The Contribution of Mentoring on Organizational Commitment of Millennial Employees: A Case Study of Knowledge Process Outsourcing Organization

Abstract

With an ever-increasing growth in the composition of millennial employees in the workforce, understanding their expectations and demands and applying strategies to keep them fully engaged and committed has become a challenge. As this group grows significantly employers need to make major changes in their engagement and motivating models. In the modern business context, most organizations tend to offer career growth opportunities with benefits and arrange mentoring programs to facilitate employee career growth and solve their issues and concerns within the organizational environment. The purpose of this qualitative exploratory case study is to explore how the mentoring program at XYZ Company contributes to the organizational commitment of millennial employees. Theoretical foundations are basically drawn from Homan's Social Exchange theory and Meyer and Allen’s Organizational Commitment model. This qualitative case study has used the in-depth interview method to collect primary data from a sample of 20 mentors and mentees. The purposive sampling technique was used to select the respondents. The collected data were analyzed using thematic analysis method and pattern matching technique was used to identify the categories and themes that emerged through analyzing data. The results of the study indicated that mentoring program at XYZ Company is effective and has an impact on organizational commitment of millennial employees. Mentees perceived the impact of mentoring on organizational commitment in terms of mentor's influence, role of mentoring on emotional attachment and role of mentoring on obligation to stay. Mentors increase the commitment of mentees by appreciating and valuing their commitment, tracking and reviewing their performance and guiding them towards extra effort. Further, it revealed that mentors play very important role in motivating mentees to exert great effort in terms of being productive and punctual, achieving targets and ensuring quality. Their desire to maintain organizational membership is indicated by their feelings on being valued, proud and the bond with people and the culture. Finally, mentors create an obligation to stay by delegating more authority and responsibilities, providing growth opportunities and training and developing them properly. It was identified that mentees are committed in terms of affective commitment and normative commitment. However, it was evidenced that they were committed to the job but not to the organization. This professional commitment is mainly influenced by their intention of achieving rapid career growth. These findings provide important insights for the management of the organization on the expectations and demands of millennial employees and the nature of strategies that they should introduce to keep them fully engaged and committed.

Keywords: Mentoring, Employee Engagement, Organizational Commitment, Millennial employees