Reinventing the workplace for Millennials through relational job design and relational mentoring

As organizations become more knowledge-based and interdependent, they are also recognizing the importance of the social aspects of work. As an alternative view to the Job Characteristics Model, Relational Job Design (RJD) focuses more on the relational structures of work. By designing jobs that provide opportunities to engage with and impact others, the effectiveness and well-being of Millennials may improve.;The current study focused on the relational aspects of work and relational mentoring and their importance to Millennials and employee outcomes. Specifically, the study focused on the importance of RJD on employee outcomes, how its importance may be more for Millennials versus other generational groups, and which specific characteristics of RJD employees emphasize in a real organizational setting. The study also explored the role of relational mentoring on mentor and mentee outcomes, above and beyond the traditional theories of mentoring. Two different studies were conducted, which includes analysis of survey data (n = 538) and document analysis of qualitative data from a large organization (n = 1672). Findings revealed that relational job design and relational mentoring significantly predict employee outcomes (engagement, burnout, organizational commitment, intent to leave and prosocial motivation). Findings for the moderation effect of generational groups were mixed. Specifically, survey results demonstrated the strongest influence of relational job design on engagement for Millennials compared to other generational groups but not for other outcomes. Qualitative data demonstrated no differences in the emphasis on the relational aspects at work across generational groups, and the organizational context may play a major role in these findings. When comparing RJD versus JCM, both social and task-related characteristics significantly predicted outcomes for Millennials, whereas qualitative results demonstrated a greater need for social characteristics than the task-related characteristics to work effectively. Upon deeper exploration of the qualitative findings, social and task-related characteristics were strongly interdependent, with Millennials expressing the need for social aspects to work in order to complete their tasks. Overall, the studies suggest the importance of relational job design (and more importantly prosocial job impact), job characteristics and relational mentoring in all employee and organizational outcomes.