IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/bushor/v61y2018i2p261-270.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Managing millennials’ personal use of technology at work

Author

Listed:
  • Kim, Sungdoo

Abstract

Growing up with the internet and unparalleled access to technology, millennials (individuals born during 1981–1995, also known as Gen Y and Gen Me) extensively use various technologies for non-work-related reasons while at work. Both popular media and scholarly research have portrayed this issue negatively and have supported monitoring and restricting personal use of technology. However, if organizations are to attract and retain millennials—now the largest generation in the U.S. workforce—it is crucial to understand their characteristics and what drives them. Drawing on research on generational differences, organizational control, and cyberloafing, this article explains how unique characteristics of millennials lead them to engage in personal use of technology at work and how organizations might address this issue. Specifically, I contrast two one-sided approaches (deterrence and laissez-faire) that can lead to dysfunctional outcomes when used in excess and recommend more viable solutions. These solutions include establishing a workplace technology use policy based on shared understanding, fostering both relaxation and urgency mentalities, and training both millennials and their managers.

Suggested Citation

  • Kim, Sungdoo, 2018. "Managing millennials’ personal use of technology at work," Business Horizons, Elsevier, vol. 61(2), pages 261-270.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:bushor:v:61:y:2018:i:2:p:261-270
    DOI: 10.1016/j.bushor.2017.11.007
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0007681317301623
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.bushor.2017.11.007?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Jay B. Barney, 1986. "Strategic Factor Markets: Expectations, Luck, and Business Strategy," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 32(10), pages 1231-1241, October.
    2. Judy Wajcman & Emily Rose & Judith E. Brown & Michael Bittman, 2010. "Enacting virtual connections between work and home," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 29439, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.
    3. Gautam Ahuja & Curba Morris Lampert, 2001. "Entrepreneurship in the large corporation: a longitudinal study of how established firms create breakthrough inventions," Strategic Management Journal, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 22(6‐7), pages 521-543, June.
    4. Brice Corgnet & Roberto Hernán Gonzalez & Ricardo Mateo, 2015. "Cognitive Reflection and the Diligent Worker: An Experimental Study of Millennials," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 10(11), pages 1-13, November.
    5. Sebastian Raisch & Julian Birkinshaw & Gilbert Probst & Michael L. Tushman, 2009. "Organizational Ambidexterity: Balancing Exploitation and Exploration for Sustained Performance," Organization Science, INFORMS, vol. 20(4), pages 685-695, August.
    6. Frey, Bruno S, 1993. "Does Monitoring Increase Work Effort? The Rivalry with Trust and Loyalty," Economic Inquiry, Western Economic Association International, vol. 31(4), pages 663-670, October.
    7. Brice Corgnet & Roberto Hernán-González & Matthew W. McCarter, 2015. "The Role of the Decision-Making Regime on Cooperation in a Workgroup Social Dilemma: An Examination of Cyberloafing," Games, MDPI, vol. 6(4), pages 1-16, November.
    8. Stewart, Jeanine S. & Oliver, Elizabeth Goad & Cravens, Karen S. & Oishi, Shigehiro, 2017. "Managing millennials: Embracing generational differences," Business Horizons, Elsevier, vol. 60(1), pages 45-54.
    9. Henk W. Volberda & Arie Y. Lewin, 2003. "Co‐evolutionary Dynamics Within and Between Firms: From Evolution to Co‐evolution," Journal of Management Studies, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 40(8), pages 2111-2136, December.
    10. Costanza, David P. & Finkelstein, Lisa M., 2015. "Generationally Based Differences in the Workplace: Is There a There There?," Industrial and Organizational Psychology, Cambridge University Press, vol. 8(3), pages 308-323, September.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Jessica Rubiano-Moreno & Samuel Nucamendi-Guillén & Alvaro Cordero-Franco & Alejandro Rodríguez-Magaña, 2022. "An improved LINMAP for multicriteria decision: designing customized incentive portfolios in an organization," Operational Research, Springer, vol. 22(4), pages 3489-3520, September.
    2. Bruning, Patrick F. & Alge, Bradley J. & Lin, Hsin-Chen, 2020. "Social networks and social media: Understanding and managing influence vulnerability in a connected society," Business Horizons, Elsevier, vol. 63(6), pages 749-761.
    3. Simone Del Sarto & Michela Gnaldi, 2022. "Spare time use: profiles of Italian Millennials (beyond the media hype)," Statistical Methods & Applications, Springer;Società Italiana di Statistica, vol. 31(5), pages 1403-1428, December.
    4. Deepika Mishra & Natasha Tageja, 2022. "Cyberslacking for Coping Stress? Exploring the Role of Mindfulness as Personal Resource," International Journal of Global Business and Competitiveness, Springer, vol. 17(1), pages 56-67, December.
    5. Margareta Nadanyiova & Lubica Gajanova & Jana Majerova, 2020. "Green Marketing as a Part of the Socially Responsible Brand’s Communication from the Aspect of Generational Stratification," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(17), pages 1-19, August.
    6. Kamal Badar & Karin Lasthuizen, 2023. "Twenty Years of Research on Millennials at Work : A Structural Review Using Bibliometric and Content Analysis," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(9), pages 1-25, April.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Sebastian Raisch & Michael L. Tushman, 2016. "Growing New Corporate Businesses: From Initiation to Graduation," Organization Science, INFORMS, vol. 27(5), pages 1237-1257, October.
    2. David G. Sirmon & Michael A. Hitt, 2003. "Managing Resources: Linking Unique Resources, Management, and Wealth Creation in Family Firms," Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice, , vol. 27(4), pages 339-358, October.
    3. Brice Corgnet & Brian Gunia & Roberto Hernán González, 2021. "Harnessing the power of social incentives to curb shirking in teams," Journal of Economics & Management Strategy, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 30(1), pages 139-167, February.
    4. Oana Buliga & Christian W. Scheiner & Kai-Ingo Voigt, 2016. "Business model innovation and organizational resilience: towards an integrated conceptual framework," Journal of Business Economics, Springer, vol. 86(6), pages 647-670, August.
    5. Giovanni Gavetti, 2012. "PERSPECTIVE—Toward a Behavioral Theory of Strategy," Organization Science, INFORMS, vol. 23(1), pages 267-285, February.
    6. Khraisha, Tamer, 2020. "Complex economic problems and fitness landscapes: Assessment and methodological perspectives," Structural Change and Economic Dynamics, Elsevier, vol. 52(C), pages 390-407.
    7. Yuzhe Miao & Robert M. Salomon & Jaeyong Song, 2021. "Learning from Technologically Successful Peers: The Convergence of Asian Laggards to the Technology Frontier," Organization Science, INFORMS, vol. 32(1), pages 210-232, January.
    8. Li, Yuan & Wei, Zelong & Zhao, Jie & Zhang, Chenlu & Liu, Yi, 2013. "Ambidextrous organizational learning, environmental munificence and new product performance: Moderating effect of managerial ties in China," International Journal of Production Economics, Elsevier, vol. 146(1), pages 95-105.
    9. Annapoornima M. Subramanian & Moren Lévesque & Vareska van de Vrande, 2020. "“Pulling the Plug:” Time Allocation between Drug Discovery and Development Projects," Production and Operations Management, Production and Operations Management Society, vol. 29(12), pages 2851-2876, December.
    10. Henk W. Volberda & Nicolai J. Foss & Marjorie A. Lyles, 2010. "PERSPECTIVE---Absorbing the Concept of Absorptive Capacity: How to Realize Its Potential in the Organization Field," Organization Science, INFORMS, vol. 21(4), pages 931-951, August.
    11. Zhang, Feng & Jiang, Guohua & Cantwell, John A., 2019. "Geographically Dispersed Technological Capability Building and MNC Innovative Performance: The Role of Intra-firm Flows of Newly Absorbed Knowledge," Journal of International Management, Elsevier, vol. 25(3), pages 1-1.
    12. Quentin Plantec & Pascal Le Masson & Benoit Weil, 2020. "Impact of knowledge search practices on the originality of inventions: a study in the oil & gas industry," Post-Print hal-02613665, HAL.
    13. Cristina Fernandes & João J. Ferreira & Mário L. Raposo & Cristina Estevão & Marta Peris-Ortiz & Carlos Rueda-Armengot, 2017. "The dynamic capabilities perspective of strategic management: a co-citation analysis," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 112(1), pages 529-555, July.
    14. Teppo Felin & Todd R. Zenger, 2016. "CROSSROADS—Strategy, Problems, and a Theory for the Firm," Organization Science, INFORMS, vol. 27(1), pages 222-231, February.
    15. Qu, Guannan & Chen, Jin & Zhang, Ruhao & Wang, Luyao & Yang, Yayu, 2023. "Technological search strategy and breakthrough innovation: An integrated approach based on main-path analysis," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 196(C).
    16. Lori Rosenkopf & Patia McGrath, 2011. "Advancing the Conceptualization and Operationalization of Novelty in Organizational Research," Organization Science, INFORMS, vol. 22(5), pages 1297-1311, October.
    17. François Constant & Richard Calvi & Thomas Johnsen, 2020. "Managing tensions between exploitative and exploratory innovation through purchasing function ambidexterity Managing tensions between exploitative and exploratory innovation through purchasing functio," Post-Print hal-02891790, HAL.
    18. Mahmood, Tarique & Mubarik, Muhammad Shujaat, 2020. "Balancing innovation and exploitation in the fourth industrial revolution: Role of intellectual capital and technology absorptive capacity," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 160(C).
    19. Gino Cattani, 2005. "Preadaptation, Firm Heterogeneity, and Technological Performance: A Study on the Evolution of Fiber Optics, 1970–1995," Organization Science, INFORMS, vol. 16(6), pages 563-580, December.
    20. Ansari, Shahzad (Shaz) & Krop, Pieter, 2012. "Incumbent performance in the face of a radical innovation: Towards a framework for incumbent challenger dynamics," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 41(8), pages 1357-1374.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:bushor:v:61:y:2018:i:2:p:261-270. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/locate/bushor .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.