Academic Writing
Capstone Requirement
Name: BACCAY, MARCK ALDREI C. Program: ELAW-5-1 Date: May 23, 2019
Literature Review
In the context of communication in the workplace today, individuals may often times find
themselves in very peculiar, uncomfortable, and awkward situations, which may so result to
tensions in the workplace (cf. Roth, 2004; Mackenzie, 2010; Attan, et al., 2012; Wu, Chang,
Sha, 2016; Hiranburana, 2017; Tews, & Noe, 2017; Mukherji, & Arora, 2017; Rosenbaum, 2017;
Michel, Tews, & Allen 2018; Hsieh & Karatepe, 2019; Dodek, Norena, Ayas, & Wong, 2019;
Cheng, Lam, & Kong, 2019; Stadler, 2019; ). To summarize, these aforementioned literatures
have discussed topics ranging from the use of pragmatics (Roth, 2004; Stadler, 2019) and
learning English in the workplace (Lam, Cheng, & Kong, 2014; Hiranburana, 2017; Cheng, Lam,
& Kong, 2019), to how workplace environments are affected by the manner in which colleagues
would interact in the workplace (Zhang & Leidner, 2018).
From these articles, one may also infer that there has been a continuous call for better uses and
practices of modern communication tools and in the workplace. It is to be noted however, how
these previous researches failed to explicitly correlate how improper and borderline
unprofessional workplace behavior (Whittaker, Frohlich, & Daly-Jones, 1994; Mackenzie, 2010;
Wu, Chang, & Sha 2016), along with ostracism (Zhao, Xia, He, Sheard, & Wan, 2016; Huertas-
Valdivia, Braojos, & Lloréns-Montes, 2018; Hsieh & Karatepe, 2019; Liu, D., Liu, F., Zhang, &
Ma, 2019), negative behaviors (Kuroda, & Yamamoto, 2018; Babalola, Ren, Kobinah, Qu,
Garba, & Guo, 2019), and even bullying (Zhang & Leidner, 2018; Rajalakshimi & Naresh, 2018;
Paciello, Fida, Tramontano, Ghezzi & Barbaranelli, 2019) would all have a direct and negative
influence or effect in the working environment of the common millennial (Myers & Sadaghiani,
2010; Thompson & Gregory, 2012; Chou, 2012).
As stated by Thompson and Gregory (2012, pp. 3-9), the demographic of the common Millennial
would more than often be seen as disloyal, needy, entitled, casual, and apparently
‘unmanageable,’ which Thompson and Gregory also attributed to the exposure of Millennials to
the broader sense of the world around them. However, in Myers and Sadaghiani’s (2010)
assessment of the millennial, their redeeming qualities are also mentioned to be that of: being
impactful when entering a new organization, being well-equipped and motivated, are at ease with
new communication technologies, as well as being open to frequent communication with their
superiors. This brings to light the questions: How would a millennial worker behave in the
presence of bullies and being ostracized in an otherwise modern work environment? How will a
millennial worker take advantage of modern techniques and pragmatics in this kind of
workplace? How will the millennial organize techniques in order to avoid unwarranted and
unprofessional practices? The fact remains: it is unusual that there have been no attempts to pin
down the millennial’s seemingly abhorrent behavior towards work colleagues and authorities to
the unjust and sometimes unfair treatment they repeatedly receive in the workplace in
comparison to their predecessor generations.
Since there have been a number of significant studies regarding the negative perceptions and
qualities of millennials according to Credo, Lanier, Matherne, and Cox (2016, p. 192), it is likely
that it has since been widely assumed by employers that these have been the standards for
millennial worker. That being said, it is unlikely for co-workers not to get along, especially with
the newly conceived techniques to have fun learning together in the workplace (Michel, Tews, &
Allen, 2018).
This paper therefore attempts to discuss the implications of how millennial employees would
want to defend themselves in the face of an unprofessional, informal and a “bullied” workplace
system thrust upon them by work colleagues and superiors (Kinnick, & Parton, 2005; Myers, &
Sadaghiani, 2010; Garon, 2011). It also aims to study the behavior and actions of the millennial
in the context of skewed work environment. This study, however, does not directly imply that all
millennials are included in this margin; neither does it outright claim that there are indeed
instances of bullying, negative behavior, ostracism, etc., being almost exclusively directed
towards millenials in the workplace. Lastly, there is still a need for empirical research and a
wider array of studies to be conducted in order to support this paper’s ideas in the matter.
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