University of Southern California Dissertations and Theses

Preparing millennial students for a multigenerational workforce: an innovation study

(USC Thesis Other)

Preparing millennial students for a multigenerational workforce: an innovation study

PDF

Download a page range

Download transcript

Copy asset link

Request this asset

Transcript (if available)

Content Running head: PREPARING MILLENNIAL STUDENTS 1

Preparing Millennial Students for a Multigenerational Workforce: An Innovation Study

By
Megan Hutaff
A Dissertation Presented to the
FACULTY OF THE USC ROSSIER SCHOOL OF EDUCATION
UNIVERSITY OF SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA
In Partial Fulfillment of the
Requirements for the Degree
DOCTOR OF EDUCATION

May 2019

Copyright 2018 Megan Hutaff
PREPARING MILLENNIAL STUDENTS 2

Abstract
The purpose of the project was to conduct a needs analysis in the areas of student advisor
knowledge, skill, motivation, and organizational resources necessary to reach the organizational
performance goal of employees reporting a high level of satisfaction with University of the
Mountains students as employees. The stakeholders of focus in this analysis were the staff at the
University of the Mountains Career Development Career Development Office. A mixed methods
approach was utilized consisting of an employer survey and qualitative interviews with the
Career Development staff. Key findings identified assets and gaps in the Career Development
staff knowledge, motivation, and organizational influences. Gaps in the Career Development
staff knowledge include a lack of staff in-depth knowledge of workplace communication and an
understanding desired employer workplace expectations. Motivation gaps exists with staff self-
efficacy to learn new behaviors. However, as asset is the high value placed on embedding
communication strategies into advising. This study concluded that there is a need to address the
gap in organizational support to implement training needed for the Career Development staff to
implement effective workplace communication skills into student advising appointments.

PREPARING MILLENNIAL STUDENTS 3

Table of Contents
Introduction of the Problem of Practice 5
Organizational Context and Mission 6
Importance of Addressing the Problem 6
Purpose of the Project and Questions 8
Organizational Performance Goal 9
Stakeholder Groups’ Performance Goals 9

Stakeholder Group of Focus and Stakeholder Goal 10
Conceptual Approach 11
Review of the Literature 11
The Clark and Estes (2008) Framework: Knowledge, Motivation and
Organizational Influences 17

Conceptual Framework: The Interaction of Career Development Staff’s Knowledge,
Motivation and the Organizational Context 28

Data Collection and Instrumentation 31
Findings 39
Recommendations for Practice to Address KMO Influences 49
Conclusion 57
References 59
Appendix A: Participating Stakeholders with Sampling Criteria for Interview and Survey 71
Appendix B: Protocols 74
Appendix C: Credibility and Trustworthiness 79
Appendix D: Validity and Reliability 81
Appendix E: Ethics 82
PREPARING MILLENNIAL STUDENTS 4

Appendix F: Limitations and Delimitations 83
Appendix G: Integrated Implementation and Evaluation Plan 85

PREPARING MILLENNIAL STUDENTS 5

Introduction to the Problem of Practice
In 2015, the US Census Bureau reported that millennials became the largest generation in
the U.S. labor force, beating out both Baby Boomers and Generation X. Millennials are
individuals born after 1982, and are unlike any generation before them, as they are greater in
numbers, can be characterized by a preference for a flat corporate culture, place an emphasis
on work-life balance and social consciousness, are more secure financially, and possess greater
cultural diversity (Howe & Strauss, 2009). As millennials enter the workforce in even more
significant numbers, there is concern involving how millennial communication skills will
affect the multigenerational workplace (Payton, 2015). Millennial students communicate
differently for the reasons that they grew up in the digital age, are connected to technology
more than any other generation and they are not afraid to ask for what they want (Holt,
Marques & Way, 2012). Higher education career development offices face the increasing
challenge of scaffolding best practices in counseling millennial students regarding the need for
effective workplace organizational communication skills (Watson, 2014). This is a problem of
practice as the range of generational communication perspectives presents a problem in the
multigenerational workforce regarding conflicting employee desires and expectations from
their workplace environment (Mencl & Lester, 2014). As millennials are expected to represent
nearly 75% of the workforce by the year 2030 (Fromm, 2015), the dynamics between established
generations in the workforce and millennials’ abilities to integrate into current work
environments appeals for a change in the way higher education career development Offices
practice by scaffolding for student’s best practices in navigating the intricacies of workplace
communication.

PREPARING MILLENNIAL STUDENTS 6

Organizational Context and Mission
Located in Anytown, USA, The University of the Mountains (pseudonym) is a national
leader in education and scholarship in the fields of communication, journalism, public diplomacy
and public relations. The school's comprehensive curriculum emphasizes the core skills of
leadership, innovation, service, and entrepreneurship and draws upon the resources of a
networked university located in the media capital of the world. The Career Development Office
is part of the student services offered at University of the Mountains.
The mission of the six-person staff of Career Development Office is to empower students
with the resources needed to assist in the exploration of their career goals by cultivating
partnerships with employers to enhance the success of the millennial student populations in the
workforce. The vision and primary role of the Career Development Office is to understand the
dramatic shifts in the world of work to orchestrate opportunities for University of the Mountains
students to fulfill their career ambitions. The majority of the student population falls into the
range of the millennial generation. In addition to the 2000 plus students at the school, the Career
Development Office staff also engages with approximately 250 employers a year. These
engagements involve career fairs, on-campus recruiting, career treks, and employer roundtable
discussions. The primary role of staff members in this office is to facilitate millennial student
career growth for successful integration into the workplace.
Importance of Addressing the Problem
The Career Development Office addresses all necessary preparations for finding
employment in student counseling sessions. This is accomplished through counseling focused
effectively on resume and cover letter preparation, job searching strategies and networking
facilitation. However, scaffolding best practices to integrate effective workplace organizational
PREPARING MILLENNIAL STUDENTS 7

communication skills into counseling sessions is not a focus of student counseling appointments.
It is important for the Career Development Office at the University of the Mountains to
implement career counseling aimed at reducing communication conflict in the multigenerational
workforce for a variety of reasons. If the Career Development Office does not implement a
systematic method for ensuring all students are reached for workplace skills counseling by the
time they are ready to engage in an internship, students may not have the skills necessary to
succeed in a workplace environment with their own preferred workplace behaviors. Evidence for
implementing career counseling aimed at reducing communication conflict in the workplace can
be found in research pointing to employability through career development skills. Jackson (2015)
asserts that equipping students with the necessary skills to succeed in the workplace is
instrumental in equipping new graduates with the required employability skills to function
effectively in the work environment. In an exploratory study by Finch, Hamilton, Baldwin, and
Zehner (2013), the authors found that employers place the highest importance on soft ‐skills, such
as communication. Research from Chhinzer, Chhinzer, Russo, and Russo (2017) validates that
employers desire a comprehensive awareness from students in professional maturity, soft skills
(communication), and problem solving. If there is no systematic method for counseling students
to ensure they understand how their skills can be used appropriately in the workplace, students
will not have the skills necessary to succeed in a workplace environment. As a result, students
will not successfully excel in their first employment destination out of college. Furthermore,
employers will no longer be interested in recruiting students from University of the Mountains
due to their demonstrated communication conflict.

PREPARING MILLENNIAL STUDENTS 8

Purpose of the Project and Questions

The purpose of the project that guided the study was to conduct a needs analysis in the
areas of knowledge, skill, motivation, and organizational resources necessary to reach the
organizational performance goal of employees reporting a high level of satisfaction with
University of the Mountains students as employees. The analysis was activated by generating a
list of possible needs and then moved to examining these systematically to focus on actual or
validated needs. While a complete needs analysis focused on all stakeholders, for practical
purposes, the stakeholders of focus in this analysis were the six-person staff at the University of
the Mountains Career Development Career Development Office.
The project questions that guided the study are the following:
1. What is the Career Development staff knowledge and motivation related to integrating
effective workplace organizational communication skills into advising?
2. What is the interaction between organizational culture and context and Career
Development staff knowledge and motivation to integrate effective workplace
organizational communication skills into advising?
3. What are the recommendations for organizational practice in the areas of knowledge,
motivation, and organizational resources for the Career Development staff to integrate
effective workplace organizational communication skills into advising?
4. What is the Career Development staff knowledge of employers' perceived strengths and
areas of growth of University of the Mountains students pertaining to communication
skills?

PREPARING MILLENNIAL STUDENTS 9

Organizational Performance Goal

The Career Development Office’s goal is that by June 2019, 100% of companies
engaging with the Career Development Office to recruit students will report a high level of
satisfaction with University of the Mountains students as employees. This goal was established
after numerous conversations with employers expressing concern over millennial students’
workplace performance issues with regards to communication. In a 2016 survey of employers
engaged with the Career Development Office, 63% rate University of the Mountains students’
qualifications related to company hiring needs as exceeds expectations or exceptional. This
indicates that there is still room for students to improve how employers view their qualifications
related to company hiring needs. Therefore, there is a need to support student development to
where the hiring companies report a high level of satisfaction with the millennial student
population from the University of the Mountains.
Stakeholder Groups’ Performance Goals

Three different stakeholder group performance goals intersect to achieve the Career
Development Office performance goal. The first stakeholder group represented is millennial
students. The millennial student performance goal is that by spring 2019, millennial students will
engage in using effective professional organizational communication strategies for effective
workplace performance. The University of the Mountains administration performance goal is
that by fall 2018, administration will make available resources for effective Career Development
staff student advising. The Career Development Staff performance goal is that by fall 2018, they
will integrate effective workplace organizational communication skills into career advising.
Table 1 represents the organizational mission and goal along with the stakeholder performance
PREPARING MILLENNIAL STUDENTS 10

goals in relation to the organizational goal that by June 2019, 100% of the Top Companies of
Interest will report that University of the Mountains students as employees exceed expectations.

Table 1

Organizational Mission, Organizational Goal and Stakeholder Performance Goals

Organizational Mission
The University of the Mountains mission is to empower students and alumni to cultivate
career growth networking opportunities and partnerships with employers to enhance the success
in the workplace.
_____________________________________________________________________________
Organizational Performance Goal
The Career Development Office has a goal that by June 2019, 100% of the Top
Companies of Interest will report that University of the Mountains students as employees exceed
expectations.
______________________________________________________________________________
Millennial Students
By spring 2019, students will
engage in using effective
professional organizational
communication strategies for
effective workplace
performance.
Administration
By fall 2018, administration
will make available resources
for effective Career
Development staff student
advising.

Career Development Staff
By fall 2018, the career
development staff will
integrate effective workplace
organizational
communication skills into
career advising.

Stakeholder Group of Focus and Stakeholder Goal
The stakeholder group of focus for this study is the Career Development staff within
University of the Mountains. The stakeholder group’s goal is that by fall 2018, the career
development staff will integrate effective workplace organizational communication skills into
advising. Common descriptions of these skills include project management skills, presentation
skills, interpersonal skills, communication skills, creativity, problem-solving skills, flexibility for
PREPARING MILLENNIAL STUDENTS 11

teamwork and individual work (Conrad, 2014). The Career Development staff assists students in
preparing for all aspects of gaining employment with counseling on how to find internships,
prepare application materials, and network to secure opportunities. But what happens once
students are in in the workplace? Failure to accomplish this goal may lead to fewer students
becoming competitive candidates for desirable employment, which adversely affects the
organization’s ability to meet and exceed the expectations of employers finding the best
candidate to fill a position through the University of the Mountains Career Development Office.
Conceptual Approach

The Clark and Estes' (2008) gap analysis model was adapted as an analytical framework
used to conduct this study. This analytical framework helps to clarify organizational goals and
identify the current status of key stakeholder knowledge, motivation, and organizational
influences necessary to integrate effective workplace organizational communication skills into
advising. Data about the stakeholder capacity was gathered via interviews analyzed to determine
the knowledge, motivation, and organizational processes present to reach the stakeholder goal
that by fall 2018, the Career Development Staff will integrate effective workplace organizational
communication skills into advising. Recommendations will be provided to address gaps between
the current and desired status of the Career Development Office.
Review of the Literature

Howe and Strauss (2009) coined the term “millennials” for children born from 1982 to
2004. Some of the traits that describe this generation include closeness to their parents, and
information, entertainment, and social interactions at their fingertips (Roehling, Kooi, Dykema,
Quisenberry & Vandlen, 2010). This generation has garnered attention because of the challenges
that they may pose to organizational work environments. Millennial values, preferences, and
PREPARING MILLENNIAL STUDENTS 12

demands can lead to misunderstandings and influence whose productivity, motivation,
engagement, retention, and turnover in the workplace (Özçelik, 2015). In addition to millennials,
other generations that exist in the workforce include Baby Boomers and Generation X. With
these three generations making up the bulk of the workforce, a difference in their approach to
work and specifically their workplace communication styles, can lead to conflict in the
workplace.
Millennials in the Workplace
A source of dissatisfaction at work amongst millennial employees is the conflict between
the employees’ work-life balance expectations and how they perceive to be supported by
management in this area (Gilley, Hall, Jackson & Gilley, 2015). Millennials are very responsive
to companies that show respect to their personal values, and performance management that
provides continuous feedback and coaching (Özçelik, 2015). Millennials were identified as
“digital natives” in the Pew Research Center’s survey Millennials in Adulthood (Taylor, Parker,
Morin, Patten, & Brown, 2014), as they have been immersed in technology all of their lives,
infusing them with sophisticated technical skills (Bennett, Maton, & Kervin, 2008). Bannon,
Ford and Meltzer (2011) point out Millennials are more technologically savvy and better
educated than the previous generations which can create frustration and conflict in a
multigenerational workforce. The idea of Millennials paying their dues by working hard to
demonstrate their worth before they are given significant tasks is likely to be resisted by this
group in an organizational workplace setting (Martin 2005). According to a Gallup poll,
Millennials may surprise their Boomer and Gen X managers when they seek key roles in
significant projects soon after their organizational entry and very early in the membership
negotiation process (Ott, Blacksmith & Royal, 2008). Multi-generational workplaces create a
PREPARING MILLENNIAL STUDENTS 13

need for managers to understand generational differences and how to best manage each age
group (Keeter & Taylor, 2009).
Generations and Conflict in the Workplace
Generations are defined by Kupperschmidt (2000) as an identifiable group, sharing years
of birth and significant life events at critical stages of development. In general, there are three
broad generations of employees in the multigenerational workforce: Baby Boomers (1945-1964),
Generation X (1965-1981), and millennials (1982-2000) (de Waal, Peeters & Broekhuizen, 2017;
Smola & Sutton, 2002; US Census Bureau, 2015). Baby Boomers are retiring at a rapid rate,
creating a dynamic shift in the U.S. workforce demographics as millennials assume the jobs
formerly held by older generations. This generational shift is believed to have created a clash of
work values leading to conflict within the workplace based on an employee’s membership within
a generational cohort (Barbuto & Gottfredson, 2016). Generational differences in the workforce
may cause tension between employees, and effect workplace production (de Waal et al., 2017).
Workplace communication conflict can occur due to miscommunication, work–life
balance ideals, technology-use differences, and other issues among generations currently in the
workplace (de Waal et al., 2017; Carver & Candela, 2008). These problems also include
teamwork ideal differences with the established generations and millennials (Collins, Hair, &
Rocco, 2009). Generational work-value conflict also affects the effectiveness of organization-
wide plans, products, and ideas (Hillman, 2014). Studies by Lyons and Kuron (2014) and
Twenge, Campbell, Hoffman, and Lance (2010) provide evidence that workplace attitudes and
values have changed across the generations. These studies show that changes in work values
have been quite dramatic from the Baby Boomers to the millennial generation. Examples of
changes include increases in the desire for leisure and work-life balance, (Twenge & Kasser,
PREPARING MILLENNIAL STUDENTS 14

2013), individualism (Twenge & Campbell, 2012), and desire for greater support from
workplace leadership (Ng, Schweitzer & Lyons, 2010).
Differing expectations in work-related values could lead to generational communication
conflict in the workplace (Arsenault, 2004). Work-related value relating to the environment by
which individuals separate what is right or wrong and the outcomes they feel they should attain
through work (Smola & Sutton, 2002). Intergenerational communication conflict in the
workplace is rooted in differing work ethics and life experiences among the generations and
these differences in the perception of right or wrong between the members of various
generational cohorts can produce tension in the work environment (Hanks and Icenogle, 2001;
Sirias, Karp, and Brotherton, 2007). The differences in values between Millennials and
established generations of workers can affect their perspectives, their evaluation of coworkers,
and their organizational expectations.
Baby Boomers value on ‐job security, a stable working environment, are most likely
to remain loyal and attached to an organization, and are idealistic, optimistic and driven
(Hart, 2006; Smola & Sutton, 2002). This generation is described as more diligent on the
job and value having a high degree of power within the organization (Yu & Miller, 2003). In
addition to being excellent mentors, Baby Boomers also focus on consensus building in
their workplace communication (Kupperschmidt, 2000).
Generation X individuals in the workplace are typically characterized as cynical,
pessimistic and individualistic (Acar, 2014; Kupperschmidt, 2000; Smola & Sutton, 2002).
This generation is characterized as being independent, self-sufficient and not likely to
display loyalty to a particular company or organization (Hart, 2006). As a result, they are
seen to be more likely to leave one job and seek out more challenging options, a higher
PREPARING MILLENNIAL STUDENTS 15

salary, or improved benefits (Acar, 2014). Compared to Baby Boomers who respect
authority, Generation X’s are seen as distrustful of authority (Hart, 2006). Work-life balance
is a very important quality, as their personal goals may carry a more central goal (Howe &
Strauss, 2009).
Millennials in the workplace value skill development, enjoy the challenge of new
opportunities, and are comfortable with change (Hart, 2006). Millennial student
communication is influenced by a variety of factors including that this group grew up in the
digital age, are connected to technology more than any other generation and they are not afraid
to ask for what they want (Holt, Marques & Way, 2012). Similar to the Baby Boomers, they
are viewed as driven and demanding of the work environment and are also likely to be
optimistic (Malik & Khera, 2014; Smola &Sutton, 2002). Millennials are described as highly
socialized, partial to communal decision making, and display a high level of confidence and
in the workplace (Hart, 2006; Smola and Sutton, 2002). Moreover, they are seen to value
having responsibility and having input into decisions and actions (Acar, 2014).
Controversy of Generational Research
The subject of generational research in the workplace has amassed large amounts of
coverage and is a very hot topic. Controversy also surrounds this research. As discussed above,
stereotypes about generational differences in the workplace abound. In the workplace, Baby
Boomers generally focus on consensus building, Generation X on being self-sufficient and
independent, and millennials insist on being part of the decision-making process at all levels.
Costanza and Finkelstein (2015) noted that generation research has often seemed to capitalize on
the popularity of this issue, rather than in depth research. There has been a tendency toward blind
observation with little or no connection to theory (Lyons & Kuron, 2014; Parry & Urwin, 2011).
PREPARING MILLENNIAL STUDENTS 16

Cadiz, Tuxillo and Fraccaroli (2015) suggested peer-reviewed research on the subject regarding
the definition of “generation” and its measurement, the lack of theory in this area, the harmful
effects of propagating generationally based differences to organizations, society, and individuals,
and the future directions to make this line of research more applicable to organizations and the
workplace versus generations. Some researchers offer that examining age differences at work
through the lens of physical ability (Maertens, Putter, Chen, Diehl, & Huang, 2012), cognition
(Oldham & Da Silva, 2015), motivation (Kooij, De Lange, Jansen, Kanfer, & Dikkers, 2011),
personality (Roberts, Walton, & Viechtbauer, 2006), and lifespan development theories
(Carstensen, Isaacowitz & Charles, 1999) would likely be more productive than using loose,
generational stereotypes to understand age differences at work.
Career Counseling and Millennial Students
Evidence from a National Association of Colleges and Employers (NACE) survey report
found that employers consistently rank the ability to verbally communicate with persons inside
and outside the organization as one of their top desired competencies (Outlook, 2017). When
asked to assess candidate skills and qualities, employers rated verbal communication skills the
most important, according to NACE's Job Outlook 2016 report employers rated verbal
communication skills (4.63 on a five-point scale) as most desirable from a candidate (Outlook,
2016). Employers rated communication skills in the workplace as a driving force in selecting the
right candidate for the job. Traditionally, internships have been thought of as learning
opportunities for students to enhance their skills. Researchers have found that there is a
disconnect between the skills building expectations of students and what companies expect of
students while engaging in an internship (Birch et al., 2010; Hurst & Good, 2010). Students
expect to get trained in both technical and soft skills during their employment with the company.
PREPARING MILLENNIAL STUDENTS 17

However, companies expect students to be well-prepared while approaching the internship so as
to incur lower training and supervision costs (Hurst & Good, 2010).
As a result of the disconnection between students expecting to be taught skills on the job,
and employers desiring students to already arrive equipped with skills, the Career Development
staff must learn how to work with millennial student preferences (DeDe, 2005; Elam, Stratton, &
Gibson (2007) to prepare them for success in the multigenerational workforce. Counseling
sessions with millennial students must set clear goals, expectations and methods for professional
workplace behavior (Conklin, 2013; McAllum, 2016). Along these lines, millennial students may
need explicit information to understand what workplace standard communication behavior
entails (McGlynn, 2008). The Career Development staff may also have success in effectively
reaching millennial students with pertinent workplace skill information using technology
platforms for career counseling (Roehl, Reddy & Shannon, 2013; Weiner, 2016).
The Clark and Estes (2008) Framework: Knowledge, Motivation and Organizational
Influences
Based on the Clark and Estes (2008) framework, individual performance is impacted by
whether they have the necessary knowledge and motivation as well as whether the organizational
culture and context is supportive of their performance. This section presents the knowledge,
motivation and organizational influences that Career Development staff needs in the context of
giving their advisees guidance about effective workplace communication skills as referred to in
Table 2. The study explored the current status of these influences and culminated with
recommendations to address any gaps.

PREPARING MILLENNIAL STUDENTS 18

Knowledge Influences

Characteristics of knowledge can be cataloged into four types: factual knowledge,
conceptual knowledge, procedural knowledge, and metacognitive knowledge (Krathwohl, 2002;
Rueda, 2011). Knowledge that is easily accessible, basic, and found through recall of
information is considered factual knowledge (Krathwohl, 2002). Conceptual knowledge consists
of the understanding of concepts, principles and theories through reading, viewing, listening,
experiencing, or thoughtful, reflective mental activity (Krathwohl, 2002). Procedural knowledge
expresses how to do something, methods of inquiry, and criteria for using skills, and methods
(Krathwohl, 2002). Metacognition, or thinking about thinking involves knowledge about
acquiring knowledge and understanding through thought as well as awareness of and knowledge
about one’s own cognition (Krathwohl, 2002).
In order to integrate effective workplace organizational communication skills into
advising, the Career Development staff needs to have knowledge of desired workplace
communication skills from employers. In order to accomplish this, the Career Development staff
must have a working knowledge of generations in the workplace and the communication conflict
that can occur as a result. Three primary generations exist in the business world: Baby Boomers,
Generation X, and Millennials. Each possesses unique characteristics that affect work ethic and
relationships, how change is managed, and perception of organizational communication (Glass,
2007). Communicative interactions in the workplace serve to create and maintain work
relationships among team and organizational members (Myers & Sadaghiani, 2010).
Communication can also have direct and indirect effects on team and organizational performance
(Greenbaum & Query, 1999). Furthermore, interactions and relationships in the workplace are
influenced by numerous individual differences in communication influence interactions and
PREPARING MILLENNIAL STUDENTS 19

relationships in the workplace that affect coworkers’ satisfaction and productivity (Jablin &
Krone, 1994). Intergenerational communication conflict in the workplace is rooted in differing
work ethics and life experiences among the generations and these differences in the perception of
right or wrong between the members of various generational cohorts can produce tension in the
work environment (Hanks and Icenogle, 2001; Sirias, Karp, and Brotherton, 2007). The
differences in values between generations of workers can affect their perspectives, their
evaluation of coworkers, and their organizational expectations. Career Development staff must
have a working knowledge of generations in the workplace and the communication conflict that
can occur as a result.
In order to integrate effective workplace organizational communication skills into
advising, the Career Development staff needs to have clear knowledge of desired workplace
performance from employers. The Career Development staff needs to know the effective ways
and steps to integrate methods of workplace communication instruction. Once these specific
steps are integrated into the Career Development staff knowledge, they can effectively advise
students on effective workplace organizational communication.
Working knowledge of generations in the workplace. Conceptual knowledge is basic
elements one must know to be acquainted with a discipline or solve problems (Krathwohl, 2002).
In order for the Career Development Office to understand the effects of millennials on the
multigenerational workforce, working knowledge is needed of the generations present in the
workplace. Defining the generations is important because the shared values of a generation affect
people's attitude, commitment, and ethics toward work (Guha, 2010; Howe & Strauss, 2007;
Kupperschmidt, 2000; Smola & Sutton, 2002). Generational differences may cause tension
between employees, and affect workplace production (de Waal et al., 2017). Generations are
PREPARING MILLENNIAL STUDENTS 20

defined by Kupperschmidt (2000) as an identifiable group, which shares years of birth and hence
significant life events at critical stages of development. In general, there are three broad
generations of employees: Baby Boomers (1945-1964), Generation X (1965-1981), and
millennials (1982-2000) (de Waal et al., 2017; Hart, 2006; Smola & Sutton, 2002; US Census
Bureau, 2015). This study explored the degree to which Career Development staff is familiar
with integrating effective workplace communication skills into advising.
Knowledge of workplace skills and expectations from employers. In order to integrate
effective workplace organizational communication skills into advising, the Career Development
staff needs to have clear knowledge of desired workplace performance from employers. The staff
needs to know what skills employers expect in the way of workplace communication so they can
share these ideals with students. These workplace expectations can be shared from employers.
The National Association of Colleges and Employers (NACE) has also identified the skills most
desired by employers that include the ability to work well on a team, make decisions and
problem solve (Adams, 2014). Employers are looking for employees with excellent
communication skills to maintain and nurture business relationships (Deepa & Seth, 2013). Skills
desired by employers that are important for millennials to possess include soft skills such as
communication, problem-solving, and critical thinking (Deepa & Seth, 2013; Stewart, Wall &
Marciniec, 2016). Understanding the desires of employers will help the Career Development
staff support millennial success in the workplace in terms of communication and gain knowledge
of desired workplace performance from employers to successfully communicate to millennial
students in counseling sessions.

PREPARING MILLENNIAL STUDENTS 21

Motivation Influences

Motivation has been described as an internal state that begins and maintains behavior
aimed at reaching a goal, and the primary precondition leading to meaningful learning through
the exertion (Mayer, 2011). Motivation can be seen as choice, persistence and mental effort
(Clark & Estes, 2008). While there are numerous motivational theories, this paper will focus on
self-efficacy and utility value.
Knowledge of desired workplace performance from employers to integrate effective
workplace organizational communication skills into advising is not the only influence needed by
the Career Development staff. In addition, Clark and Estes (2008) noted the importance of
motivation. Motivation is an important factor as the Career Development staff needs to believe in
their ability to effectively counsel millennial students to successfully integrate effective
workplace organizational communication skills into career advising. Of the many motivational
influences that exist, self-efficacy will be examined. Bandura (2000) described self-efficacy as a
person's belief in their ability and capability to solve a problem in any future situation. Bandura
identified that self-efficacy influences a person's goals, actions, and outcomes.
The organizational mission of the Career Development staff is to empower students with
the resources they need to assist in the exploration of their career goals. Motivation for this goal
comes from knowing the importance of communication skills in the workplace for millennial
student success. In order for Career Development staff to effectively engage in advising students,
they need to value and feel confident in their ability to effectively advise students on workplace
communication. It is assumed that if the Career Development staff is motivated via perceiving
value in advising students on effective workplace communication skills, students will benefit
from their advising and succeed in their desired career goals.
PREPARING MILLENNIAL STUDENTS 22

Self-efficacy theory. Bandura (2000) defined self-efficacy as one's belief in one's ability
to succeed in specific situations or accomplish a task as part of social cognitive theory. A sense
of self-efficacy can play a significant role in how one approaches goals, tasks, and challenges.
Pajares (2006) defined self-efficacy theory as “the judgments that individuals hold about their
capabilities to learn or to perform courses of action at designated levels” (para. 1). Rueda (2011)
discussed the importance of self-efficacy, indicating that if one is not confident in their abilities,
they become demotivated to pursue a task or goal. Individuals with high self-efficacy are more
likely to make efforts to complete a task, and to persist longer in those efforts, than those with
low self-efficacy. Pintrich (2003) discussed how paradigms, both social and personal, affect an
individual’s certainty regarding their own abilities and about what they believe others think
about their abilities. Bandura (2000) mentions how self-efficacy is demoted if a task outcome is
negative, Clark and Estes (2008) cite that self-efficacy is raised with a positive outcome. The
beliefs a person holds regarding his or her power to affect situations strongly influences both the
power a person actually has to face challenges competently and the choices a person is most
likely to make.
Career development staff self-efficacy. Bandura (1993) shares that self-efficacy is an
individual's belief in his or her ability to achieve goals. The Career Development staff needs to
believe they are capable of curating instructional support (scaffolding) to counsel millennial
students early in their college career with mandatory career advising on workplace
communication and success best practices. McAllum (2016) and Pintrich (2003) share the need
to be efficacious in counseling skills in order to produce the intended result. The Career
Development staff needs to be efficacious in their counseling skills to point out to millennial
students how learning and training will be useful to succeed in a career.
PREPARING MILLENNIAL STUDENTS 23

Utility value. Eccles (2006) defines utility value as an individual’s determination of how
well a task fits into an individual's goals and plans or accomplishes other basic goals. Utility
value is part of an expansion by Eccles and Wingfield on expectancy-value theory (Eccles, 2006;
Wigfield, 1994) which helps understand the achievement motivation of individuals. According to
Eccles (1993), individual task value can be thought of the motivation that allows an individual to
answer the question "Do I want to do this activity and why?" These task values are broken into
four subcategories: attainment value (importance for identity or self), intrinsic value (enjoyment
or interest), utility value (usefulness or relevance), and cost (loss of time, overly-high effort
demands, loss of valued alternatives, or negative psychological experiences such as stress).
Rueda (2011) cites utility value as determined by how well a task relates to current and future
goals, such as career goals. A task can have positive value to a person because it facilitates
important future goals, even if he or she is not interested in the task for its sake (Eccles &
Wigfield, 2002).
Career development staff utility-value. In order to fully engage in integrating workplace
communication skills into advising, the Career Development staff needs to see the value of
advising students on effective workplace communication skills. The expectancy-value
constructs, such as utility value, have been used as a conceptual framework in a number of
important studies on achievement motivation. According to these theories, engagement and
achievement predict the combination of individuals’ expectations and the value attributed to
success (Payton, 2015). The goals and plans of the Career Development staff that by fall 2018,
the Career Development staff will integrate effective workplace organizational communication
skills into advising.

PREPARING MILLENNIAL STUDENTS 24

Organizational Influences

In addition to knowledge and motivation, organizational influences play a significant role
in success of the organization. In the context of this study, organizational influences can also
directly impact the knowledge and motivation within the organization and for the Career
Development staff. Schein (2004) discussed organizational influences that can be observed as a
cultural phenomenon visible to both participants and observers. These influences can be broken
down to three different layers. The outer layer, or the artifacts, are a visible part of an
organization, fairly easy to adapt, and easy to change. These values can be observed, but are
difficult to interpret. The middle layer is the espoused values. The values represented the group
learning influences from the original organization beliefs and values, and take some time to
adjust if a change is needed. At the center, we find the basic underlying assumptions that include
taken-for-granted beliefs and values. These values at the center of organizational influences
determine behavior, perception, thought and feeling. All three layers are made up of assumptions
emerging from experiences and perceptions by people who belong to the organization.
Clark and Estes (2002) discussed one cause for performance gaps as a lack of efficient
and effective organizational work processes and materials. Efficient and effective work processes
identify how all the moving parts of an organization must interact in order to produce a desired
result. In addition to these work processes, organizations must also have material resources to
achieve goals. To effectively implement resources and work processes, Clark and Estes (2002)
also discuss the need for analysis in order to understand if the organization implementation is
successful.
Clark and Estes (2002) emphasized that culture in organization is also a driving factor in
organizational performance. The culture of an organization is a way to define the values, goals,
PREPARING MILLENNIAL STUDENTS 25

beliefs, and emotions, along with the learned processes, that are present in a work environment.
Culture in a workplace can be broken down into three main views that consist of environment,
groups, and individuals. Rueda (2011) corroborates how culture can be part of a dynamic process
of an organization that can help shape the way an organization is structured, and the individuals
that help define the workplace setting. Organizational culture, as argued by Clark and Estes
(2002) affects all levels of the organizations endeavors to improve.
Tools and resources necessary for effective advising. In order to affect change, the
Career Development Office must address organizational factors such as availability of specific
tools and resources necessary to influence cultural organizational change. Schneider, Brief and
Guzzo (1996) communicate that “organizations as we know them are the people in them; if the
people do not change, there is no organizational change” (p. 7). For the Career Development
Office staff to fulfill their stakeholder goal, the staff needs to be provided with tools in the form
of communication expectations from employers. Expectations as outlined by employers for how
they desire students to communicate in the workplace can be used as an information tool to
integrate effective workplace organizational communication skills into student advising
appointments. The communication expectations can be used as tool to create handouts and used
in one-on-one advising conversations with students outlining employer desired workplace
communication skills. These tools would include individual meetings with employers outlining
their observations of students in the workplace and workplace communication expectations from
employers. This information garnered from employers would outline the necessary processes and
procedures the Career Development staff needs to share with students to advise on effective
workplace communication skills. This goal needs to be supported by the University of the
Mountains Administration. Senge (1990) discussed how participation needs to occur at all levels
PREPARING MILLENNIAL STUDENTS 26

of organizational change. The University of the Mountains Administration needs to adapt their
work process and procedures to value implementing effective workplace communication into
advising appointments.
In order to succeed in this cultural organizational change, the Career Development staff
needs to receive training provided by the organization on strategies and develop a system for
counseling millennial students based on the characteristics of the millennial generation. Tools
learned to work with millennial students can include goal setting and managing expectations
(Conklin, 2013; McAllum, 2016; McGlynn, 2008; 2016; Much, Wagener, Breitkreutz &
Hellenbrand, 2014). The tools and resources learned from training can help the Career
Development staff to counsel millennial students for professional workplace behavior and
communication.
In addition to tools and resources needed to affect change, the Career Development
Office must take a look at the specific supports and systems needed to affect the cultural setting
needed for organizational change. Employee values and beliefs influence their interpretations of
organizational policies, practices, and procedures (Schneider, Brief & Guzzo, 1996). Researchers
point to using strategies to develop a system for counseling millennial students based on the
characteristics of the millennial generation (DeDe, 2005; Elam, et al., 2007; Much, Wagener,
Breitkreutz, & Hellenbrand, 2014). In order to change the cultural setting, the Career
Development staff needs to receive training on counseling millennial students. Setting clear
goals, expectations, and methods to counsel millennial students for professional workplace
behavior and communication (Conklin, 2013; McAllum, 2016; McGlynn, 2008; Much, Wagener,
Breitkreutz & Hellenbrand, 2014) will be a tool for the Career Development staff to effectively
council millennial students.
PREPARING MILLENNIAL STUDENTS 27

In summary, the dynamics between established generations in the workforce and
millennial student abilities to integrate into current work environments appeals for a change in
the way the Career Development staff at the University of the Mountains provides counseling to
prepare millennial students for workplace success. As discussed through the literature, the Career
Development staff needs knowledge of workplace communication issues to more effectively
counsel millennials, the self-efficacy to engage in effective career advising of millennial
students, see the utility-value in implementing effective workplace organizational
communication into advising, and organizational support to execute this advising for millennial
students.
Table 2

Assumed Motivation Influences and Motivational Influence Assessment
______________________________________________________________________________
Knowledge Influences
Knowledge Influence Knowledge Type
Conceptual Career Development staff needs to know the details of
methods of workplace communication instruction in order to
advise students on effective workplace organizational
communication.

Procedural Career Development staff needs to incorporate the
expectations from employers of student workplace
organizational communication into advising.

Motivation Influences

Self-Efficacy Career Development staff needs to believe they are capable of
implementing effective workplace organizational
communication into advising.

Utility Value

Career Development staff need to see the value in
implementing effective workplace organizational
communication into advising.

PREPARING MILLENNIAL STUDENTS 28

Organizational Influences

Cultural Model
Influence

The culture of the organization needs to recognize and
communicate the needs for workplace communication
scaffolding in advising.

Cultural Setting
Influence

The Career Development Office needs specific supports and
systems for organization change.

Conceptual Framework: The Interaction of Career Development Staff’s Knowledge,
Motivation and the Organizational Context

A conceptual framework, as framed by Maxwell (2013), is a theory that presents
concepts and ideologies that correspond to a problem of practice, even if tentative or incomplete.
Beliefs held about the way the world works in a specific context can all be a part of this
framework. The framework is constructed, subject to revision, and iterative. Merriam and Tisdell
(2016) refer to these ideas as theoretical framework. A theoretical framework is derived from the
scaffolding and underlying structure in which the study is informed. Anfara and Mertz (2015)
discuss theoretical framework as the lens used to study or view a specific phenomenon. The
independent influencers of this problem of practice which include millennial students, University
of the Mountains Administration, and the Career Development staff, do not remain autonomous
from each other. Each of the influencers create a chain reaction to impact the problem of
multigenerational communication in the workplace.
PREPARING MILLENNIAL STUDENTS 29

Figure 1. Conceptual framework of interaction between stakeholders.

Millennial Students
Ability to succeed in the
workforce learned from effective
workplace communication
advising.
Organizational Goal
June 2019, 100% of the Top Companies of Interest will report
that University of the Mountains students as employees exceed
expectations.

Career Development staff
Knowledge and Motivation to
integrate effective workplace
organizational communication
skills into advising
University of the Mountains
Administration and Director of Career
Development
Specific supports and systems for
organization change

PREPARING MILLENNIAL STUDENTS 30

The conceptual framework offers a depiction of efforts that exist regarding the Career
Development Offices’ goal that by fall 2018, the career development staff will integrate effective
workplace organizational communication skills into advising. The University of the Mountains,
including the Director of Career Development, needs to provide supports and systems for
organizational change. The University of the Mountains school administration and the Director
of Career Development must make available resources for effective Career Development staff
student advising.
The Career Development staff must have the knowledge and motivation to learn how to
work with millennial students to scaffold for them communication success in the
multigenerational workforce. To make meaning from conceptual knowledge, the Career
Development staff needs to gain clear knowledge of desired workplace communication
performance from employers to communicate to millennial students in counseling sessions.
Employers are looking for employees with excellent skills, including workplace communication,
to maintain and nurture business relationships (Deepa & Seth, 2013). To assess their cognitive
process regarding learning strategies for millennial students, the Career Development staff must
understand what scholars have highlighted as strategies for reaching millennial students,
including setting clear goals, expectations, and methods through counseling and curriculum
development (Much, Wagener, Breitkreutz, & Hellenbrand, 2014). The authors continue that
counseling millennial students must include a clear set of workplace expectations and detailed
instructions. The Career Development staff needs to have efficacy in their understanding of
millennial student workplace communication to provide motivation to advise millennial students
in effective workplace communication skills. Counseling development need to address what
scholars highlight as millennial student’s desired clear goals, expectations and methods for
PREPARING MILLENNIAL STUDENTS 31

learning (Conklin, 2013; McAllum, McGlynn, 2008; 2016; Much, Wagener, Breitkreutz &
Hellenbrand, 2014). These desired learning methods can be used to impart professional
workplace behavior and communication standards. Millennial students will then receive
information from the Career Development staff in counseling. The students will then able to be
efficacious in their own workplace communication skills for career success. In the end, this
process will lead to the Career Development staff and the University of the Mountains
Administration to reach the organizational goal that by June 2019, 100% of the Top Companies
of Interest will report that University of the Mountains students as employees exceed
expectations.
Data Collection and Instrumentation
Qualitative interviews were conducted to gather data about Career Development staff’s
knowledge, motivation, and organizational influences related to integrating effective workplace
organizational communication skills into advising. Patton (2002) discussed the purpose of
interviewing is a means to enter another person’s perspective. Weiss (1994) discussed
interviewing as a means to access how others observe and take in the world. Transcriptions from
these interviews were coded and subjected to a qualitative analysis to identify primary themes.
Supporting qualitative data from employers. To obtain supporting data, a brief
quantitative study was also administered to employers recruiting students at University of the
Mountains. In using this group of employers, the Career Development Staff can identify
strengths and areas of growth needed with regard to communication skills. Creswell (2014)
conveys that surveys are a method to find a quantitative description of trends, approaches and
opinions of a population by studying a sample of that population. The results of quantitative data
inform the results that a researcher uses to draw inferences or generalizations about a population.
PREPARING MILLENNIAL STUDENTS 32

Merriam and Tisdell (2016) described surveys as a way to efficiently and systematically
illustrate evidence and traits of a given phenomenon. Survey instruments produce data that are
presented in numerical form, as they concentrate on how much or how many of the phenomenon
studied.
Exploratory study for practical understanding of staff skills. I currently work in the
University of the Mountains Career Development Office as the Associate Director. As I am one
of the department staff members, this was an exploratory study with my peers. No members of
the staff report directly to me. Data collection was part of a practical study of understanding, not
an evaluation to understand the Career Development Staffs’ current capacity or a judge of their
performance. This study looked at the current understanding of the Career Development Staff
with regards to the development of effective workplace organizational communication skills into
advising.
Protections for study participants. My interest in the success of this research has to do
with the improvement of services for the millennial student stakeholders. My dual role as
researcher and member of my organization could have created a perceived pressure on
participants who work closely with me. The protection of research subjects when there is a
relationship between researchers to participants is a source of ethical consideration (Merriam &
Tisdell, 2016). The protections available to research subjects was addressed by clarifying that
there is no perceived pressure to participate, and to ensure that participation does not have any
effect on the workplace relationship. Arrangements were put in place ensuring that those who do
agree to participate could change their mind at any point without having to give a reason even
after they participated in the research activities. I have assumed very little prior knowledge as no
formal training has been provided to the Career Development staff on counseling millennial
PREPARING MILLENNIAL STUDENTS 33

students on workplace communication success. Permission to audio record was acquired
preceding participant interviews. Participants were reminded that there is no incentive so as not
to coerce them. This lack of incentive is a way to minimize the possibility that participants feel
coerced to participate. All discussed, practical considerations were provided through the
Institutional Review Board (IRB). The IRB Information sheet explained the purpose of the study,
confidentiality, and rights as a research study participant, including information to contact the
University of the Mountains IRB with questions or complaints. It was made clear to participants
that they can choose to withdraw from the project entirely at any time, including once their
participation is complete. As safety and well-being of my study participants is of the utmost
importance, my study was submitted and approved by the University of the Mountains
Institutional Review Board (IRB). I have followed their rules and guidelines regarding the
protection of the rights and welfare of the participants in this study. Participants were reminded
that this study is voluntary, and their identity will be kept confidential.
Throughout this qualitative interview process, I have been cognizant of my own possible
assumptions and biases as I entered into data collection, analysis, and reporting activities. A key
informant is someone who understands and can articulate the culture of the interview topic and
can act as a guide for a researcher in unfamiliar territory (Merriam & Tisdell, 2016). As I am not
in unfamiliar territory and understand the influence my personal feelings or opinions could have
on the topic, I have made a concerted effort to abandoned assumptions and preconceived
thoughts regarding the interview subject out of the interview dialog process.
Creswell (2014) discussed that surveys are a method to find a quantitative description of
trends, attitudes or opinions pertaining to a sample population. The results of this quantitative
data inform the results that a researcher uses to draw inferences or generalizations about a
PREPARING MILLENNIAL STUDENTS 34

population. According to Merriam and Tisdell (2016), surveys “systematically describe the facts
and characteristics of a given phenomenon or the relationship between events and the
phenomenon,” (p. 5). The survey instrument produced data to inform the Career Development
staff on the effectiveness of integrating workplace communication skills counseling into student
advising sessions.
Employer Survey Data
According to Christensen and Johnson (2014), the goal of descriptive statistics is to
explain data. Descriptive statistics are produced by quantitative research methods and are
commonly used to provide additional data points that support data produced by qualitative
methods. Alkin (2011) discussed that the first step understanding and depicting data is to make it
more accessible. Pazzaglia, Stafford, and Rodriguez (2016) assert that presenting data in a way
that illustrates findings and implications can help scaffold audience understanding. These next
charts will present data from the University of the Mountains Career Development Employer
Survey to illustrate the importance of integrating effective workplace organizational
communication skills into career advising sessions with students.
The employer survey data is presented as data used to inform and support the study.
Though this data was not the core focus of the study, the results quantified how employers
perceived students encountered in the workplace. This data is presented first as a means to
provide how employers perceive the graduates. The Career Development Staff engages regularly
with employers in informal conversations that often result in the employer expressing their
concerns and examples of student communication in the workplace. Anecdotal data from
employers has included overall concerns with student workplace competencies focusing on a
lack of communication skills in both the application process and once employed. These data
PREPARING MILLENNIAL STUDENTS 35

demonstrate a discrepancy between anecdotal, informal data produced in conversations with
employers that many are not satisfied and the quantifiable numbers from a survey showing less
of a satisfaction gap. Employers may feel more inclined to reveal their true thoughts through
informal conversations with their career development colleagues as opposed to recording
definitive views on a survey.
The University of the Mountains Career Development Employer Survey was taken by 55
respondents with roles in the hiring process ranging from human resources (33.75%), manager
(47.27%), and company executive (20%). A wide range of industries were represented. The
highest industry participation emerged from Public Relations, 21.82% of respondents, and
Journalism and Digital Media, 14.55% respondents. Overall, survey respondent employers feel
that University of the Mountain Students meet their expectations with 40.45% indicating that
students meet expectations, 52.18% indicating students exceed expectations, and 7.36%
indicating that University of Mountains’ students are exceptional. Over 90% of students were
indicated as meeting or exceeding expectations. However, this data demonstrates a gap where
92.63% of students are not ranked by employers as exceptional. This gap will need to be
addressed in order to reach the Career Development Office’s goal that the 100% of the Top
Companies of Interest will report that University of the Mountains students as employees exceed
expectations.

PREPARING MILLENNIAL STUDENTS 36

Figure 4. Employer industry.

The survey item, “Please indicate the importance of each of these competencies in your
workplace,” measured what employers desire as workplace skills for potential employees.
Survey respondents were able to rank multiple competencies they found “critically important.”
Survey data indicated that the highest ranked desired competency is verbal and written
communication with 80% of respondents ranking this competency as “critically important.” This
demonstrates that employers strongly desire effective communication from employee candidates.
The next desired competency desired was teamwork and collaboration with 63.64% of
respondents ranking this as a “critically important.” Another highly desired competency by
employers was critical thinking with 42.86% of respondents ranking this as “critically
important.” This data is aligned with research from Conrad (2014) listing effective workplace
organizational skills as project management skills, presentation skills, interpersonal skills,
communication skills, creativity, problem-solving skills, flexibility for teamwork and individual
work.
Advertising
Journalism/ Digital…
Consulting
Corporate…
Entertainment
Event Planning
Fashion
Government
Market Research
Marketing
Music Industry
Non-Profit
Public Relations
Radio
Sales
Sports
Technology
Other (please specify)
0.00%
5.00%
10.00%
15.00%
20.00%
25.00%
Industries represented by employers:
Responses
PREPARING MILLENNIAL STUDENTS 37

Figure 5. Employer perceptions of the important workplace of competencies.

Figure 6. Employer perceptions of student qualifications related to hiring needs.

The survey item, “How would you rate University of the Mountain students’ professional
communication skills,” measured respondents’ ranking of students’ communication skills.
Twenty percent of employers ranked the professional communication skills of University of the
0.00%
10.00%
20.00%
30.00%
40.00%
50.00%
60.00%
70.00%
80.00%
90.00%
Employer perceptions of the importance of workplace
competencies:
Not important
Occasionally important
Important
Very important
Critically important
25.45%
58.18%
16.36%
Employer perceptions of student qualifications
related to hiring needs:
Meets expectations Exceeds expectations Exceptonal
PREPARING MILLENNIAL STUDENTS 38

Mountains as moderately effective 63.64% as very effective, and 16.36% as extremely effective.
Though this is encouraging data, there is still a gap in which 83.64% of employers do not find
students communication skills extremely effective. This gap will need to be addressed in order to
reach the Career Development Office’s goal that 100% of the Top Companies of Interest will
report that University of the Mountains students as employees exceed expectations.

Figure 7. Employer perceptions of student professional communication skills.
In the open-ended question, “What should University of the Mountains graduates be able
to know and do when they graduate to be successful in your workplace,” data analysis indicated
skills employers believe graduates should obtain before graduation in order to excel in the
workplace. Open-ended comments included that students should be able to “write and
communicate effectively” in addition to knowing, “how to work on a team, communicate and
perform the job responsibilities.” Employers expressed their desire for those hired to have
“effective written and verbal communication skills,” “collaborate with other people and teams,
16.36%
63.64%
20.00%
Employer perceptions of University of the Mountains
students' professional communication skills:
Extremely Effective
Very Effective
Moderately Effective
PREPARING MILLENNIAL STUDENTS 39

in-office and with people remotely,” and that students “should be adept at communicating across
all channels, subordinate to executive.” The chart below demonstrates a high frequency of the
number of times communication skills were indicated as a desired skill by employers in this
open-ended question.

Figure 8. Employer perceptions of what should University of the Mountains graduates be
able to know and do when they graduate to be successful in your workplace?
Findings
Findings from the Career Development Staff qualitative interviews will be presented
under the main categories of knowledge, motivation, and organizational influences. The number
of participants interviewed was five which equals the total Career Development staff minus the
researcher. The age rang for interview participants was 25 – 30 years old and they were all
female. The experience of the career development staff ranges from being seasoned
professionals, to those with more direct communication industry experience working outside
0 5 10 15 20 25 30
Communicate effectively
Pitch story ideas
Know how to work on a team
Behave and represent company professionally
Create quality presentations
Writing
Social media skills
Critical thinking
Work in teams
Ask questions
Interview experience
Internship experience
Flexibility
Work on a deadline
Customer service
Work hard
Employer perceptions of what should University of the
Mountains graduates be able to know and do when
they graduate to be successful in your workplace?
PREPARING MILLENNIAL STUDENTS 40

academia, and then to more entry level professionals. The most senior staff member interviewed
has ten years of experience in student career counseling. The remainder of the staff have less
than four years of experience. All but one staff member has a master’s degree in education. All
names in this study will be pseudonyms.
Career Development Staff Knowledge
This study sought to gather data about the Career Development staff knowledge. Data
was gathered in the context of implementing effective workplace communication skills into
advising. In addition, data was gathered to assess the ability for the Career Development staff to
assess their own knowledge with regards to implementing effective workplace communications
skills advising into student appointments.
Career Development staff lack in-depth knowledge of workplace communication.
Interviews showed that there is gap among the Career Development staff regarding their
knowledge of effective workplace communication. Sera (pseudonym) commented that the staff
needs to know what employers want in order to instruct students in an effective manner and that
it would be helpful for the staff to “learn from a recruiter, inside the mind of a hiring manager
recruiter. What are they thinking?” Harper (pseudonym) pointed out that the staff needs to break
the issue of workplace communication down even further to make sure students understand basic
levels of communication, stating,
I think a lot of times, we can think that some of the communication things are almost
common sense or everybody knows how to communicate with people of different status
at a workplace. It's something that students are learning. Teaching them what's
appropriate and what's not before they're in their workplace will only help them succeed
PREPARING MILLENNIAL STUDENTS 41

further. I do think it's really important and it will help them with everyday life.
Communication skills help with more than just your job or career.
Audrey (pseudonym) pointed out that in order to know the details of methods of workplace
communication, it would be helpful to work on “getting industry employer’s perspective and
then formally deciding how we are discussing communication in the workplace and how to be
successful transitioning into a career. I feel like we just need to develop that curriculum for it.”
This is consistent with Deepa and Seth’s (2013) study on how employers are looking for
employees with excellent communication skills to maintain and nurture business relationships. It
is an asset that the staff acknowledges a gap in their knowledge and realizes the need for more
training to effectively advise students on workplace communication skills in advising
appointments.
Career Development staff knowledge gap in understanding workplace expectations.
A shared need among the Career Development staff is the desire to incorporate expectations
from employers of student workplace organizational communication into advising. Sera shared
knowledge regarding the performance level of students in the workplace she received from
employers in previous one-on-one meetings, stating how students’ performance levels have not
been at a level desired by employer,
New entry level employees don't know to behave. They don't understand when it's
appropriate to conduct personal business, versus when it's not appropriate to conduct
personal business. Not understanding the concept of when you're in the workplace, you
have to know what your expectations are. That you arrive at a certain time, leave at a
certain time, what the culture is. Do you take a lunch? Do you have this? Students are
still on a mindset of, "I decide how things work." Instead of going into a job knowing that
PREPARING MILLENNIAL STUDENTS 42

these expectations are going to be set, and then you have to follow what those
expectations are.
Audrey, who frequently interacts with hiring managers, demonstrated her knowledge of how
student communication expectations are not always aligned with employer expectations,
Sometimes I find that it's maybe the expectations of the student, things they're getting
into don't match the expectations of what the company has hired for, right? The student
might communicate in his or her interview that they're ready to be a vice president of
digital communications and HR recruiter is saying, "Well, we need to bring this all the
way back." Sometimes we find a lot of communication issues are around expectations in
the workplace, millennial expectations in the workplace.
Juliet felt knowledge regarding student and employer workplace communication expectations are
not always aligned, and stated she feels the biggest challenge is that students “don't quite
understand what entry level is. I think a lot of times students are used to having like, "Okay,
here's a specific task," and a lot of guidance.” This is consistent with Gremillion, Cheshire and
Lewis’ (2012) study that the scaffolding of learning experiences relates to building new skills.
The data demonstrates that the Career Development staff has an understanding of the workplace
communication issues between employers and students, but a gap still exists in their knowledge
to scaffold effective workplace communication in student advising appointments.
Knowledge influences summary. The Career Development staff has a knowledge of the
existence of workplace communication conflict between employers and students. Findings from
the data indicate there is a gap in staff knowledge pertaining to communication instruction to
advise students on effective workplace organizational communication. Interviews with the
Career Development staff indicate how the staff could benefit from training to have the
PREPARING MILLENNIAL STUDENTS 43

knowledge needed in order to scaffold workplace communication skills into student advising
appointments. There is a shared desire among the staff for knowledge that will help them to
incorporate expectations from employers of student workplace organizational communication
into advising.
Career Development Staff Motivation
The two categories of motivation explored were self-efficacy and value. Self-efficacy
refers to the belief of Career Development staff that they can successfully implement workplace
communication skills into student advising appointments. Value refers to the Career
Development staff seeing the utility of implementing effective workplace organizational
communication into advising. The interview opened with probes for the staff’s general
motivation for working in the field of career development.
Motivation to work in career counseling. Each member of the Career Development
staff has their own motivation for working in the field. Juliet is motivated by her own
experiences sharing, “I didn't have the easiest transition to the working world and I want to help
others.” Sera loved to see the student reactions as she helped to shed light on the tools needed for
a successful career path by showing a student, “Here's how you can get there. Here's how you get
started. When you start to see it clicking for them of like, okay, I can make this work.” Charlotte
is motivated by her inner drive to be helpful. Audrey is motivated by knowing she is an integral
part of a student obtaining their first internship in their desired career field. Harper is motivated
by the feeling of reward stating, “helping students be able to get into what they have always
dreamed of or feel confident when going to interviews in the workplace, that they're going to be
able to succeed after graduation. That's really inspiring and motivating.” All Career Development
staff mentioned clear and compelling reasons to work in career counseling. Each staff members
PREPARING MILLENNIAL STUDENTS 44

exudes a passion for the field when asked to discuss their own motivation and reasons for
wanting to persist in the job.
Varied staff self-efficacy to learn new behaviors. In order to implement effective
workplace organizational communication into advising, the staff needs to have the self-efficacy
to acquire new behaviors that will result in successful implementation of a new way to advise
students through inclusion of workplace communication skills. This is an area where there was
much divide among that staff. The divide was primarily based on years of counseling experience.
The greater the years of counseling experience, the higher the self-efficacy. Sera, who has been a
career counselor for many years, felt confident in her ability to implement effective workplace
communication from her years spent in the workplace and ability to counsel students stating;
I feel like a lot of times I'm pulling from my own personal experience of having several
different supervisors with very different communication styles. I feel that I can certainly
strengthen a counselor's ability to talk to students if they've had their own work
experience, to combine with what we hear from employers now. Because, obviously
everything's different but having that understanding of when you make a mistake, you
should do this. When you do, when you're not sure what's expected of you, you can do
this and being able to communicate that.
Audrey also stated a high level of self-efficacy to effectively counsel students in workplace
communication because of her time spent outside of academia in the workplace. She felt her
experiences have given her a basis of understanding of the demands placed on students regarding
workplace communication. Juliet felt confident helping students find the right environment for
them to work. When it came to scaffolding communication skills, though, “I’m not sure I have
the exact skills needed.” Charlotte shared she feels fairly confident, but admits she has lower
PREPARING MILLENNIAL STUDENTS 45

self-efficacy due to little opportunity to put her skills in this area to use. Both Juliet and Charlotte
are relatively new to the Career Development Office and the realm of career counseling, and do
not exhibit the strongest levels of belief in their ability to effectively counsel students in
workplace communication. Specifically, one of them stated, “I actually don't think I have enough
knowledge.” In addition, both are representative of the millennial generation. Based on the data,
a gap exists in the level of self-efficacy for staff with regards to implementing effecting
workplace communication skills into advising, this gap is most prominent with the younger staff.
High value placed on embedding communication strategies into advising. The data
demonstrates that the Career Development staff places a high value on implementing effective
workplace organizational communication into advising. Charlotte states, “I see the value as, like
our students look more prepared, and just more, just the better package in the workplace.”
Audrey sees the value as, “raising the value of our degree” at The University of the Mountains.
Sera affirmed these views stating,
We're talking to employers saying, "Hire our students. Post positions with us. They're
great." Obviously we want that follow through there. We want them to go into the
workplace and employers come back to us and say, "Wow, they were fantastic." Not,
"Wow, you were not ready. This person was terrible." When students come in for just a
30-minute appointment, this generally isn't the focus. We would have to very much make
it be like we're always wanting to get this message out and/or somehow make an event
compelling enough that we could capture their attention.
Juliet discussed the value of integrating communication strategies into advising appointments for
students as they rearrange their mindset from student to career mode and wants students to be
prepared for the communication expectations in the workplace. “I see a huge value because you
PREPARING MILLENNIAL STUDENTS 46

don't want students to face this culture shock.” The Career Development staff sees a high value
in incorporating effective workplace communication skills into advising appointments.
Motivational influences’ summary. Interviews with the Career Development staff find
the staff sees a high value in incorporating effective workplace communication skills into
advising appointments. However, there is a gap in staff self-efficacy to acquire new behaviors
that might be a barrier to successful implementation of a new way to advise students through
inclusion of workplace communication skills. Each member of the Career Development staff has
their own motivation for working in the field that has driven their desire to pursue a career in the
field of career development.
Career Development Staff Organizational Influences
The following sections will address organizational influences pertaining to the Career
Development staff integrating effective workplace communication into student advising.
Specifically, the culture of the organization needs to recognize and communicate the needs for
workplace communication scaffolding, or to show career advisors how to present workplace
communication skills in student advising appointments. In addition, there is also a need for
organizational support to implement training needed for the Career Development staff to
implement effective workplace communication skills into student advising appointments. The
sections below will present the degree to which staff felt supported by the organization.
Organizational scaffolding supports needed for the Career Development staff. Data
indicates that the Career Development Office staff recognized a gap in specific supports and
systems from the University of the Mountains organization to effective workplace
communication skills into advising student advising appointments. The culture of the
organization needs to recognize and communicate the needs for workplace communication
PREPARING MILLENNIAL STUDENTS 47

scaffolding, or to show career advisors how to present workplace communication skills in
student advising appointments. Sera mentioned that the Career Development Office recognizes
the importance of working with students in career advising appointments on effective workplace
communication skills, but does not feel this is reflected by the entire organization. Sera believed
success is measured by the organization by placing importance of the number of jobs secured by
students in student outcomes surveys. She stated, “A large number of students with jobs secured
is desired by the school. Engaging with large numbers of employers is also desired. The greater
the number of students with jobs secured, the better. The greater number of employers engaged,
the better.” She explained a gap exists in caring about the quality of students’ engagements with
companies. There seems to be only importance placed on the number of students employed and
not the quality of their employment engagements by the University of the Mountains.
To the organization, important outcomes are did our students get jobs. The placement
aspect of it. I think that ultimately they probably measure success by how much
companies are engaging with us, how many companies are engaging with us. How many
students got jobs. How many jobs were posted. Not necessarily always thinking about
more the qualitative aspect of our students' engagement with companies and in the
workplace how are they doing?
Juliet’s comments support the same theme and add that there is not always time in regular
advising appointments to discuss workplace communication with students, sharing, “I think it
doesn't always come up especially with a first-time student who's applying for their first time
internship or trying to just figure out where they want to go and so go, at the back of my mind.”
Charlotte felt that there is not a precedent for workplace communication to be discussed in career
advising appointments. “I feel like it's so much more transactional, like how to get the job, how
PREPARING MILLENNIAL STUDENTS 48

to do your resume. Like, we don't go that next step, always, in our appointments, because there's
not always time to discuss what happens next.” The Career Development staff felt that the
organization does not value implementing effective workplace communication skills into
advising. The organization seems to primarily demonstrate a desire for moving students quickly
through appointments. The culture of the organization needs to recognize and communicate the
need for workplace communication skills scaffolding to be integrated into advising
appointments.
Lack of organizational support for Career Development staff training. Data in
response to questions regarding organizational support revealed a gap in organizational support
of the Career Development staff to implement effective workplace communication skills into
student advising. Sera commented on the need for staff training, “overall as a staff, we would
probably need additional education. Not education as in more degrees or something, but
professional development type stuff on workplace communication.” Audrey succinctly stated
that there is no formalized training program in our office and that “we need to develop best
practice. We don't have any.” Juliet (pseudonym) added, “I do feel like I don't know if we have
the best role models for that specific area.” The staff needs scaffolding consisting of targeted
training and instruction to improve their performance level. This is consistent with Furr and
Carroll’s (2003) study exploring counselor education which found that scaffolding learning for
counselors was a constant theme as it related to counseling student growth and development.
This data shows that the Career Development staff needs to be provided with instructional
support (scaffolding) that can be delivered by senior staff and employers.
Organizational influences’ summary. The staff feels a gap exists regarding the
importance the organization places on the Career Development Staff working with students to
PREPARING MILLENNIAL STUDENTS 49

present workplace communication skills in student advising appointments. More attention needs
to be given to workplace communication skills training for the Career Development staff in
addition to where students find their first destination employment. The interview data illustrate
staff’s perception that the desire to produce a large number of students employed should not
outweigh the quality of the workplace engagement the student experiences. The Career
Development staff feels it would be an asset for workplace communication to be discussed in
career advising appointments and would produce stronger students to represent the university.
Recommendations for Practice to Address KMO Influences
Recommendations for the Career Development staff to integrate effective workplace
organizational communication skills into student career advising are presented in this section.
Proposed recommendations that could assist in eliminating knowledge, motivation, and
organization gaps are recommended. Support for solutions based on learning and motivation
theory principles and a more comprehensive implementation and evaluation plan is presented in
Appendix G using the New World Kirkpatrick Model (Kirkpatrick & Kirkpatrick, 2016). The
New World Kirkpatrick Model consists of four levels of training and evaluation. The first level
covers reactions, or the degree to which participants find training interesting and relevant to their
jobs. Next, level two has to do with the degree to which participants acquire the knowledge and
skills intended. Level three has to do with participants’ behavior once they are back on the job
after training, or how they are putting the new skills to work. Last, level four measures the
degree to which targeted outcomes where reached.
Program solutions. To develop the Career Development staff knowledge and skills,
they will be provided with instructional support, collaborative discourse, coaching and job aids
to integrate effective workplace communication skills for students into career advising sessions.
PREPARING MILLENNIAL STUDENTS 50

Kirschner, Paas and Kirschner (2009) discussed the effectiveness of individual learning
environments with collaborative learning environments. Taking these general recommendations,
there is a need to establish knowledge, motivation, and organizational resources for the Career
Development staff to integrate effective counseling of students in advising appointments on
effective workplace communication skills. The findings revealed that the Career Development
staff needs does not have a high degree of self-efficacy in advising on workplace communication
skills. First, the Career Development staff will receive instruction from both the Director of
Career Development and employers on the employers’ workplace communication skills.
Employers will share their desired workplace communication skills that students should possess
in order to be successful in the workplace. These desired communication skills will be shared
through collaborative discourse in face-to-face meetings with the Career Development staff at
employers’ place of business. Information will also be gathered and analyzed from surveys on
top employers of interest sharing their desired communication skills. This information can then
be aggregated to produce a list of desired skills the Career Development staff can share in
student advising appointments. In addition, an employer luncheon will be held with many
employers sharing best communication practices. The Career Development staff will practice
how to implement these newly learned workplace communications skills first in a mock
appointment setting led by coaching from the Director of Career Development with each other
and engage in a collaborative discourse regarding what works and what needs more scaffolding.
Job aids will also be created by the Career Development staff from the shared best
communication practices. The job aids will take the form of handouts to highlight the knowledge
and skills the Career Development staff needs to employ in advising students. These job aids will
be tailored as handouts for students in the form of relevant articles or a checklist of best practices
PREPARING MILLENNIAL STUDENTS 51

for students to be shared in advising appointments. The handout will include a list of best
practices focusing on communication skills, both written and verbal. Information will include
such advice as to proofread written work carefully and to be respectful, tactful, and use
professional language at all times when communicating with coworkers.
Knowledge Recommendations
Two assumed knowledge influences of this study were conceptual knowledge and procedural
knowledge (Krathwohl, 2002; Rueda, 2011). For the Career Development staff, conceptual
knowledge is the basic elements the staff must know. This equates to the knowledge needed by
the staff to define the needed training. Procedural knowledge is how the staff must embark on
using skills, techniques and methods to define the knowledge of workplace communication
skills. Both of these knowledge types are important for the Career Development staff to
implement effective workplace communication skills into career advising appointments. As
Table 1 indicates, each of these assumed knowledge influences need to be addressed by the
Career Development Office to effectively integrate workplace communication skills into student
advising.
Knowledge to define training needed for the Career Development staff. The results
of the data indicate the Career Development staff needs to increase their knowledge of methods
to implement effective workplace organizational communication into advising millennial
students. As Scott and Palincsar (2006) affirmed, targeting training and instruction between the
individual’s independent performance level and their level of assisted performance promotes
optimal learning. This would suggest providing sufficient scaffolding and tools to facilitate
learning and performance, then gradually withdraw scaffolds as learning progresses, that the
performance of the Career Development staff would improve. These tools can be produced in the
PREPARING MILLENNIAL STUDENTS 52

form of employers outlining their expectations of workplace communication for students to the
Career Development staff. Scaffolding will involve the more experienced Career Development
staff to scaffold training sessions to move all staff progressively toward stronger understanding
and, ultimately, greater independence in implementing effective workplace communication skills
into student advising appointments. These training sessions can consist of discussion of what is
needed by employers and move to mock advising sessions. Therefore, the recommendation for
the Career Development staff is that they be provided with instructional support (scaffolding)
early on with advice on best practices given by employers, to effectively implement the practice
of advising students on effective workplace organizational communication.
The Career Development staff needs to integrate knowledge of effective practice of
advising millennial students on effective workplace organizational communication. Furr and
Carroll (2003) in their study exploring counselor education found that experiential learning, such
as internships and interactions with employers, was a constant theme as it related to counseling
student growth and development. Nargundkar and Shrikande (2012) found that millennials are
resistant to experiential learning because the expectations around this type of learning may not
seem clear. Career counselors may need to consider how to provide more explanation for and
about experiential learning that illustrates the importance on effective workplace organizational
communication, so that millennial students understand how the experiential activity connects
with the subject matter. Additionally, Twenge (2013) found that millennials did not always
appreciate the process of working through scaffolded counseling material or requirements, so
this may mean Career Development staff may need to do more to motivate students to embrace
effective workplace communication skills. Based on these studies, the Career Development staff
PREPARING MILLENNIAL STUDENTS 53

needs to receive training on counseling strategies and develop a system for counseling millennial
students based on the characteristics of the millennial generation.
Career Development staff knowledge of workplace communication. The findings of
the data indicate that the Career Development staff needs to incorporate knowledge expectations
from employers of student workplace organizational communication into advising. Scott and
Palincsar (2006) found that providing scaffolding and assisted performance in a person’s ZPD
(zone of proximal development), or the difference between what a learner can do without help,
and what they cannot do, promotes developmentally appropriate instruction. Giving the Career
Development staff tasks that fall within their ZPD, or tasks that are too difficult to be completed
independently, can be completed with assistance from staff training sessions. This would suggest
the Career Development advising of students on effective workplace communication would be
improved from employers scaffolding desired methods of workplace communication. Therefore,
the recommendation is for the Career Development staff to be provided with scaffolding and
coaching from employers. Employers would outline their desired workplace communication
methods. This will assist in scaffolding desired methods of workplace communication to share
with students in advising appointments.
Gremillion, Cheshire and Lewis (2012) studied the scaffolding of learning experiences as
they relate to building new skills. The authors found the process of scaffolding learning enables a
competent community of learner–practitioners to emerge. This study supports the idea that if the
Career Development staff is provided scaffolding from employers to learn their desired methods
of workplace communication, they will emerge as a better trained and competent staff with
relevant information to provide to students regarding desired workplace communication skills.
Motivation Recommendations
PREPARING MILLENNIAL STUDENTS 54

The analysis suggested the motivation influence that will have the most impact on the
Career Development staff effectively integrating workplace communication skills into career
advising appointments for students is the self-efficacy of the Career Development staff. In order
to implement effective workplace organizational communication into advising, the staff needs to
have the self-efficacy to acquire new behaviors that will result in successful implementation of a
new way to advise students through inclusion of workplace communication skills. The Career
Development staff needs to believe they are capable of implementing effective workplace
communication skills into student advising appointments. Frameworks used for self-efficacy
include Mayer (2011) who advocates that effective observational learning is achieved by first
organizing and rehearsing modeled behaviors, then enacting them overtly. This framework lies at
the center of Bandura's (2000) social cognitive theory, emphasizes the role of observational
learning and social experience in the development of personality.
Motivation to learn new behaviors. In order to implement effective workplace
organizational communication into advising, the staff needs to have the self-efficacy to acquire
new behaviors that will result in successful implementation of a new way to advise students
through inclusion of workplace communication skills. Career Development staff needs to believe
they are capable of implementing effective workplace organizational communication into
advising (Self-Efficacy). The results of the data indicate that the staff does hold some level of
self-efficacy with regards to integrating effective workplace communication skills into student
advising appointments, but were unsure because they had not put these skills into practice.
Mayer (2011) found that effective observational learning is achieved by first organizing and
rehearsing modeled behaviors, then enacting them overtly. The theory of self-efficacy lies at the
center of Bandura's (2000) social cognitive theory that emphasizes the role of observational
PREPARING MILLENNIAL STUDENTS 55

learning and social experience. The main concept in social cognitive theory is that an individual's
actions and reactions are influenced by the actions that individual has observed in others. This
would suggest providing the Career Development staff with a time and place to observe best
practices, scaffold and train desired career counseling for successful advising implementation
would increase their self-efficacy. The Career Development staff needs to take a step back and
assess their own level of self-efficacy in implementing effective workplace organizational
communication into advising. As the focus of student advising appointments has not been on
workplace communication skills, the staff needs to take a step back and assess their own level of
self-efficacy in this area. In order to increase self-efficacy, the Career Development staff can
focus on instructional support (scaffolding) through modeling with each other best practices
communicated by employers to the Career Development staff. Employers can model through
conversations expected and desired workplace communication behaviors for the Career
Development staff. The act of showing the Career Development staff desired workplace
communication behaviors will guide the process of implementing effective workplace
organizational communication into advising. Kirschner, Paas and Kirschner (2009) discuss the
need for individuals to believe they are capable of curating instructional support or scaffolding to
increase their self-efficacy. McAllum (2016) and Pintrich (2003) also state that in order to be
efficacious in a desired skill, individuals need to believe they are capable. Lent, Brown and
Hackett’s (2002) application of Bandura’s social cognitive theory to career behavior focused on
career self-efficacy beliefs and their effect on achievement. This application showed strong
empirical evidence for a model, such as an employer sharing negative experiences recounting
poor student workplace communication skills. The Career Development staff can curate training
to model effective workplace communication to increase self-efficacy. The Career Development
PREPARING MILLENNIAL STUDENTS 56

staff needs to believe in their self-efficacy to integrate effective workplace organizational
communication skills into advising. The Career Development staff needs to believe they are
capable of curating instructional support (scaffolding) to counsel millennial students early in
their college career with mandatory career advising on workplace communication and success
best practices.
Gilliam (2012) studied the effects of professional socialization factors regarding
counselor levels of self-efficacy and interest in career counseling. The study found a positive
significant relationship between interest and participants' view of importance of career
development knowledge when working with clients (students). This study supports the increase
in self-efficacy of the Career Development staff when employers can model expected and
desired workplace communication behaviors. The act of showing the Career Development staff
desired workplace communication behaviors will guide the process of implementing effective
workplace organizational communication into advising.
Organization Recommendations
The result of the analysis suggested that change efforts informed by best practices
evidence shared by employers and then used by the Career Development staff to create training
and job aids are being adapted to implement effective workplace communication practices into
advising culture. Organizational influence validation is supported by influences most frequently
discussed during interviews with Career Development staff and literature reviews. The
framework used are Clark and Estes (2008) supporting that effective change efforts used
evidence-based solutions for adaptation to an organization's culture. In addition, these same
authors also suggest effective organizations ensure cultural setting influence is ensured by
PREPARING MILLENNIAL STUDENTS 57

organizational messages, rewards, policies and procedures that govern the work of the
organization are aligned with or are supportive of organizational goals and values.
Cultural settings recommendation. The findings recommend there is a need for a
change to the cultural setting of the Career Development Office in order to effectively address
the need to integrate effective workplace communication skills into advising. There needs to be a
culture of learning established to address the needed changes in which the Career Development
staff has opportunities to learn from employers about their workplace communication
expectations. Clark and Estes (2008) suggest effective organizations ensure that organizational
messages, rewards, policies and procedures that govern the work of the organization are aligned
with or are supportive of organizational goals and values. Conducting an audit of resources will
assist the Career Development staff to check for alignment or interference with the goal of
effective workplace communication practices into advising for students.
Aubé and Rousseau (2005) studied the relationship between organizational support systems team
effectiveness. The researchers found supportive behaviors increase the quality of the group’s
performance. Supportive behaviors related to organizational support that increases team
performance, viability, and process improvement. This study supports the recommendation that
the Career Development Office needs specific supports and systems for organization change to
develop a cultural setting that enables effective workplace communication practices into
advising.
Conclusion
The purpose of this study was to determine the assets and gaps of the Career
Development Office staff’s capacity to integrate effective organizational communication into
advising practices aimed at reducing communication conflict in the multigenerational workforce.
PREPARING MILLENNIAL STUDENTS 58

The Clark and Estes (2008) Gap Analytical Framework structured the study and was
implemented to identify knowledge, motivation and organizational assets and gaps in
implementing effective workplace organizational communication into advising millennial
students. Knowledge gaps discovered show how the Career Development staff could benefit
from more knowledge pertaining to employer expectations for student communications skills in
the workplace. A motivation gap exists in the area of self-efficacy to acquire new behaviors that
will result in successful implementation of a new way to advise students through inclusion of
workplace communication skills. In addition, organizational gaps exist around supporting the
importance of effective workplace communication practices into advising. The impact of the
Career Development Office working with students in advising appointments to build their skill
in organizational workplace communication will increase student career success outcomes and
raise the overall satisfaction level of employers engaging with University of the Mountains
students as employees.

PREPARING MILLENNIAL STUDENTS 59

References
Abaffy, L. K. (2011). Millennials bring new attitudes. ENR: Engineering News-Record, 266(6),
22.
Adams, S. (2014). The 10 skills employers most want in 2015 graduates. Leadership, 11, 43AM
84.
Alkin, M.C. (2011). Section R: How are quantitative data analyzed? Evaluation essentials: From
A to Z. (pp. 166-179). New York: The Guilford Press.
Alsop, R. (2008). The trophy kids grow up. How the Millennial generation is shaping up the
workplace. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass.
Anfara, V. A., & Mertz, N. T. (2015). Setting the stage. Theoretical framework in qualitative
research, 1-20.
Arsenault, P. M. (2004). Validating generational differences: A legitimate diversity and
leadership issue. Leadership & Organization Development Journal, 25(2), 124-141.
Aubé, C., & Rousseau, V. (2005). Team goal commitment and team effectiveness: The role of
task interdependence and supportive behaviors. Group Dynamics: Theory, Research,and
Practice, 9(3), 189.
Baird, J. R. (1986). Improving learning through enhanced metacognition: A classroom study.
European Journal of Science Education, 8(3), 263-282.
Bandura, A. (2000). Exercise of human agency through collective efficacy. Current Directions in
Psychological Science, 9(3), 75-78.
Barbuto, J. E., & Gottfredson, R. K. (2016). Human capital, the millennial's reign, and the
need for servant leadership. Journal of Leadership Studies, 10(2), 59-63.
Bennett, S., Maton, K., & Kervin, L. (2008). The ‘digital natives’ debate: A critical review of the
PREPARING MILLENNIAL STUDENTS 60

evidence. British Journal of Educational Technology, 39(5), 775-786.
Berger, B. K. (2014). READ MY LIPS: Leaders, supervisors, and culture are the foundations
of strategic employee communications. Research Journal of the Institute for Public
Relations, 1(1), 2-17.
Bump, P. (2014). Here is when each generation begins and ends, according to facts. The Atlantic.

Carpenter, M. J., & Charon, L. C. (2014). Mitigating multigenerational conflict and attracting,
motivating, and retaining Millennial employees by changing the organizational culture: A
theoretical model. Journal of Psychological Issues in Organizational Culture, 5(3), 68-
84.
Carver, L., & Candela, L. (2008). Attaining organizational commitment across different
generations of nurses. Journal of Nursing Management, 16(8), 984-991.
Chhinzer, N., Chhinzer, N., Russo, A. M., & Russo, A. M. (2017). An exploration of employer
perceptions of graduate student employability. Education+ Training.
Clark, R. E., & Estes, F. (2008). Turning research into results: A guide to selecting the right
performance solutions. Charlotte, NC: Information Age Publishing, Inc.
Collins, M. H., Hair Jr, J. F., & Rocco, T. S. (2009). The older‐worker‐younger‐supervisor dyad:
A test of the Reverse Pygmalion effect. Human Resource Development Quarterly, 20(1),
21-41.
Conklin, T. A. (2013). Making it personal: The importance of student experience in creating
autonomy-supportive classrooms for millennial learners. Journal of Management
Education, 37(4), 499-538.
Conrad, D. (2014). Workplace communication problems: Inquiries by employees and applicable
solutions. Journal of Business Studies Quarterly, 5(4), 105.
PREPARING MILLENNIAL STUDENTS 61

Creswell, J. W. (2014). Research design: Qualitative, quantitative, and mixed methods
approaches. Sage publications.
Dede, C. (2005). Planning for neomillennial learning styles. Educause Quarterly, 28(1), 7-12.
Denler, H., Wolters, C., & Benzon, M. (2009). Social cognitive theory. Retrieved from
https://project542.weebly.com/uploads/1/7/1/0/17108470/social_cognitive_theory__educ
ation.com.pdf
Deepa, S., & Seth, M. (2013). Do soft skills matter? Implications for educators based on
recruiters' perspective. IUP Journal of Soft Skills, 7(1), 7.
de Waal, A., Peeters, L., & Broekhuizen, M. (2017). Do different generations look differently at
high performance organizations?. Journal of Strategy and Management, 10(1).
Durocher, S., Bujaki, M., & Brouard, F. (2016). Attracting millennials: Legitimacy management
and bottom-up socialization processes within accounting firms. Critical Perspectives on
Accounting, 39, 1-24.
Eccles, J. (2006). Expectancy value motivational theory. Retrieved
from http://www.education.com/reference/article/expectancy-value-motivational-theory/.
Eccles, J. S., & Wigfield, A. (2002). Motivational beliefs, values, and goals. Annual Review of
Psychology, 53(1), 109-132.
Elam, C., Stratton, T., & Gibson, D. D. (2007). Welcoming a new generation to college: The
millennial students. Journal of College Admission, 195, 20-25.
Farrell, L., & Hurt, A. C. (2014). Training the millennial generation: Implications for
organizational climate. Journal of Organizational Learning & Leadership, 12(1), 47-60.
Finch, D. J., Hamilton, L. K., Baldwin, R., & Zehner, M. (2013). An exploratory study of factors
affecting undergraduate employability. Education+ Training, 55(7), 681-704.
PREPARING MILLENNIAL STUDENTS 62

Fromm, J. (2015). Millennials in the workplace: They don't need trophies but they want
reinforcement. Retrieved from Forbes. com: http://www.forbes.
com/sites/jefffromm/2015/11/06/millennials-in-the-workplace-they-dontneed-trophies-
but-they-want-reinforcement/2.
Fry, R. (2015). Millennials surpass Gen Xers as the largest generation in US labor force. Pew
Research Center, May, 11.
Gilley, A., Waddell, K., Hall, A., Jackson, S. A., & Gilley, J. W. (2015). Manager behavior,
generation, and influence on work-life balance: An empirical investigation. Journal of
Applied Management and Entrepreneurship, 20(1), 3-23.
Glass, A. (2007). Understanding generational differences for competitive success. Industrial and
Commercial Training, 39(2), 98-103.
Glesne, C. (2011). Becoming qualitative researchers: An introduction. Boston, MA: Pearson.
Gremillion, H., Cheshire, A., & Lewis, D. (2012). Scaffolding a community of competent
practitioners: Positioning and agency in a training program for narrative counseling.
Family Process, 51(1), 43-55.
Greenbaum, H. H., & Query Jr, J. L. (1999). Communication in organizational work groups: A
review and analysis of natural work group studies. The Handbook of Group
Communication Theory and Research, 539-564.
Gursoy, D., Maier, T. A., & Chi, C. G. (2008). Generational differences: An examination of
work values and generational gaps in the hospitality workforce. International Journal of
Hospitality Management, 27(3), 448-458.
Hart, K. A. (2006). Generations in the workplace: finding common ground. MLO: Medical
Laboratory Observer, 38(10), 26-27.
PREPARING MILLENNIAL STUDENTS 63

Harris, F., & Bensimon, E. M. (2007). The equity scorecard: A collaborative approach to assess
and respond to racial/ethnic disparities in student outcomes. New Directions for Student
Services, 2007(120), 77-84.
Hillman, D. R. (2014). Understanding multigenerational work-value conflict resolution. Journal
of Workplace Behavioral Health, 29(3), 240-257.
Holt, S., Marques, J., & Way, D. (2012). Bracing for the millennial workforce: Looking for ways
to inspire Generation Y. Journal of Leadership, Accountability and Ethics, 9(6), 81.
Howe, N., & Strauss, W. (2007). The next 20 years. Harvard business review, 85, 41-52.
Howe, N., & Strauss, W. (2009). Millennials rising: The next great generation. Vintage.
Hulleman, C. S., Godes, O., Hendricks, B. L., & Harackiewicz, J. M. (2010). Enhancing interest
and performance with a utility value intervention. Journal of Educational Psychology,
102(4), 880.
Huyler, D., Pierre, Y., Ding, W., & Norelus, A. (2015). Millennials in the Workplace:
Positioning Companies for Future Success. SFERC 2015, 114.
Icenogle, R. S. H. M. (2001). Preparing for an age-diverse workforce: Intergenerational service
learning in social gerontology and business curricula. Educational Gerontology, 27(1),
49-70.
Jablin, F. M., & Krone, K. J. (1994). Task/work relationships: A life-span perspective. Handbook
of Interpersonal Communication, 2, 621-675.
Jackson, D. (2015). Employability skill development in work-integrated learning: Barriers and
best practice. Studies in Higher Education, 40(2), 350-367.
Jokisaari, M., & Nurmi, J. E. (2009). Change in newcomers’ supervisor support and socialization
outcomes after organizational entry. Academy of Management Journal, 52, 527-544.
PREPARING MILLENNIAL STUDENTS 64

Jurkiewicz, C. L., & Brown, R. G. (1998). Generational comparisons of public employee
motivation. Review of Public Personnel Administration, 18(4), 18-37.
Keeter, S. and Taylor, P. (2009). “The Millennials.” Pew Research Center, December 10.

Korte, R., & Lin, S. (2013). Getting on board: Organizational socialization and the contribution
of social capital. Human Relations, 66(3), 407-428.
Krathwohl, D. R. (2002). A revision of Bloom's taxonomy: An overview. Theory into
practice, 41(4), 212-218.
Kirkpatrick, J. D., & Kirkpatrick, W. K. (2016). Kirkpatrick's four levels of training evaluation.
Association for Talent Development.
Kirschner, F., Paas, F., & Kirschner, P. A. (2009). A cognitive load approach to collaborative
learning: United brains for complex tasks. Educational Psychology Review, 21(1), 31-42.
Kupperschmidt, B. R. (2000). Multigeneration employees: strategies for effective
management. The Health Care Manager, 19(1), 65.
Kuron, L. K., Lyons, S. T., Schweitzer, L., & Ng, E. S. (2015). Millennials’ work values:
differences across the school to work transition. Personnel Review, 44(6), 991-1009.
Larkin, J., & Larkin, J. (2017). HR digital disruption: the biggest wave of transformation in
decades. Strategic HR Review, 16(2), 55-59.
Lent, R. W., Brown, S. D., & Hackett, G. (2002). Social cognitive career theory. Career Choice
and Development, 4, 255-311.
Lu, A. C. C., & Gursoy, D. (2016). Impact of job burnout on satisfaction and turnover intention:
do generational differences matter? Journal of Hospitality & Tourism Research, 40(2),
210-235.
Martin, C. A. (2005). From high maintenance to high productivity: What managers need to know
PREPARING MILLENNIAL STUDENTS 65

about Generation Y. Industrial and Commercial Training, 37(1), 39-44.
Maxwell, J. A. (2013). Qualitative research design: An interactive approach. (3rd ed.). Thousand
Oaks: SAGE.
Mayer, R. E. (2011). Applying the science of learning. Boston, MA: Pearson/Allyn & Bacon.
McAllum, K. (2016). Managing imposter syndrome among the “Trophy Kids”: creating teaching
practices that develop independence in millennial students. Communication Education,
65(3), 363-365.
McGlynn, A. P. (2008). Millennials in College: How Do We Motivate Them? Education Digest:
Essential Readings Condensed for Quick Review, 73(6), 19-22.
Mencl, J., & Lester, S. W. (2014). More alike than different: What generations value and how
the values affect employee workplace perceptions. Journal of Leadership &
Organizational Studies, 21(3), 257-272.
Merriam, S. B., & Tisdell, E. J. (2015). Qualitative research: A guide to design and
implementation. John Wiley & Sons.
Much, K., Wagener, A. M., Breitkreutz, H. L., & Hellenbrand, M. (2014). Working with the
millennial generation: Challenges facing 21st ‐century students from the perspective of
university staff. Journal of College Counseling, 17(1), 37-47.
Myers, K. K., & Sadaghiani, K. (2010). Millennials in the workplace: A communication
perspective on millennials’ organizational relationships and performance. Journal of
Business and Psychology, 25(2), 225-238.
National Association of Colleges and Employers (NACE). (2016, March). Job outlook Spring
update.
PREPARING MILLENNIAL STUDENTS 66

Ng, E. S., Schweitzer, L., & Lyons, S. T. (2010). New generation, great expectations: A field
study of the millennial generation. Journal of Business and Psychology, 25(2), 281-292.
Ott, B., Blacksmith, N., & Royal, N. (2008). What generation gap? Job seekers for different
generations often look for the same things from prospective employers, according to
recent Gallup research. Retrieved from http://gmp.gallup.com
Outlook, J. (2016). The attributes employers want to see on new college graduates’
resumes. News from NACE. Bethlehem PA: National Association of Colleges and
Employers (NACE). Retrieved from http://www.naceweb.org.
Outlook, J. (2017). The attributes employers want to see on new college graduates’
resumes. News from NACE. Bethlehem PA: National Association of Colleges and
Employers (NACE). Retrieved from http://www.naceweb.org.
Özçelik, G. (2015). Engagement and retention of the millennial generation in the workplace
through internal branding. International Journal of Business and Management, 10(3), 99.
Patton, M. Q. (2002). Qualitative research & evaluation methods (3rd ed.). Thousand Oaks:
SAGE Publications.
Pajares, F. (2006). Self-efficacy theory. Retrieved from
http://www.education.com/reference/article/self-efficacy-theory/.
Payton, F. C. (2015). Workplace design: The millennials are not coming—they're here. Design
Management Review, 26(1), 54-63.
Pazzaglia, A. M., Stafford, E. T., Rodriguez, S. M. (2016). Survey methods for educators:
Analysis and reporting of survey data (part 3 of 3). (REL 2015-164). Washington, DC:
U.S. Department of Education, Institute of Education Sciences, National Center for
PREPARING MILLENNIAL STUDENTS 67

Education Evaluation and Regional Assistance, Regional Educational Laboratory
Northeast & Islands. Retrieved from http://ies.ed.gov/ncee/edlabs.
Pintrich, P. R. (2003). A motivational science perspective on the role of student motivation in
learning and teaching contexts. Journal of Educational Psychology, 95(4), 667.
Roehl, A., Reddy, S. L., & Shannon, G. J. (2013). The flipped classroom: An opportunity to
engage millennial students through active learning. Journal of Family and Consumer
Sciences, 105(2), 44.
Roehling, P. V., Kooi, T. L. V., Dykema, S., Quisenberry, B., & Vandlen, C. (2010). Engaging
the millennial generation in class discussions. College Teaching, 59(1), 1-6.
Rueda, R. (2011). The 3 dimensions of improving student performance: Finding the right
solutions to the right problems. Teachers College Press. 1234 Amsterdam Avenue, New
York, NY 10027.
Salkind, N. J. (2016). Statistics for people who (think they) hate statistics. Sage Publications.
Schneider, B., Brief, A. P., & Guzzo, R. A. (1996). Creating a climate and culture for sustainable
organizational change. Organizational Dynamics, 24(4), 7-19.
Schraw, G., & McCrudden, M. (2006). Information processing theory. Retrieved from
http:// www.education.com/reference/article/information-processing-theory/.
Scott, S., & Palincsar, A. (2013). Sociocultural theory. Education. Com.

Senge, P. (1990). (1990b). The leader’s new work: Building learning organizations. Sloan
Management Review, 32(1), 7-23.
Shernoff, E. S., Lakind, D., Frazier, S. L., & Jakobsons, L. (2015). Coaching early career
teachers in urban elementary schools: A mixed-method study. School Mental Health,
7(1), 6-20.
PREPARING MILLENNIAL STUDENTS 68

Shraw, G., & Lehman, S. (2009). Interest. Retrieved from http://www.education.com/
reference/article/interest/.
Sirias, D., Karp, H. B., & Brotherton, T. (2007). Comparing the levels of
individualism/collectivism between baby boomers and generation X: Implications for
teamwork. Management Research News, 30(10), 749-761.
Smola, K., & Sutton, C. D. (2002). Generational differences: Revisiting generational work
values for the new millennium. Journal of Organizational Behavior, 23(4), 363-382.
Stewart, C., Wall, A., & Marciniec, S. (2016, July). Mixed signals: Do college graduates have
the soft skills that employers want? In Competition Forum (Vol. 14, No. 2, p. 276).
American Society for Competitiveness.
Stewart, J. S., Oliver, E. G., Cravens, K. S., & Oishi, S. (2016). Managing millennials:
Embracing generational differences. Business Horizons.
Taylor, P., Parker, K., Morin, R., Patten, E., & Brown, A. (2014). Millennials in adulthood. Pew
Research. March, 7.
Thomson, K., Outram, S., Gilligan, C., & Levett-Jones, T. (2015). Interprofessional experiences
of recent healthcare graduates: A social psychology perspective on the barriers to
effective communication, teamwork, and patient-centred care. Journal of
Interprofessional Care, 29(6), 634-640.
Twenge, J. M., Campbell, S. M., Hoffman, B. J., & Lance, C. E. (2010). Generational
differences in work values: Leisure and extrinsic values increasing, social and intrinsic
values decreasing. Journal of Management, 36(5), 1117-1142.
PREPARING MILLENNIAL STUDENTS 69

Twenge, J. M., & Kasser, T. (2013). Generational changes in materialism and work centrality,
1976-2007: Associations with temporal changes in societal insecurity and materialistic
role modeling. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 39(7), 883-897.
Twenge, J. M., Campbell, W. K., & Freeman, E. C. (2012). Generational differences in young
adults' life goals, concern for others, and civic orientation, 1966–2009. Journal of
Personality and Social Psychology, 102(5), 1045.
US Census Bureau. (2015). Millennials outnumber Baby Boomers and are far more diverse,
Census Bureau reports [press release]. Retrieved from
https://www.census.gov/newsroom/press-releases/2015/cb15-113.html
Walden, J., Jung, E. H., & Westerman, C. Y. (2017). Employee communication, job engagement,
and organizational commitment: A study of members of the Millennial Generation.
Journal of Public Relations Research, 1-17.
Watson, J. C. (2014). Expanding the knowledge base of college counselors: Paving the way for
the implementation of evidence-based practices on college campuses. Journal of College
Counseling, 17(1), 3-6.
Way, A. K., & Medved, C. E. (2017). Intergenerational communication in the workplace. The
International Encyclopedia of Organizational Communication.
Weiner, W. (2016). The influence of social media on job seekers in the digital age. Career
Planning and Adult Development Journal, 32(3), 26.
Weiss, R. S. (1994). Learning from strangers: The art and method of qualitative interview
studies. Simon and Schuster.
Widén, G., Ahmad, F., & Huvila, I. (2017). Workplace information sharing: a generational
approach. Information Research, 22(1).
PREPARING MILLENNIAL STUDENTS 70

Wingfield, A. (1994). Expectancy-value theory of achievement motivation: A developmental
perspective. Educational Psychology Review, 6(1), 49-78.

PREPARING MILLENNIAL STUDENTS 71

Appendix A: Participating Stakeholders with Sampling Criteria for Interview and Survey

Participating Stakeholders: Sampling and Recruitment
The stakeholder population of focus was the five-person Career Development staff at the
University of the Mountains. Selecting this stakeholder group was executed purposefully with
participants that guided understanding of the problem of practice and the research questions as
discussed by Creswell (2014). Purposefully selecting this stakeholder group led to a better
understanding of counseling millennial students to tackle the problem of millennial student
multigenerational workplace communication. The criteria for selecting this stakeholder
population at the University of the Mountains include employment, education, and experience in
proximity to the problem of practice. The participants selected for this study all have a close
understanding of working with millennial students and their jobs consist of daily counseling
interactions with millennial students. In addition, a brief employer survey was conducted with
employers engaging with the Career Development Office to further inform the practice of
integrating effective workplace communication skills into career advising appointments.
Survey Criteria and Rationale
The following criteria guided the selection of participants.
Criterion 1. Works directly with Career Development staff in hiring University of the
Mountains students.
Criteria 2. Works directly with millennial students in the workplace in a capacity to
understand their communication skills.
Survey Strategy and Rationale
A brief quantitative study was administered to employers recruiting students at
University of the Mountains. This purposely selected group of employers helped identify areas of
PREPARING MILLENNIAL STUDENTS 72

strength and growth needed in the area of communication skills. The survey was administered in
English and online via the platform Qualtrics. The rationale for using this platform was that it is
easily accessible by all members of the Career Development staff as it is a software platform
supported by the university. As Creswell (2014) discussed with regards to preferred data
collection type, this online survey provided for a rapid turnaround in data collection. The survey
instrument consisted of six brief items. These include items that point back to the research
questions. For example, research question one asks, “What is the Career Development staff
knowledge and motivation related to integrating effective workplace organizational
communication skills into advising?” A motivational and goal-oriented question of, “I am
interested in learning more about current trends in the field of career counseling.” Merriam and
Tisdell (2016) discuss how surveys are a means to understand how people interpret their
experiences. Questions such as the one mentioned above interpret the self-reflected advising
skills of the Career Development staff.
Interview Sampling Criteria and Rationale
The following criteria guided the selection of participants.

Criterion 1. Interacts on a daily basis with millennial students in a counseling capacity.
Criterion 2. Has an education in student affairs counseling (received degree or substitute
years of experience in the field).
Criterion 3. Understands the phenomena of millennial workplace communication issues.
Interview Strategy and Rationale
A purposeful sampling strategy was employed to study the phenomena of counseling
millennial students with regards to multigenerational workplace communication issues.
Purposeful sampling was based on the want to determine and recognize the most in-depth and
PREPARING MILLENNIAL STUDENTS 73

relevant information (Merriam & Tisdell, 2016). The Career Development staff of the University
of the Mountains was recruited because of their special experience as trained career services
professional working directly with millennial students. Drilling down further, the Career
Development staff represents typical sampling. As Merriam and Tisdell (2016) described, typical
sampling and reflecting the average phenomena situation, the Career Development staff reflects
the common illustration of career counseling for millennial students. The number of participants
interviewed was five, which equals the total Career Development staff minus the researcher. As
Creswell (2014) comments on qualitative interviews, these conversations will involve questions
of the structured and open-ended variety to procure views and beliefs of the Career Development
staff.

PREPARING MILLENNIAL STUDENTS 74

Appendix B: Protocols
Interview Protocol
I would like to first express my thanks for agreeing to participate in my study. I know you
have a hectic schedule and I appreciate you taking the time to meet with me and answer my
questions. This interview should take about a half-an-hour.
I am currently enrolled in a doctoral program at USC Rossier and am conducting a study
on preparing millennial students for a multigenerational workforce. I am focusing on the value of
scaffolding best practices for students in the workplace during our counseling sessions.
This interview session is not a professional assessment or judgment of your performance
as a member of the Annenberg Career Development Office. I would like to emphasize that today
I am only here as a researcher collecting data for my study. Our conversation together will be
kept completely confidential and will not be disclosed to anyone or anywhere outside the scope
of this study. While I may choose to use a direct quote provided by you in our interview, I will
not disclose your name specifically and will be sure to remove all identifying information. I will
provide you with a copy of my final product if you wish to view.
I will use a recording device to assist in securing all of your responses accurately and
completely during our interview. This recording will not be shared with anyone outside the space
of this project. The recording will be transferred to my password-protected files on a cloud file
storage account and deleted from the recording device immediately upon transfer. The recording
will then be destroyed one year from the date my dissertation defense is approved.
Please let me know at any time, including now, if you have any questions. If not, I would
like your permission to begin the interview and to record this conversation. Please know that you
are free to stop me at any time without consequence.

PREPARING MILLENNIAL STUDENTS 75

Knowledge Questions
1. Can you tell me about some of the things you hear in our line of work regarding
communication challenges of students in the workplace?
2. What are some of the strategies you use to communicate with students in counseling
sessions?
3. What do you think we are doing well as an office with regards to counseling students?
4. Tell me how you would advise a student about effective workplace communication
practices.
5. What do you think would work to prepare our students for effective workplace
communication?
6. What do you think we could do better in counseling students?
7. Tell me about your thoughts with regards to generational differences in the workplace?
How do you see this play out? What does it look like? What does it sound like? How is
it addressed? What challenges does it create?
8. What is your knowledge regarding methods of workplace communication instruction to
advise students on effective workplace organizational communication?
9. What are some procedures to incorporate the expectations from employers of student
workplace organizational communication into advising?
10. What are some ways we can assess our knowledge of millennial student workplace
communication to effectively advise individual millennial students on effective
workplace communication?
Motivation Questions
1. What motivates you to be a career counselor?
PREPARING MILLENNIAL STUDENTS 76

2. What is the value of counseling students for communication success in the workplace?
How important do you think it is?
3. What do you think the effect of counseling students for success in workplace
communication will be on the department? What could be gained? What could be lost?
How would you personally benefit?
4. How confident do you feel in your ability to successfully advise students about effective
workplace communication?
5. How do you feel about your ability to make a difference in how our students will
communicate during their internship?
6. What value do you see in implementing effective workplace organizational
communication into advising?
Organizational Questions
1. Tell me about how you feel our organization supports counseling students on
workplace communication. Do you feel it is / would be a priority for our school?
2. In what ways do you think our organization provides the needed resources to
successfully counsel students? What would be the ideal situation?
3. What resistance, if any, do you get from the organization with regards to counseling
students on workplace communication?
4. Are there any role models you see in our organization with regards to modeling
behaviors for counseling students on workplace communication? If so, what is it
about the behavior that you see as successful? How might we spread best practices,
when we see them?
Brief Employer Survey Protocol

PREPARING MILLENNIAL STUDENTS 77

Good afternoon Employer Partner,

As we wrap up our spring semester, and look ahead to future programming, we are very
interested in your feedback. We would tremendously appreciate you taking a quick 5 - 10
minutes to complete this survey to help us with our research. Your insight is especially
appreciated with regards to student performance related to your hiring needs and workplace
expectations. Please know that we will keep your responses anonymous.

Thank you for your support!

1. What best describes your role in hiring employees at your organization?
Human Resources Representative
 Manager
 Executive
 Other (please specify)
2. Please select your industry:
 Advertising
 Journalism/ Digital Media
 Consulting
 Corporate Communication
 Entertainment
 Event Planning
 Fashion
 Government
 Market Research
 Marketing
 Music Industry
 Non-Profit
 Public Relations
 Radio
 Sales
 Sports
 Technology
 Other (please specify)
3. How would you rate University of the Mountains students' qualifications related to your
company's hiring needs?
PREPARING MILLENNIAL STUDENTS 78

 Unsatisfactory
 Improvement needed
 Meets expectations
 Exceeds expectations
 Exceptional
 Other (please specify)
4. How would you rate Annenberg students' professional communication skills?
 Extremely Effective
 Very Effective
 Moderately Effective
 Slightly Effective
 Not at all Effective
Please explain or provide examples:

5. Please indicate the importance of each of these competencies in your workplace.
Not
important

Occasionally
important
Important Very
important
Critically
important

Verbal and Written
Communication

Teamwork/Collaboration

Critical Thinking

Entrepreneurship/Business

Skills
Global/Cultural
Competency

Financial
Proficiency/Math
Skills

Analytical/Research Skills

Other (please specify)

6. What should University of the Mountains graduates be able to know and do when they
graduate to be successful in your workplace? (Open-ended)

PREPARING MILLENNIAL STUDENTS 79

Appendix C: Credibility and Trustworthiness

The stakeholder population of focus is the five-person Career Development staff at the
University of the Mountains. Creswell (2014) tells us that the selecting stakeholder groups
should be executed purposefully. Purposefully selecting this stakeholder group led will lead to a
better understanding of counseling millennial students to tackle the problem of millennial student
multigenerational workplace communication. The criteria for selecting this stakeholder
population at the University of the Mountains included employment, education, and experience
in proximity to the problem of practice. The participants selected for this study all have a close
understanding of working with millennial students and their jobs consist of daily counseling
interactions with millennial students. Data collection for this stakeholder group will consist of
interviews.
Interviews
The number of participants interviewed was five, which equals the total Career
Development staff minus the researcher. Creswell (2014) comments that in qualitative
interviews, these conversations involved questions of the structured and open-ended variety. This
qualitative interview process allowed for the views and beliefs of the Career Development staff
to emerge. Interviews were conducted in English and only once with each participant. Questions
were asked in a semi-structured interview format. This interview format, as described by Patton
(2002), involves qualitative method of inquiry that combines a pre-determined set of open
questions (questions that prompt discussion) with the opportunity for the interviewer to explore
particular themes or responses further. This interview format identifies the topic to be covered in
advance with the flexibility for the interview questions to change sequence and wording,
depending on the flow of the interview. This semi-structured protocol for interviewing was lead
PREPARING MILLENNIAL STUDENTS 80

in the largest part by a list of questions or issues to be explored to ensure the same specific
information is acquired from each interview (Merriam & Tisdell, 2016). This ensured a
comprehensive outcome to all research questions, while remaining a conversational interview.
Interviews were conducted in a conference room adjacent to the offices of the Career
Development staff for easy access. Questions asked centered on the knowledge, motivation, and
organizational resources pertaining to the Career Development staff and their scaffolding best
practices of workplace organizational communication in advising millennial students.

PREPARING MILLENNIAL STUDENTS 81

Appendix D: Validity and Reliability

Reliability is the degree to which an assessment tool produces stable and consistent
results (Creswell, 2014). While reliability is necessary, it alone is not sufficient. Validity refers
to how well a test measures what it is purported to measure and support or challenge the
researcher’s ideas of the study outcome (Maxwell, 2013). The importance of validity and
reliability must be approached with careful attention to detail in a study’s conceptualization and
the way the data is collected, analyzed, and interpreted (Merriam & Tisdell, 2016). To be sure
the entire process of collecting data and making sense of the data is working, the researcher must
be sure the data is measuring what is desired to be measured (Salkind, 2016). As a researcher,
you must be sure that what you use to collect data works well and will measure what you want to
measure.
To ensure validity, I used peer debriefing. Peer debriefing is an important technique in
qualitative research to ensure the collection of valid study information. Peer debriefing requires
the researcher to work together with one or several colleagues who hold impartial views of the
study (Creswell, 2014). In this, I used a peer from the field to review my study design and see
what questions they may have regarding what directional outcomes my qualitative interview
questions produced. This verified the method used to collect data and measure what I wanted to
measure.

PREPARING MILLENNIAL STUDENTS 82

Appendix E: Ethics
An integral part of qualitative research, as identified by Maxwell (2013), is the attention
paid to ethical issues regarding research design. It is important as a researcher to build trust with
research subjects by demonstrating competence in data collection and research integrity. Ethical
choices are important in qualitative design to in order to protect the researcher-participant
relationship (Merriam & Tisdell, 2016). As a researcher, gaining rich and detailed data can be
garnered by carefully observing the informed consent process. Use of an information sheet, as
discussed in Glesne (2011), can contribute to the empowering of research participants. Through
the University of the Mountains IRB Information Sheet, the research participants understood the
voluntary nature of their participation, confidentiality of interview data, and the power to stop
their participation at any time. It was made clear to participants that they can choose to withdraw
from the project entirely at any time, including once their participation is complete.
As I am one of the department staff members, this was an exploratory study with my
peers. No members of the staff report directly to me. Data collection was part of a practical study
of understanding, not an evaluation to understand the Career Development Staff current capacity
or a judge of their performance.

PREPARING MILLENNIAL STUDENTS 83

Appendix F: Limitations and Delimitations
The limitations and delimitations of my research describe situations and circumstances
that may affect or restricts my research methods and analysis of data. Limitations are influences
that I cannot control as the researcher. The delimitations are those characteristics that limit the
scope and define the boundaries of the study.
Patton (2002) tells us that that the researcher’s involvement as a participant observer is a
valuable tool. However, a limitation to this process is the biases I as the researcher had before
conducting the study. Other limitations in my chosen method of research include the nature of
self-reporting. Interview respondents are reporting on their own version of facts, not what might
be the verified situation. Another limitation is time. A study conducted over a certain interval of
time is a snapshot dependent on conditions occurring during that time. I did not have time to visit
and revisit interviewees with multiple question sessions. In addition, my small sample size does
not lend itself well to generalizing to an entire population.
Boundaries I have set for my study, or delimitations, are choices I made as a researcher in
my sampling methods. In my sampling method choices, I opted not to use observation.
Observations would be useful as an outsider to observe and notice specifics and understand
context (Merriam & Tisdell, 2016). As a researcher and member of the University of the
Mountains Career Development staff, I already have a very close relationship with the
knowledge of counseling millennial student’s multigenerational communication issues in the
workplace. As a result, I would be categorized as what Merriam and Tisdell (2016) identified as
a participant as observer, as there is no way to hide my work as a researcher in one-on-one career
counseling sessions I would observe. Furthermore, working as an observer is difficult as I am
very familiar with the phenomena and staff involved in the study. It would be very difficult to
PREPARING MILLENNIAL STUDENTS 84

observe Career Development staff members without “contaminating” (Merriam & Tisdel, 2016,
p. 147) the study. My presence and the Career Development staff knowledge of my study would
shift the focus of any observed counseling sessions to heavy discussion with millennial students
of multigenerational communication issues in the workplace.

PREPARING MILLENNIAL STUDENTS 85

Appendix G: Integrated Implementation and Evaluation Plan
Implementation and Evaluation Framework
Recommendations will be implemented using the New World Kirkpatrick Model
(Kirkpatrick & Kirkpatrick, 2016). This model facilitates in creating an effective training
evaluation plan for any program to showcase the organizational value of the work. Targeting
training and instruction between the individual’s independent performance level and their level
of assisted performance promotes optimal learning (Scott & Palincsar, 2006). The Career
Development staff needs to receive training to develop a system for counseling students in
advising appointments on workplace communication skills. The model recommends using four
levels of training and evaluation to be implemented in reverse order starting with Level 4
(Results), Level 3 (Behavior), Level 2 (Learning), Level 1 (Reaction). Recommendations will be
implemented using the New World Kirkpatrick Model as a tool to evaluate the training strategy
to validate the Career Development staff have the knowledge, motivation, and organizational
support to integrate effective workplace organizational communication skills into student career
advising. This program of evaluation will look at identified learning outcomes and evaluate
participants acquired knowledge, skills, attitudes, commitment and confidence based on
participation in the training. This will help close the gap between learning and behavior.
Organizational Purpose, Need and Expectations
The Career Development Office has the goal that by June 2019, 100% of the Top
Companies of Interest will report that University of the Mountains students as employees exceed
expectations. This goal was established after numerous conversations with employers expressing
concern over millennial students’ workplace performance issues with regards to communication.
The desired outcome expectations are to achieve high employer satisfaction and to have the
PREPARING MILLENNIAL STUDENTS 86

Career Development staff integrate effective workplace organizational communication skills into
advising.
Level 4: Results and Leading Indicators
The leading indicators are important measurements that assist in bridging the gap
between individual initiatives and efforts, and organizational results. Kirkpatrick and Kirkpatrick
(2016) refer to leading indicators as short-term observations and measurements that suggest that
critical behaviors are on track to create a positive impact on the desired results. The leading
indicators in Table 3 below indicate that increased career advisor knowledge, awareness, and
time spent about how to implement effective workplace organizational communication into
advising. Most importantly, this will in turn increase external outcomes regarding employer
satisfaction with students hired to work at their organization.
Table 3

Outcomes, Metrics, and Methods for External and Internal Outcomes

Outcome Metric(s) Method(s)
Internal Outcomes
1) Increased employer
satisfaction with students
hired to work in their
organization.
One to two Positive/Negative
examples from employer
feedback regarding millennial
student workplace
communication skills.
Annually compare prior
employer survey of satisfaction
with student workplace
communication skills to new
survey.
2) Increased career
advisor awareness of their
advising effectiveness
implement effective
workplace organizational
communication into
advising.
One to two Positive/Negative
examples from feedback and
comments from supervisor and
senior career advisors.
Monthly set aside regular time
for cooperative and
collaborative discourse in staff
training sessions focusing on
mastery and learning.
3) Increased time for
developing and
recommending how to
implement effective
workplace organizational
The frequency of time spent
developing a collaborative plan
to redesign time spent in
counseling sessions to
implement effective workplace
Monthly set aside regular time
to develop a plan to implement
effective workplace
organizational communication
into advising.
PREPARING MILLENNIAL STUDENTS 87

communication into
advising.
organizational communication
into advising by.
4) Employers’ improved
relationships with
students.
The frequency of students
finding employment after
commencement.
Annually compare alumni first
destination survey satisfaction
survey.
5) Employers’ improved
relationship with students
in the workplace.
The number of feedback and
comments from employer
interactions and surveys.
Annually compare one-on-one
interactions prior annual
employer survey of satisfaction
with student workplace
communication skills to new
survey.
External Outcomes
6) Increased employer
satisfaction with USC
Annenberg millennial
students as employees.
Collect data annually in
employer satisfaction survey.
Annually compare one-on-one
interactions prior annual
employer survey of satisfaction
with student workplace
communication skills to new
survey.

Level 3: Behavior
Critical behaviors. The stakeholders of focus are the Career Development staff
responsible for advising students on effective workplace organizational communication skills.
The first critical behavior the career advisors need to meet is the need to document their
experiences integrating effective workplace organizational communication into advising. The
second critical behavior the career development staff needs to meet is to acquire and implement
feedback from employers regarding employer satisfaction with millennial students in the
workplace and the desired communication skills. These behaviors will ultimately lead to an
increase in external outcomes regarding employer satisfaction with students hired to work at
their organization. These specific metrics, methods, and timing for each outcome behavior
appear in Table 4.
Table 4

Critical Behaviors, Metrics, Methods, and Timing for Evaluation
PREPARING MILLENNIAL STUDENTS 88

Critical Behavior Metric(s) Method(s) Timing
1) Career advisors
will need to document
their experiences
integrating effective
workplace
organizational
communication into
advising.
Number of positive
experiences where
students are advised
on effective
workplace
organizational
communication.
Career Development
Director will compare
student first destination
survey department
satisfaction questions
with career advisors
self-reported
experiences and report
findings to Career
Development staff.
Share career advisor
self-reported
experiences
monthly, student
first destination
survey department
satisfaction
questions shared
when administered
at the close of
academic year.
2) Career
Development staff
will need to acquire
and implement
feedback from
employers regarding
employer satisfaction
with millennial
students in the
workplace and the
desired
communication skills.
Number of positive
experiences where
employers report
satisfaction with
millennial student
workplace
communication skills.
Career Development
will compare employer
survey questions
regarding workplace
communication with
individual one-on-one
employer meetings with
members of the Career
Development staff.
Share findings from
one-on-one
meetings with
employers at weekly
team meetings and
compare employer
survey questions
regarding workplace
communication
when administered
at the close of the
academic year.
3) Implementation of
effective workplace
organizational
communication into
advising.
Number of student
advising appointments
where effective
workplace
communication skills
are discussed.
Set aside regular time to
develop a plan to
implement effective
workplace
organizational
communication into
advising.
Weekly for first
three months of
implementation,
thereafter, annually
for check-ins and as
new members join
the Career
Development staff.
4) Improved
relationships with
students as their job
success prospects
increase through
effective advising.
Number of positive
experiences where a
student’s needs are
met by a career
advisor.
Compare alumni first
destination survey
satisfaction survey.
Annually in the first
destination survey
administered each
summer.
5) Improved
relationship with
employers with access
to a more successful
candidate pool
increased through
effective advising.
Number of positive
experiences where
employer’s needs are
met by students
counseled by a career
advisor.
Compare one-on-one
interactions prior annual
employer survey of
satisfaction with student
workplace
communication skills to
new survey.
Daily as meetings
take place with
employers and
annually in formal
yearly employer
survey.
PREPARING MILLENNIAL STUDENTS 89

Required drivers. The Career Development staff require the support of the Director of
Career Development, peers, and employers to, as Kirkpatrick and Kirkpatrick (2016) refer to as
encouraging and monitoring progress toward implementing effective workplace communication
skills into advising. Drivers represent one of the biggest keys to success for any initiative, and
success with drivers requires working directly with the stakeholders. Table 5 shows the drivers to
support critical behaviors of the Career Development staff.
Table 5
Required Drivers to Support Critical Behaviors
Method(s) Timing
Critical Behaviors
Supported
1, 2, 3 Etc.
Reinforcing
Provide coaching from employers scaffolding
communicating desired methods of workplace
communication to share with students in advising
appointments.
Annually 1, 2
Encouraging
Providing the Career Development staff with a
time and place to observe best practices, scaffold
and train desired career counseling for successful
advising implementation would increase their self-
efficacy.

Ongoing 1,2
Rewarding
Students will report to the Career Development
staff successful workplace engagements as a result
of career counseling sessions.
Annually 1, 2
Monitoring
Conduct an informal audit of the Career
Development commitment of resources (messages,
policies, rewards and procedures) available for
students to check for alignment with the goal of
effective workplace communication practices into
advising for students.
Annually 1

PREPARING MILLENNIAL STUDENTS 90

Organizational support. To ensure that the required drivers are implemented, the
Career Development staff will need support from the organization. First, the Career
Development staff needs to work collaboratively to implement best practices in advising students
on effective workplace communication skills as shared by employers. This collaborative work
can be supported by the organization in the sharing of resources. Faculty, staff and students
within the organization have connections that can be shared to increase the contact pool of
employers to engage to solicit effective communication practices that can be folded into the
advising culture. In addition, conducting an audit of the organization commitment of resources,
mainly in the form of messaging to students, will help to streamline the messaging. This can be
accomplished by educating all members of the organization on the effective work the Career
Development staff is engaging students in regards to counseling on effective workplace
communication skills. This will ensure that there are no mixed messages communicated to
students.
Level 2: Learning
Learning goals. Upon completion of the recommended solutions the Career
Development staff will be able to:
1. Implement effective workplace organizational communication into advising. (D)
2. Execute advisement for students on effective workplace organizational communication.
(D)
3. Integrate the expectations from employers of student workplace organizational
communication into advising. (P)
PREPARING MILLENNIAL STUDENTS 91

4. Identify their own knowledge of millennial student workplace communication to
effectively advise individual millennial students on effective workplace communication.
(M)
5. Believe they are capable of implementing effective workplace organizational
communication into advising. (Self-Efficacy)
6. Value implementing effective workplace organizational communication into advising.
(Utility Value)
Evaluation of the components of learning. To apply what is learned to meet
performance goals, the Career Development staff must have the knowledge, skills, and
motivation to achieve their goals. Therefore, it is important to evaluate learning for both the
conceptual and procedural knowledge being acquired. The Career Development staff must be
confident, committed, and understand that there is great value in providing career counseling
sessions imparting to students the student desired workplace communication from employers. As
such, Table 6 lists the evaluation methods and timing for these learning components.
Table 6
Evaluation of the Components of Learning for the Program
Method(s) or Activity(ies) Timing
Declarative Knowledge “I know it.”
Knowledge checks through discussion at staff
roundtable meetings.
Weekly at department meetings to share best
practices and as issues and new questions arise.
Record key discussion points from staff
roundtable meetings to develop an FAQ of best
practices for future Career Development
advisors.
Throughout initial training to ensure all
members of the Career Development staff are
participating.
Procedural Skills “I can do it right now.”
Feedback from peers in coaching and training
sessions.

During the coaching and training sessions.
Attitude “I believe this is worthwhile.”
PREPARING MILLENNIAL STUDENTS 92

Career Advising Staff to review pre and post
employer surveys to see if their satisfaction of
USC Annenberg students and employees and
their communication skills has increased.
After integration of effective workplace
communication skills for students in integrated
into counseling sessions.
Confidence “I think I can do it on the job.”
Feedback from peers during mock career
counseling sessions.
During and after the initial instructional
support.
Commitment “I will do it on the job.”
Career Development staff discussions sharing
proposed best practices for implementing
effective workplace communication skills for
students into counseling sessions.
In weekly roundtable meetings.

Level 1: Reaction
It is necessary to ascertain how the Career Development staff reacts to coaching
associated with implementing effective workplace communication skills for students into
counseling sessions. This must be done for the staff to effectively transfer training into student
advising sessions. Therefore, it is essential to determine that the quality of coaching was
acceptable by the Career Development staff. Table 7 lists the reactions of the participants to the
proposed coaching.
Table 7
Components to Measure Reactions to the Program
Method(s) or Tool(s) Timing
Engagement
Real-time peer evaluation of mock advising
sessions
Ongoing after initial coaching session.
Relevance
Discussion with Career Development staff
regarding the importance of scaffolding
effective workplace communication skills for
students into counseling sessions.
Ongoing
Customer Satisfaction

Student evaluations to check for improved
workplace interactions

Six months after implementing effective
workplace communication skills for students
into counseling sessions.

PREPARING MILLENNIAL STUDENTS 93

Employer evaluations to check for improved
workplace interactions
Six months after implementing effective
workplace communication skills for students
into counseling sessions.

Evaluation Tools
Immediately following the program implementation. Following the training to
implement effective workplace communication skills into career advising appointments for
students, a blended evaluation methodology will be implemented (Kirkpatrick and Kirkpatrick,
2016). The blended evaluation will look at both Level 1 and Level 2 for the purposes of
examining, fine-tuning, and reporting on findings to maximize the performance of the Career
Development staff. The Career Development staff will complete a survey. Survey items pertain
to the Career Development staff engagement in training, coaching and discussions concerning
their engagement, application, and satisfaction (Level 1). This survey will also look at the Career
Development staff learning with regards to knowledge encompassing skills, attitude, confidence
and commitment of integrating effective workplace communication skills into student career
advising (Level 2).
Delayed for a period after the program implementation. After one full semester of
student advising appointments, the Career Development staff will be given another survey to
assess from their own perspective satisfaction, effectiveness and relevance of the training. This
evaluation will assess the Career Development staff looking for personal reactions to the training
and learning experience (Level 1), evaluate the staff’s increase in knowledge (Level 2), how the
staff applied the learning and changed their behavior (Level 3), and the effects on the Career
Development advising practice improved as a result of the training (Level 4).
Data Analysis and Reporting
PREPARING MILLENNIAL STUDENTS 94

The Level 4 goals for the Career Development staff will be measured by the increased
number of positive experiences where students are advised on effective workplace organizational
communication skills. The Career Development staff must have the knowledge, skills, and
motivation to provide counseling to scaffold success for students as they enter the workplace.
Annually, the number of positive experiences where a student’s needs are met by a career advisor
will be compiled. The Career Development Director will compare student first destination survey
department satisfaction questions with career advisors’ self-reported experiences and report
findings to Career Development staff. In addition, the number of positive experiences where an
employer’s needs are met by students counseled by a career advisor will also be compiled annually.
The Career Development staff will compare employer survey questions regarding workplace
communication with individual one-on-one employer meetings with members of the Career
Development staff. To monitor the progress and hold the Career Development staff accountable,
the dashboard below will report the data on these measures. Similar dashboards will be created to
monitor Levels 1, 2, and 3.
Dashboard Goal

Fall 2018 totals

Fall 2019 totals

2018–2019 totals

PREPARING MILLENNIAL STUDENTS 95

Career Advisors
are
knowledgeable
about effective
workplace
communication
skills.
100% XX XX XX
The number of
positive
experiences where
a student’s needs
are met by a
career advisor.
85% XX XX XX
The number of
positive
experiences where
employer’s needs
are met by
students
counseled by a
career advisor.
90% XX XX XX

Summary
The New World Kirkpatrick Model helps to create a blueprint for implementation,
engagements, and evaluation for the continued evolution of program success (Kirkpatrick &
Kirkpatrick, 2016). Expectation for this tool is to evaluate the training strategy to validate the
Career Development staff have the knowledge, motivation, and organizational support to
integrate effective workplace organizational communication skills into student career advising.
This model starts with Level 4 identifying desired outcomes, methods, and metrics to bridge the
gap between learning and training initiatives, and organizational results. Next, the model
establishes the degree newly learned materials to the job. The New World Level 3 Behavior
consists of critical behaviors, required drivers and on-the-job implemented knowledge to ensure
PREPARING MILLENNIAL STUDENTS 96

participants are able to implement these skills in the workplace. Moving to Level 2, learning
outcomes are identified and participants are evaluated on acquired knowledge, skills, attitudes,
commitment and confidence based on participation in the training. This level helps to close the
gap between learning and behavior. Finally, the Level 1 Reaction is and assessment of
participant’s satisfaction with the learning event. This level measures satisfaction with the
training, engagement of the participant in their learning experience, and the training material
degree of relevance for the participants. Kirkpatrick and Kirkpatrick identify how useful data
from these steps is analyzed under three key evaluative questions: “Does this…meet
expectations? If not, why not? If so, why?” (p. 126).
An evaluation will be implemented of the training strategy to check if the goal pertaining
to the Career Development staff possessing the knowledge, motivation, and organizational
support to integrate effective workplace organizational communication skills into student career
advising has been met. If the learning does not meet desired expectations, the changes needed for
the learning program will be identified and new strategies discussed. Further feedback can be
solicited from students and employers engaged with the Career Development staff to reach the
organizational goal of that by June 2019, 100% of the Top Companies of Interest will report that
University of the Mountains students as employees exceed expectations. Once levels of behavior
and satisfaction meet expectations, it is recommended that ways to exceed expectations are
identified by soliciting feedback from Career Development staff, students, and employers in
order to increase performance outcomes. As discussed in Kirkpatrick and Kirkpatrick (2016), it
is important to identify required drivers to monitor each member of the Career Development
Office. Expectations for this include reinforcement of the importance of implementing effective
workplace communication skills into advising, encouraging the staff by listening to challenges
PREPARING MILLENNIAL STUDENTS 97

and assisting in resolving them. The value of the using the New World Kirkpatrick Model in
creating a blueprint for program success is that it will provide precise and clear objectives for the
ultimate success of the intervention that can be quantified.

Abstract (if available)

Linked assets

University of Southern California Dissertations and Theses

Conceptually similar

PDF

Enhancing socially responsible outcomes at a major North American zoo: an innovation study

PDF

Millennial workforce retention program: an explanatory study

PDF

The impact of faculty interactions on online student sense of belonging: an evaluation study

PDF

The impact of advanced technologies on the workplace and the workforce: an evaluation study

PDF

Girls in STEM: the underrepresented trajectory in Tennessee: an innovation study

PDF

Developing physician trainees leadership skills: an innovation study

PDF

Line staff and their influence on youth in expanded learning programs: an evaluation model

PDF

Gender beyond the binary: transgender student success and the role of faculty

PDF

Developing and retaining employees: exploring talent management initiatives for enlisted women

PDF

Social work faculty practices in writing instruction: an exploratory study

PDF

The role of higher education in bridging workforce skills gaps: an evaluation study

PDF

Winning the organizational leadership game through engagement: a gap analysis

PDF

Job placement outcomes for graduates of a southwestern university school of business: an evaluation study

PDF

Advisor impact on student veterans at a post-secondary institution: an evaluation study

PDF

Satisfactory academic progress for doctoral students: an improvement study

PDF

Employment rates upon MBA graduation: An evaluation study

PDF

Manager leadership skills in the context of a new business strategy initiative: an evaluative study

PDF

Developing global competence in a Sino-US joint university: an evaluation study

PDF

Building leaders: the role of core faculty in student leadership development in an undergraduate business school

PDF

Relationship between employee disengagement and employee performance among facilities employees in higher education: an evaluation study

Asset Metadata

Creator Hutaff, Megan E. (author)

Core Title Preparing millennial students for a multigenerational workforce: an innovation study

School Rossier School of Education

Degree Doctor of Education

Degree Program Organizational Change and Leadership (On Line)

Publication Date 02/04/2019

Defense Date 02/02/2019

Publisher University of Southern California (original), University of Southern California. Libraries (digital)

Tag millennial,multigenerational,OAI-PMH Harvest,workforce

Format application/pdf (imt)

Language English

Contributor Electronically uploaded by the author (provenance)

Advisor Seli, Helena (committee chair), Pearson, Mark (committee member), Tambascia, Tracy (committee member)

Creator Email meganhutaff@gmail.com

Permanent Link (DOI) https://doi.org/10.25549/usctheses-c89-117459

Unique identifier UC11676906

Identifier etd-HutaffMega-7042.pdf (filename),usctheses-c89-117459 (legacy record id)

Legacy Identifier etd-HutaffMega-7042.pdf

Dmrecord 117459

Document Type Dissertation

Format application/pdf (imt)

Rights Hutaff, Megan E.

Type texts

Source University of Southern California (contributing entity), University of Southern California Dissertations and Theses (collection)

Access Conditions The author retains rights to his/her dissertation, thesis or other graduate work according to U.S. copyright law. Electronic access is being provided by the USC Libraries in agreement with the a...

Repository Name University of Southern California Digital Library

Repository Location USC Digital Library, University of Southern California, University Park Campus MC 2810, 3434 South Grand Avenue, 2nd Floor, Los Angeles, California 90089-2810, USA