This article reports on a study exploring how coaching contributes towards aligning the PC between YMPs and their organisations. In the study, YMPs were defined as individuals under the age of 30 who have just embarked on their careers or who are building their career within an organisation in a corporate environment. Our focus on individuals under the age of 30 addressed the topical nature of managing millennials and their expectations in the workplace. Although extensive research has been carried out on the consequences of PC violations between parties (Rousseau, 2001), a smaller body of research is focused on how PCs between individuals and organisations are formed and maintained and how they change over time. Similarly, there is a paucity of scholarly research specifically addressing coaching millennials: only one peer-reviewed article (Franklin, 2015) was identified.

Insights from this article provide management-, human resource- and coaching practitioners with a clearer idea of which benefits from coaching may contribute towards cultivating mutuality in PCs between YMP’s and their organisations. It also sheds light on the content dimensions of millennials PCs, which may be met through coaching. Lastly, it highlights the potential business benefits that can flow to the organisation, influencing the engagement and retention of these workers.

Millennials are the largest generation in history (PWC, 2011). Millennials have been entering the workplace approximately from the year 2000, and will comprise 50% of the worldwide workforce by 2020 (PWC, 2011). They will soon outnumber their Generation X predecessors (born 1965–1980) in the workplace, and are no longer considered the leaders of tomorrow, but the leaders of today (Deloitte, 2016). Millenials’ formative experiences, their characteristics and values as a generation are highlighted first.

Born between the early 1980s and late 1990s (Twenge, 2010), millennials grew up during times of economic prosperity, the rise of the Internet, the fall of the Berlin Wall and the war on terror following the attacks on the Twin Towers on 11 September 2001 (Dries, Pepermans, & De Kerpel 2008; Twenge & Campbell, 2012). Media and popular literature portray millennials as idealistic, optimistic, confident, not cowed by authority (Alsop, 2008), innovative and adaptive and not fearing change (Wasserman, 2017). It is postulated that although they come across as confident and articulate, millennials have lower self-esteem than earlier generations, and require constant reassurance (Gosse, 2017). Parenting strategies such as helicopter parenting (Wasserman, 2017), where parents are overprotective of their children, have led to young adults with higher levels of anxiety, without mechanisms to cope with stress or failure (Gosse, 2017). Constant access to the Internet and social media has influenced millennial-relationships with their peers and other generations (Gosse, 2017). They are portrayed as shallow, unable to form meaningful relationships and loyal to others only for as long as it suits them (Twenge & Campbell, 2012).

Within the workplace, millennials are recognised for using their technological shrewdness to enhance their productivity, efficiency and collaboration with others (Burrows, 2013). They desire to shape their workplace (Burrows, 2013) and can be influential brand ambassadors if they buy into an organisation’s purpose (Wasserman, 2017). Millennials are also apparently ‘tough to manage’ (Gosse, 2017) often popularly described as entitled, lazy and inappropriately demanding (Alsop, 2008). This techno-generation prefers to communicate electronically rather than face to face (Myers & Sadaghiani, 2010). In addition, they are eager to move onto new and different challenges at work (Ng, Schweitzer, & Lyons, 2010). Technology has exacerbated their sense of impatience, feeding the instant gratification tendencies of these young people who are used to getting what they want as soon as they want it (Gosse, 2017).

The work-related expectations of millennials are embodied in their PCs. Certain key constructs of PC theory relevant to this article are addressed next, considering their influence on millennials PCs where applicable.

The PC is specifically concerned with the expectations of inputs and outcomes exchanged in the employer-employee relationship. Rousseau defined the PC as ‘individual beliefs regarding terms of an exchange agreement between individuals and their organisation’ (Rousseau 1995, p. 9). According to Rousseau, beliefs become contractual where an employee believes they are obliged to perform or behave in a particular way (for example, high performance, sacrifices, and managing their own careers) and that the employer has particular obligations towards them (high pay, promotion, and training and development) (Rousseau, 1990). Research over the last 30 years supports that employees are motivated to reciprocate what they believe to be commitments fulfilled by their organisation and promised inducements.

This study utilised constructivist phenomenological principles within the exploratory qualitative research genre. This approach was considered appropriate because we wanted to understand and describe the core commonality of how the lived experience of being coached contributed to aligning the PC between YMPs and their organisations (Creswell, 2007) on the basis of the multiple realities and collective reconstructions of the research participants (Denzin & Lincoln, 2005). Babbie and Mouton (2015) support this approach, saying that exploratory qualitative research emphasises describing and understanding a phenomenon from the social actors’ perspectives, rather than explaining it.

Purposive sampling, a method characteristic of qualitative phenomenological research design (Babbie & Mouton, 2015), was used to identify participants. The most likely source of data was YMP’s who had been coached in their organisations (coachee participants) as well as coaches who had coached this population group (coach participants). Collecting data from coach participants as well as coachee participants was a form of triangulation used to enhance the credibility of the study (Babbie & Mouton, 2015). Potential candidates were approached through two avenues, namely requesting permission from organisations themselves and via personal networking. Key inclusion criteria were that coachee participants be younger than 30 years old to fit within the definition of ‘YMP’ for this study, and have been coached, not mentored. Similarly, coach participants must have coached, not mentored, YMPs under the age of 30 in organisations. Seven coachee participants were sourced across four corporate organisations in South Africa. Five coach participants were sourced, of which four were external coaches in private practice, and one was an internal coach in a corporate organisation. There were an equal number of male and female participants across the entire sample. The contexts in which the coaching took place were individual coaching supporting a development or internship programme, or stand-alone individual coaching where the desired outcomes from the coaching differed between individuals. All coachee participants had experienced at least six coaching sessions sponsored by the organisation. Coaches described their experiences referring to the YMPs they had coached to date.

Semi-structured interviews were conducted with coachees and email conversations with coach participants. The coachee one-on-one interviews were conducted from 25 April 2017 to 14 June 2017. Semi-structured interviews allowed flexibility via probing questions, producing richer and more detailed responses (Babbie & Mouton, 2015). The interview guide explored coachee’s perceptions of the outcomes they realised from the coaching process and investigated the contribution of these outcomes to the alignment of the PC between themselves and their organisations. The interview guide was constructed based on the indicators of PCs identified in the literature (Rabionet, 2011).

Email interviews were used to collect data from coach participants. Selecting the email interview method of data collection allowed for obtaining rich descriptions (Gibson, 2010) and, at the same time, working more time- and cost-efficiently. These questions explored coaches’ experience of coaching YMPs, their perception of the professional and personal outcomes for these young workers from the coaching and more specifically their sense of how the coaching contributed to aligning the PC between these young professionals and the organisation. Email responses were carefully reviewed and follow-up questions were asked for clarification or elaboration where required (Gibson, 2010). From 25 April to 4 July 2017, between two and four emails were exchanged with each coach participant.

Within the inductive analysis framework, the researcher chose to use the thematic analysis approach of Braun and Clarke (2006) as it supports the exploration of individual perspectives, enabling interpretation of the broader meaning of what participants have said (Crowe, Inder, & Porter, 2015). The researcher immersed herself in the data, identified and coded the data that met the research objectives, clustered the codes into categories and then analysed the data to uncover emergent themes and relationships. Having reviewed the themes, the researcher considered the relationship between them and identified the quotes that provided rich data to support her findings. Thereafter, the researcher wrote up the narrative on the basis of the integration of the analysis described above.

Ethical boundaries of both the coaching profession and the researcher’s academic institution were applied from conception to collection and analysis of the data. Participants acknowledged their awareness of their rights as participants of the study by signing informed consent documents. In two instances, organisational permission to gain access to coachee participants was obtained. Participation of candidates from these organisations was voluntary even if the organisation agreed to grant access to the participants. Each participant was assigned an alpha character to assure anonymity throughout the study; furthermore, findings and insights were represented on an aggregated basis.

Enhanced awareness was experienced in three distinct areas, namely deeper self-awareness, a growing awareness of self-responsibility and a more realistic sense of the value they bring to the organisation.

Coachee participants in this study gained deeper self-awareness into these aspects:

Both Le Sueur and Tapela (2018) and Kombarakaran et al. (2008) cited enhanced self-awareness as a benefit of coaching. The clearer sense of their identity and self-appreciation raised their awareness about what they wanted regarding their development and career progression. Coachee participants appeared to become more intentional about the next step in their careers, an outcome supported by Simpson (2010) as described in the quote below:

Coachee participants recognised through coaching that it is their responsibility to pursue their goals (D & F). Coach X observed that ‘the realisation of personal accountability’ is an outcome of coaching for these young workers. Jones et al. (2016, p. 252) claim that coaching helps to instil self-responsibility as coaching is focused on active learning and gives the coachee control over their learning and development. Acknowledging self-responsibility through coaching may help YMPs grasp that they must take the first step to raise awareness of their PC beliefs with their organisation, especially where they perceive differences in the understanding of the obligations.

Both coachee (C & E) and coach participants (X & V) perceived that coaching enhanced the young workers’ awareness of their value in the organisation, for example:

Le Sueur and Tapela (2018) noted that coaching raises awareness about individuals’ contribution to their work. With millennials often popularly characterised as egocentric and entitled (Alsop, 2008), perspective taking is a further benefit of self-awareness (Silvia & O’Brien, 2004) for these young workers as highlighted by this comment:

Our sense is that a more accurate view of the value that they bring moderates YMPs’ beliefs concerning the reciprocal obligations between themselves and the organisation, potentially creating a frame for more credible PC discussions between employee and employer.

Coachees experienced increased confidence in the areas of speaking up and taking action regarding their development. Coachees highlighted that their growing confidence flowed from enhanced self-awareness (C, E), a notion supported by Henderson (2016).

Coachees felt more confident to ask for help (B & G) and to challenge situations that did not feel right for them (C & G). Coachees described having more confidence to raise awareness of themselves, their abilities and their beliefs regarding elements of their PCs with their organisation (C & D). Coach X affirmed this finding:

Coachee participants perceived that they are responsible for taking action regarding their career development in their organisations (C, F & G) confirming the PC shift from an organisational to a protean career, where employees take on their own career management alluded to by Hess and Jepsen (2009) and Low, Bordia and Bordia (2016). Furthermore, they felt strongly that their increased confidence from coaching was a catalyst to act on their development as demonstrated in one coachee’s statement:

The changed behaviours of speaking up about reciprocal obligations and taking action regarding personal development needs are significant in the context of this research. Speaking up implies that YMPs may feel more confident to communicate their PC beliefs with their organisation, thus enhancing the potential for PC alignment and fulfilment. Further, because millennials acknowledge that the organisation expects them to manage their own career (Hess & Jepsen, 2009), having confidence to take action regarding their own development and career progression might contribute towards fulfilment of the organisation’s expectations of the employee.

Conversations regarding beliefs in PC obligations are potentially difficult as they may expose opposing opinions, and results or relationships may be at stake. Coachee participants perceived that coaching helped them in their approach to these conversations. As one coachee expressed:

Coaches confirmed that coaching has helped their clients to have hard conversations that address situations where they had identified differences in the understanding of the obligations between themselves and the organisation (X & Y). Some coachee participants observed that they had open and reasonably frequent communication with their managers regarding their PC beliefs (D & F). Kombarakaran et al. (2008) cited dialogue that is more effective and open communication between individuals and their managers as an outcome of coaching. It appears that (having improved their skills to address tough conversations) they were motivated to have potentially difficult conversations more frequently to ensure mutuality. This is consistent with Grenny, Patterson, Maxfield, McMillan and Switzler’s argument that increased motivation often follows enhanced capability (2013). The business benefit is that productive conversations are held more regularly, thus enhancing the potential for PC alignment and fulfilment.

Although the majority of research participants in the studies on coaching effectiveness are executives at senior- and middle-management levels, there is commonality in the reported benefits from literature and the key outcomes described by the coachees in this study – namely that of enhanced awareness and increased communication with managers described by the coachees in this study. This suggests that YMPs may experience similar effects from being coached as more senior individuals in the organisation regardless of their generation.

Coachee participants highlighted three areas where coaching played a role in enhancing the mutuality in the PC between themselves and their organisations, namely alignment of values (B), fit within the organisation (C&F) and career development (all coachee participants).

Consistent with Lub et al.’s (2016) findings, coachees believed that they are expected to take responsibility for their own career development (A, C, F & G). In addition, they believed that where they do engage in individual career development activities, such as speaking up about their development needs, they expect help and support from the organisation to achieve their objectives. One coachee states this clearly:

Coachees expressed that perceived fulfilment of the PC through the career management support they receive from the organisation influenced them in two pertinent ways: It encouraged them to step up to what they believe to be their obligations to the organisation in terms of their current or future roles (B, F & G). Coachee F described this obligation as a ‘higher level of engagement with his body of work’. Coachee G spoke about learning the most he can from the coaching to be ready to step into his next role. Coyle-Shapiro and Kessler (2002) made similar findings postulating, ‘perceived employer fulfilment of their obligations creates an obligation on employees to reciprocate and this takes the form of a cognitive upward adjustment in employees’ obligations to their employer’ (Coyle-Shapiro & Kessler, 2002, p. 83). Secondly, the respondents appeared reluctant to leave their organisations for other opportunities, including financial benefits (B, C & F) as explicitly set out by one coachee:

This attachment implies a strong affective commitment towards the organisation. Affective commitment refers to an employee’s identification with an organisation’s goals and values; they feel a strong emotional connection to the organisation and the work they do (Conway, Guest, Sturges, & Liefooghe, 2005). Higher affective commitment suggests that millennials’ need for meaningful work (Dries et al., 2008) and a sense of purpose (Deloitte, 2016) are met. Conway et al. (2005) confirmed that this suggested a link between PC fulfilment relating to career development and affective commitment. Zhao, Wayne, Glibkowski and Bravo (2007) found that affective commitment is positively associated with actual performance and lower turnover.

Coach participants observed that coachees might perceive receiving coaching as a key aspect of the organisation fulfilling their PC beliefs regarding career development. This observation is illustrated in this comment:

Aspects that stood out from the coaches’ input are that the millennials who received coaching felt that the organisation cared for them (Y); they felt acknowledged and appreciated (Y, Z & V). Coachee participants indicated that being coached fulfilled an aspect of their PC; they felt that the company invested in them because they had recognised their potential (C, E & F). According to Festing and Schafer (2014), coaching reflects the notion of an investment in a long-term and stable relationship with an employee, and relays important signals to talented individuals in organisations. Our sense of these findings is that coaching contributes to the fulfilment of YMPs’ PCs by meeting their needs for growth and development (Lub et al., 2011) in a supportive, nurturing work environment (Kultalahti & Viitala, 2015), as well as their need for recognition and appreciation (Kultalahti & Viitala, 2015; Wong et al., 2008). A more fulfilled PC in turn may lead to suggested outcomes such as improved performance, job satisfaction and organisational commitment (Festing & Schafer, 2014).

The implications that can be practically applied by managers, human resource practitioners and coaches are:

Other practical implications all three professional groups can consider as a result of this study are:

To explore the phenomenon in question, seven YMPs who had experienced coaching were interviewed. The addition of five coaches’ perspectives enhanced the richness and credibility of the data collected. Future research, where only coachee perspectives are collected, might consider extending the number of coachee participants interviewed to at least 10 to 12 respondents to ensure that data saturation is achieved.

Some suggestions for further research emanating from this study are:

This study sheds light on the role of coaching in aligning expectations between YMPs and their organisations. Where YMP coachees achieve certain internal outcomes from a coaching process, they may be motivated to take up behaviours that contribute towards cultivating mutuality in the PC between themselves and their organisation. Leedham’s (2005) Coaching Benefits Pyramid model resonated with our findings. He suggested that realising inner personal benefits from coaching, such as clarity and improved confidence, lays the foundation for achieving outer personal benefits such as change in behaviours, or enhanced knowledge, skills and understanding, ultimately leading to business benefits. Figure 1 is a pyramid adapted by adding the specific findings of the present study as related to Leedham’s model.

The Coaching and PC Alignment pyramid suggests that coaching can viably contribute to the alignment of the PC between the YMP and their organisation. This alignment may be initiated via the realisation of inner personal benefits for the coachee from the coaching as described by the coachee participants in this study:

The perceived outer personal benefits experienced by the coachee participants and affirmed by the coach participants were:

With the improved behaviours and enhanced skills in place, it appears from this study that the potential for both the coachee and the organisation to realise PC alignment and fulfilment particularly in the content dimension of career development is enhanced. Mutuality in the reciprocal obligations regarding career development speaks directly to the millennials’ need for self-actualisation through growth and development and contributes to providing the supportive and nurturing work environment in which millennials thrive. Perceived fulfilment of their PC in this area of career development encouraged the YMPs to adopt a higher level of engagement with what they saw as their obligations to the organisation in terms of their current and future roles, thus positively influencing their performance. It enhanced their affective commitment, implying that these young workers felt a strong emotional attachment to the organisation and their work. They identified with the organisation’s goal and values, which in turn met their need for meaningful work. Higher affective commitment is positively associated with actual performance and lower turnover (Zhao et al., 2007).

Psychological contract mutuality and fulfilment flowing from coaching outcomes may result in YMPs who perform at a higher level of engagement and see their future growth and career aspirations being realised in the organisation, specifically addressing the challenge faced by organisations to engage and retain YMPs. Mutually beneficial outcomes valued by both the coachee and the organisation are realised.