Cohabitation with Millennials in the Workplace:a Contemporary Challenge of Leadership

Abstract: The spectrum of this thesis gives a specific focus on the Millennial Generation. In the post-modern society, we will give an in depth look to the mentalities of these individuals. Optimism, self-confidence, great expectations, technology savvy, are just a few of all the attributes usually associated to this generation. Through an empirical approach, we will verify if those characteristics are really representative of the Millennials identity. Furthermore, assuming the reality of a global shift of mentalities in nowadays society, we will explore in what extent the differences of mentalities actually impact the interactions between generations. Thereby, in a context of generational cohabitation, we will give a look at the influence of mentalities on leadership challenges, in the professional body. In the end, is the generational gap a reality or simply the result of the normal evolution of a changing society? Probably, Millennials are not as bad as some could think for the future of the organizations and globally for the future of the world. However, they can’t take place into leadeing roles without succeeding to manage the mentalities differences and without the support of the other generations. The study explores, discovers and questions many of the information sources currently available, as these texts and studies mainly deal with “how to’s”.. how to manage millennials in the workplace, how to deal with the generational gap, all these seemed to have a detachment to the central concept of leadership and generational cohabitation, and this study acts as a direct response to create interpretations that link these two elements together.