You can't ignore millennials: Needed changes and a new way forward in entitlement research

• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1111/1748-8583.12262
• Author: Stephanie L. Castro,Katarina K. Brant
• Date: 01 November 2019
• Published date: 01 November 2019

PROVOCATION PAPER

You can't ignore millennials: Needed changes and

a new way forward in entitlement research

Katarina K. Brant

1

| Stephanie L. Castro

2

1

Florida Atlantic University, Boca Raton, FL,

USA

2

Florida Atlantic University, Davie, FL, USA

Correspondence

Katarina K. Brant, PhD, Florida Atlantic

University, 777 Glades Road, Boca Raton, FL

33431, USA.

Email: kknutsen2013@fau.edu

Abstract

As millennials flood the workplace, both researchers and

practitioners agree that entitlement is increasing. Given the

increasing number of millennials in the workforce and their

high levels of entitlement, HRM must find ways to capitalise

on this phenomenon. However, the existing state of the

field is problematic. Past entitlement research has over-

whelmingly ignored millennials, used a limiting trait

conceptualisation, and primarily investigated negative

effects for the entitled individuals. This article seeks to pro-

voke that HRM must address the millennial entitlement phe-

nomenon by making needed changes and taking a new way

forward in entitlement research. Specifically, we argue that

HRM scholars must (a) adopt a new state conceptualisation

of entitlement and (b) move beyond the sole focus on nega-

tive effects to look for positive effects for individuals, teams,

organisations, and society. Millennial entitlement—for better

or worse—is a pressing issue for HRM, and we believe it

may be for the better.

KEYWORDS

entitlement, HRM, millennials

1|INTRODUCTION

Millennial entitlement is the new management crisis. The Wall Street Journal calls it an “epidemic”(Zaslow,

2007), and TIME Magazine declares that we are experiencing the “age of entitlement”and a “crisis of unmet

expectations”(Franklin, 2014; Stein, 2013). Arguably, entitlement has been an issue for years—this phenomenon

is nothing new. But the generation that is posed to comprise three-quarters of the global workforce by 2025

(EY, 2015)—the millennial generation—is considered the most entitled generation yet (Twenge, 2006, 2010,

Received: 28 June 2017 Revised: 27 July 2019 Accepted: 22 August 2019

DOI: 10.1111/1748-8583.12262

Hum Resour Manag J. 2019;29:527–538. wileyonlinelibrary.com/journal/hrmj © 2019 John Wiley & Sons Ltd 527