UNDERSTANDING MILLENNIALS FRUSTRATION AT WORK FROM A LENS OF SELF-DETERMINATION THEORY

The study finds the millennials' perspectives of their workplace from the lens of self-determination theory, in which, the frustration of work leads to stress and somatic symptom burden, which resultantly produce emotional exhaustion and cause absenteeism. The study collects the data from 223 milliners working in the banking sector. Three components of the Self-determination Theory, namely autonomy, relatedness, and competency are measured as independent variables whereas stress and somatic stress are measured as mediating variables. Finally, absenteeism and emotional exhaustion were measured as dependent variables. Using partial least square structural equation modeling, the results reveal that need-frustration has a significant impact on emotional exhaustion but insignificant on absenteeism. Further, sequential mediators including stress and somatic stress have full mediation between need-frustration and absenteeism but insignificant with emotional exhaustion. The study is useful for crafting workplace policies for millennials. Disciplinary: Management Science. (c) 2020 INT TRANS J ENG MANAG SCI TECH.