Sociocultural Analysis of Millennials in Russia

Abstract

The present article provides a sociocultural analysis of parameters of the millennials, the generation which will become the main workforce in Russia in the next ten years. This is what gives the paper its relevance. The paper focuses on the market and micro-interactionist influence of basic traits of millennials. The issue of how to behave towards millennials is faced both at the sociological and managerial levels. It is said that the large number of conflicts between millennials and older generations leads to systematic disruption and turbulence, as it does not allow young employees to integrate into corporate cultures and increase labour efficiency, which simultaneously affects older employees, management and corporative performance. Another aspect of the core issue raised by the author is educating the youth. Understanding the set of core values of millennials, their strategies and behavioural tactics in the workplace is also a prerequisite for teachers and instructors to successfully train students of this generation in universities. Like many recent studies, this research considers the distinctive features that can be used to characterize millennials. They, being digital natives, shift to more rapid, discrete and depersonalized forms of communication. Focused on managing their personal image and identity, millennials prefer to play socially desirable roles and tend to reframe their own failures into external misfortunes. This brings about the issue of meeting set goals, and nowadays the youth tends to plan less and thrives on regular feedback that they expect to be positive. These features are most likely to breed intergenerational misunderstanding. However, millennials tend to be more flexible and tolerant than other generations, which is useful for settling controversies and speaks to the overall success of interaction and effort on the part of this generation. The author, addressing the challenges of communication with the modern youth, offers recommendations based on her own pedagogical experience of interaction with millennials. These are: provide basic guidelines, time plans, and assessment benchmarks. Managerial staff should also dedicate more effort to mentorship and peer-level communication.