Date of Award

Spring 5-2023

Degree Type

Dissertation

Degree Name

Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

School

Leadership

Committee Chair

Dr. H. Quincy Brown

Committee Chair School

Leadership

Committee Member 2

Dr. John J. Kmiec, Jr.

Committee Member 2 School

Leadership

Committee Member 3

Dr. Heather M. Annulis

Committee Member 3 School

Leadership

Committee Member 4

Dr. Dale L. Lunsford

Committee Member 4 School

Leadership

Abstract

ABSTRACT

Millennials comprise the largest group of individuals in the workforce, yet organizations struggle to keep millennials engaged in the workplace. Millennials move from job to job, with an average stay at one employer between 12 and 18 months (Hechl, 2017). Researchers have reported that millennials cause the majority of turnover in the workplace. Globally, human resources practitioners experience difficulties retaining millennials (Sahraee et al., 2021). Previous studies have researched millennials, affective commitment, mentoring, and turnover. However, no known research has used all four factors to solve a global problem. In their discussion of the highly competitive labor market, Ramírez García et al. (2019) determined that employers must compete for talented millennials to maintain appeal within the workforce.

Further, turnover remains costly for organizations (Ramírez García et al., 2019). This study examined the relationship between affective commitment, mentoring, and anticipated turnover among millennials in the public sector. The researcher attempted to answer the research question and objectives by conducting a non-experimental, quantitative correlation study using surveys through an online platform called Amazon Mechanical Turk. The study resulted in four findings. This study confirms that as affective commitment increases, anticipated turnover decreases. The results indicated a positive correlation between affective commitment and mentoring in assessing the relationship between affective commitment and mentoring. The results revealed that mentoring impacts millennials’ decision to stay with their organization. The findings indicated a negative correlation between mentoring and anticipated turnover. However, a mediation analysis could not be performed to answer research objective five. The findings from this study could contribute as a foundation for assessing millennials in the private and non-profit sectors. Also, organizations should implement some form of mentoring in the workplace to increase affective commitment in retaining millennials.

Keywords: human resources, mentoring, millennials, retention, turnover, workforce

ORCID ID

0009-0001-7198-6079

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