forms of mentoring , including group mentoring , peer mentoring and e-mentoring in the context of Millennial employees. In this vein, examine the most effective mentoring forms from both Millennial employees’ and management’s perspective Finally, there is a need to develop a scale for personal learning, and turnover intentions from the perspective of Millennial employees as most available scales are developed in different context.

Summary

This study was embarked upon investigating the impact of mentoring on Millennial employees’ turnover intentions . In this line, this chapter proposed a framework explaining the relationship between mentoring and Millennial employees’ turnover intentions through personal learning and affective commitment . This study has highlighted the impact of how mentoring can influence an employees’ turnover intentions , especially of young employees. Importantly, this research provides organizations with guidelines on how practicing mentoring can influence employee positive work-related behaviors.