Why and how are millennials sensitive to unfairness? Focusing on the moderated mediating role of generation on turnover intention

ABSTRACT

This research aims to understand why millennials value fairness highly. Specifically, this study discusses why millennials are sensitive to procedural fairness, especially unfairness. This study verifies the relationship by confirming the moderated mediation effect of generation on the relationships between procedural justice and turnover intention through organisational commitment. The results show that the negative effect of procedural justice on turnover intention is stronger among millennials than other generations, which demonstrates the moderated mediation effect of generation. In addition, the differences in turnover intention between generations are small in cases of high procedural justice but large when procedural justice is low, revealing that the reference points for procedural justice differ between generations. The findings empirically show that millennials emphasise procedural fairness and suggest the need for specific organisational management strategies that reflect each generation’s characteristics.

KEYWORDS:

• Millennials
• procedural justice
• turnover intention
• organisational commitment
• prospect theory

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1. In Korea, millennials and Generation Z are together called “Generation MZ”. However, this term is used only in Korea because it covers an overly broad range of generations. Moreover, Generation Z is distinguished from millennials because they are beginning to enter society. Therefore, this study will only focus on millennials.

2. Kim, J. (Jul 1, 2022). “I can’t feel the charm of the iron bowl” The reason why the MZ generation leaves civil servants. The Asian Business Daily.

3. Lee, S. (Jun 29, 2022). Complaints of civil servants in 2030 suffering from low salaries. The JoongAng.

4. Lee, S. (Dec 30, 2019). Young people prefer growth and competition over distribution and equality … why? Hankyoreh.

5. Some see these two cases as political scandals. In fact, millennials may not be as sensitive to similar scandals by other figures (Na Kyung-Won and Hang Dong-hoon). However, this study included these two cases, highlighting millennials cited the same reason (i.e., unfair admission) as the main reason even though they were from different political parties. Therefore, we encourage readers to be cautious when interpreting these cases.

6. Kim, J. (Feb 2, 2018). [Gallup Korea] 71% of Koreans are interested in Pyeongchang Olympics organising a unified team. 51% of them responded as “Wrong”. Edaily.

7. Park, J. (Nov 6, 2019). Looking at the petition…The college student deviated from the line of the “Agreement on Appointment of Cho Kuk”.. Joseon Ilbo.

8. Yoo, H. (Jul 7, 2021). [Redrawing fair map] Recognition of “fair rather than private companies” … 1 out of 3 job-seekers “who preparing for civil service exam”. Etoday.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Kyuwoong Kyeong

Kyuwoong Kyeong is a master’s student in the Paul H. O’Neill School of Public and Environmental Affairs at Indiana University Bloomington, USA. His research interests include organizational behavior, collaborative governance, public sector decision making, and public management.

Minjai Kim

Minjai Kim received an MPA degree in the Graduate School of Public Administration at Seoul National University, South Korea. Her research interests include organizational behavior, human resource management, and international development cooperation.