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The Millennial generation has been termed a generation of entitlement by the popular press, but here-to-fore this commonly made assertion has not been tested by empirical research. The research presented here tests for equity sensitivity differences in a sample of 351 Millennials, Gen Xers and Baby Boomers to see if any significant differences exist between the three generational groups. Results indicate that Millennials do indeed exhibit significantly more entitled scores on the Equity Sensitivity Instrument than Baby Boomers (p < .001) and Gen Xers (p < .02). Implications for human resource practices and managers are also discussed.
INTRODUCTION
Millennials, the generation born since 1982 (Howe and Strauss, 2009), are the children of the Baby Boomers and currently the second largest generational group. Demographers predict more than half of the workforce will be comprised of Millennials by 2020 (Wojcik, 2013). A recent cover issue of Time magazine (Stein, 2013) dubbed the Millennials as the "me, me, me generation" - a generation characterized by an entitlement mentality. Millennials were brought up to feel special due to a continual stream of trophies, praise and other laudatory treatment from their doting parents, teachers and coaches. Such accolades were often awarded even if they had not accomplished anything special in an apparent misguided effort to build their self-esteem (Tulgan, 2009; Twenge, 2006; Twenge and Campbell, 2009).
As this generation becomes a larger part of the workforce, they are challenging managers' ability to lead and motivate a group of workers with unrealistic expectations regarding raises, promotions and other forms of recognition (Lancaster and Stillman, 2010). This has been exacerbated due to the Great Recession and an ensuing decade of low employment and low wage growth as Millennials have struggled to find employment and the typical upward mobility experienced by prior generations. Does this commonly made assertion that the millennial generation has a greater sense of entitlement than prior generations hold up to the light of empirical study? This is the research question we set out to explore with this study.
Generation: A Rich and Challenging Construct
The generation concept is widely recognized and discussed in the course of everyday conversation. At least dating back to marketers' prominent promotion of the "Pepsi Generation" in the 1960s, it has become part of...