Abstract

The Millennial Generation is entering the workforce at a rapid rate. This generation has grown up with technology and many Millennials have smartphones. As a result of the Millennial Generations knowledge and desire to use a smartphone, many organizations have begun exploring ways to embrace or combat smartphone behavior; however, many organizations are still struggling to recognize and understand the implications to both the employee and the company. This research study explored the potential overuse of smartphones in the workplace by the Millennial Generation. The study described the specific use of smartphones by this Generation to better understand whether they were used for non-work-related or work-related reasons. The study also explored managers’ perspectives on smartphone use by the Millennial Generation employees in their organizations. A basic qualitative research methodology was used to answer two research questions. Purposeful sampling was used to identify the Millennial and manager participants for this study. This included a total of 11 Millennials and eight managers of Millennials. The Millennials were also asked to keep a smartphone log of their usage viii during a full workweek. Using NVivo, the researcher analyzed the data and identified themes for the Millennials and managers of Millennials. The study yielded five major themes for each set of participants and these themes were then grouped together to identify similarities and differences. The study found that the Millennials did not believe they overused their smartphones during the workday while the manager participants believed overuse was prevalent.

Date of publication

Spring 5-2-2017

Document Type

Dissertation

Language

english

Persistent identifier

http://hdl.handle.net/10950/567

Committee members

Jerry Gilley, Ann Gilley, Robert Wharton, Paul Roberts

Degree

Doctor of Philosophy in Human Resource Development

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