Many scholars and philosophers have come up with different theories and philosophies of explaining different concepts in life. Every factuality has theories which have been formulated to introspect the people and acts associated with them. From the ancient days, scientific philosophers have been playing a significant role in elaborating various concepts which seems to be challenging through theories. Similarly, there are many theories which relate to the millennial. Millennials refer to the young generation or the Generation Y who was born in the 1980s and 2000s ( Cooney, 2007) . Therefore, according to Stein (2013), the millennial generation mainly refers to the young generation who are primarily building up their future. Since this generation is under the process of learning new things, various theories can be employed to teach, motivate and even guide the millennial generation. The process of motivation or teaching will depend upon the aspirations and needs of the millennia subjects. The Maslow's hierarchy of needs theory, Frederick Herzberg's theory and Pink’s theory of motivation are significantly applicable to the millennial generation.
The Maslow’s theory was propagated by Abraham Maslow a psychologist ( Kaur, 2013). His central concept on the approach relied on the hierarchy of needs that motivates human beings. According to Abraham Maslow, human beings are motivated to work effectively after their basic needs in the hierarchy of needs are attained ( Taormina & Gao, 2013) . The hierarchy is elucidated through a pyramid categorized into levels. The physical basic and essential needs are put in the first level. They are also referred to as the psychological needs which include food, sleep, sex, water, warmth, and sleep. Maslow asserts that when the psychological needs are met, an individual can be compelled to meet the second level needs, security and safety ( Kaur, 2013). In other words, the psychological or basic needs of every individual must be satisfied for the person to progress for a higher level.
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In the preceding levels includes Love and belonging at the third level, self-esteem and confidence at the fourth level and self-actualization as the final level in the hierarchy. Similarly, the millennial generation is characterized by young and energetic individuals who greatly depend upon the basic needs or psychological needs in order to survive and effectively perform their task. Hence, the Maslow’s Hierarchal needs theory can be applicable in motivating the millennial generation so that they can know which needs to satisfy first for better and productive results. Therefore, through the learning the theory, every individual will be motivated and develop the esteem to be viable in the present society.
Frederick Herzberg's motivation theory and hygiene factors are equally important to the millennial generation. According to Herzberg, the satisfaction and dissatisfaction that people experience at their workplace are as a result of different factors respectively ( Yusoff et al., 2013) . Herzberg categorically outlines the factors which motivate individuals to get satisfied as individual growth, advancements, responsibility, work or employment and finally recognition (Miner, 2015). However, before the motivators are attained, the hygiene must be dealt with. Hygiene needs include the maintenance factors which makes people to be dissatisfied in life. Many of the young employees in the job market are in the millennia bracket. Many of them are encountered with this hygiene factor like the policies, working terms, salary, personal life, security, relationships with subordinates and the supervisors and the status. Hence, Frederick Herzberg theory can be useful in educating the individuals on the hygiene factors which will help them in getting motivated to work effectively in their respective jobs so as to attain better and productive results. Therefore, this theory is substantially relevant to the millennial generation since many of them are in the process of developing their career path, but they are faced with some of these challenges. Through the insights from the theory, many of the individuals will be able to tackle this challenges amicably.
Consequently, Pink's theory of motivation propagated by Daniel Pink is of great value, especially to the Millennial generation. According to Pinks' ideology termed drive, there are three basic elements which give true motivation to individuals in any organization in the 20th century ( Singh, 2016). The first element is autonomy which has five features like time, team, techniques, tasks and mastery. Pink notes that employees in the present world should be allowed to be flexible so that they can complete the task at their own pace (Hartl & Juschka, 2016). In other words, the main focus should be laid on the output rather than the stipulated time schedule. Furthermore, the employees should not be supervised, and they should also be left to work with those they feel comfortable working with. By doing so, the organizations will be able to attain an environment which every employee can master concepts and learn in order to develop.
When autonomy is actualized in any given organization, a conducive working environment is fostered. Thus clear goals and immediate feedback can be attained. This will, in turn, lead to the realization of maximization of the organization purpose which translates to the attainment of the goals. Therefore, the theory significantly leads to positive growth of both the individual and the organization. Its applicability to the millennial generation is therefore unquestionable. Many young people in many companies and industries have proved to be productive as a result of autonomy in the workplace. Through the theory, the millennial generation will be able to learn how to be independent in the job market and perform their tasks accordingly. The three theories can be therefore resourceful in impacting essential knowledge to the millennial generation in particular.
References
Cooney, L. L. (2007). Giving millennials a leg-up: How to avoid the if I knew then what I know now syndrome. Ky. LJ , 96 , 505.
Hartl, U., & Juschka, A. K. (2016). Pink's theory of Hodge structures and the Hodge conjecture over function fields. arXiv preprint arXiv:1607.01412 .
Kaur, A. (2013). Maslow’s need hierarchy theory: Applications and criticisms. Global Journal of Management and Business Studies , 3 (10), 1061-1064.
Miner, J. B. (2015). Organizational behavior 1: Essential theories of motivation and leadership . Routledge.
Taormina, R. J., & Gao, J. H. (2013). Maslow and the motivation hierarchy: Measuring satisfaction of the needs. The American journal of psychology , 126 (2), 155-177.
Singh, R. (2016). The impact of intrinsic and extrinsic motivators on employee engagement in information organizations. Journal of Education for Library and Information Science , 57 (2), 197-206.
Stein, J. (2013). Millennials: The me me me generation. Time magazine . Retrieved on 27 November 2018, from http://time.com/247/millennials-the-me-me-me-generation/
Yusoff, W. F. W., Kian, T. S., & Idris, M. T. M. (2013). Herzberg's two factors theory on work motivation: does it work for today's environment. Global journal of commerce and Management , 2 (5), 18-22.
