Although the Chinese economy has enjoyed rapid development over the past three decades, public well-being is not satisfactory. The 2021 World Happiness Report (Helliwell et al., 2021) stated that China had an average ladder score of 5.34, ranking 84th in the countries of the world—a drop from 79th position in 2017. In addition, although numerous researchers (see, e.g., Li et al., 2015; Rabenu et al., 2017) have discussed factors influencing employee well-being, such as psychological capital, leadership, and job characteristics, most have neglected the importance of organizational effectiveness. For example, Rabenu et al. (2017) verified that psychological capital had a strong, positive, and direct correlation with well-being and performance. Furthermore, job demands have been found to have a negative influence on well-being, and job resources to have a positive influence on individuals’ well-being.

The term millennial employee was first used to imply that the generation born in the 1980s and 1990s was confronted with a social environment completely different from that encountered by previous generations (C. Zhao et al., 2021). Ratanachina and Sithisarankul (2016) considered that, in contrast to the previous generation of employees who had been born in the 1960s and 1970s, millennial employees have lived in the age of globalization and the Internet since childhood; thus, in comparison with older generations, millennials may hold diversified values, receive higher education, possess advanced innovative concepts and pluralistic interests, and easily accept different work environments. As millennial employees are playing an increasingly crucial role in enterprises, their career development and well-being warrant attention (Tao & Hu, 2015).

Literature Review and Hypotheses

Organizational Career Management

Ke et al. (2018) defined organizational career management as a process through which managers develop employees’ career plans to enable them to undertake activities that actualize their career objectives. Hess and Jepsen (2018) considered organizational career management as a complicated process through which employee groups are recruited, trained, evaluated, and developed to meet the self-development needs of those employees. This type of management comprises measures planned and conducted in organizations to stimulate employees’ potential, strengthen their retention, and promote their self-actualization; thus, organizational career management is a human resources management tool through which employees are provided with opportunities in their organization to realize career development objectives, and close organization–employee connections are promoted (De Vos & Cambré, 2017; Koch et al., 2017). Owing to the unique corporate culture in China, Long et al. (2002) explored the dimensions of organizational career management in Chinese enterprises.

Employee Well-Being

Well-being is a positive expression of feelings. Individuals with high well-being show better results in personal health, work, and social life (Bentley et al., 2016). Managers who provide employees with learning and development opportunities can help them achieve self-growth and self-worth, improve their self-effectiveness, cultivate their inner objectives to strengthen work and self-control significance, and elevate their work well-being (Herrbach & Mignonac, 2004); in turn, if employees are encouraged to invest cognitive and emotional resources into work, this has a critical effect on organizational behavior and attitude (Wilkins et al., 2018). Employees’ sense of well-being and mental capability for resource utilization help them to solve problems in critical situations and nurture hope. Ahmed et al. (2018) found that unfairness harms the sense of well-being and impacts on mental capability. Therefore, we proposed the following hypothesis:
Hypothesis 1: Organizational career management will have a positive effect on millennial employees’ well-being.

Perceived Organizational Support

Perceived organizational support (POS), which was proposed by Eisenberger et al. (1986), refers to the degree to which employees perceive that their contributions are valued, and their benefits, achievements, and feelings are cared about in the organization (Kim et al., 2016). If employees perceive that positive feedback is provided in the organization, colleague relationships are supported, and values that align with their values are espoused, they will consider the organization to be supportive and they will become involved in their work (Allen et al., 2003; Baranik et al., 2010).

POS theory is a derivative of social exchange theory and the norm of reciprocity (Eisenberger et al., 1986). Numerous researchers have shown that POS, which is different from work satisfaction, describes subjective perception in social exchange (Aktar & Pangil, 2017). Career management operates throughout the organization and should embody POS, in the context of employees’ psychological perceptions and behavioral variables (Lynch et al., 1999). For example, when managers provide a promotion opportunity to an employee, it is only if the employee perceives this as a form of support that they will perform better to reciprocate the reward received and the favorable treatment. Thus, we selected POS as a mediating variable in the organizational career management–millennial employee well-being relationship, and we proposed the following hypotheses:
Hypothesis 2: Organizational career management will have a positive effect on perceived organizational support.
Hypothesis 3: Perceived organizational support will have a positive effect on millennial employees’ well-being.
Hypothesis 4: Perceived organizational support will play a mediating role in the relationship between organizational career management and millennial employees’ well-being.

Self-Identity

Self-identity is a psychological concept proposed on the basis of identification theory (Erikson, 1968), that is, an individual’s basic function is to establish and maintain self-identity (Boyle, 2018). Individuals undergo the process of self-identification to understand personal characteristics, potential, personality, interests, and social requirements, which allow them to find their own identity positioning and seek the connecting points between themself and society (Filippetti & Tsakiris, 2017).

Positive self-identity is closely related to individuals’ physical and mental development. If a person fails to clearly determine their identity, they experience a self-identity crisis, leading to role confusion and compromised personality development (Zimman, 2019). George and Brief (1992) argued that employees with higher (vs. lower) POS can more easily affirm their organizational self-identity, which increases their willingness to shoulder more responsibility, including tasks beyond the call of duty, such as helping colleagues and monitoring workplace behavior. In their meta-analysis Rhoades and Eisenberger (2002) found that POS was positively correlated with performance, regardless of whether the task was within the call of duty, which is conducive to effective self-identity formation. Therefore, we proposed the following hypotheses:
Hypothesis 5: Perceived organizational support will have a positive effect on self-identity formation.
Hypothesis 6: Perceived organizational support will play a mediating role in the relationship between organizational career management and millennial employees’ self-identity.

The focus in previous studies on the relationship between self-identity and well-being has been on adolescents and students (see, e.g., Ğlu-Aygün, 2010). Fostering a pleasant mood has been empirically shown to engender well-being. When facing problems, middle school students with higher (vs. lower) self-identity are usually optimistic, confident, and hopeful; further, they can better regulate and control their negative emotions and feel more positive emotions (Yao et al., 2008). Thus, we proposed the following hypotheses:
Hypothesis 7: Self-identity will have a positive effect on millennial employees’ well-being.
Hypothesis 8: Self-identity will play a mediating role in the relationship between perceived organizational support and millennial employees’ well-being.

Using the framework of organizational support theory and identity theory, we proposed a model of the effect of organizational career management on millennial employees’ well-being (see Figure 1).

Method

Participants

We received approval for the study from the Ethics Committee of Beihang University. First, we conducted structured interviews with 30 millennial employees in a preliminary investigation to ensure that each statement in the survey was clear and understandable. According to on-site feedback, most employees could understand the items. We then distributed 300 independent surveys through email, WeChat, and a questionnaire website. The survey form contained instructions, a brief description of the study purpose, and an agreement for confidentiality to support the participants’ agreement to participate. The participants were volunteers who were not paid. We eliminated invalid responses, such as surveys finished in under 2 minutes, surveys sent from the same Internet protocol address, or participants whose ages fell outside the millennial age bracket. Finally, 268 valid responses were obtained (response rate = 89.33%). Participants’ demographic statistics are shown in Table 1.

Measures

All measures used in our study had been used and validated in previous studies, with responses measured on a 5-point Likert scale (1 = strongly disagree, 5 = strongly agree).

Organizational Career Management
To measure organizational career management we used the 16-item scale developed by Long et al. (2002), which comprises four dimensions: fair promotion, career self-cognition, career information provision, and training. Sample items are as follows: “The managers provide promotion depending on the employees’ performance” (fair promotion), “The organization provides training or other opportunities to let the employees know their strengths and weaknesses” (career self-cognition), “The organization provides promotion path information to employees” (career information provision), and “Managers encourage employees to attend the on-the-job training” (training). Cronbach’s alphas in the study by Long et al. were .87, .76, .79, and .78 for each dimension, respectively, and .90 for the total scale. Long et al. obtained empirical support for the reliability and validity of this measure. Cronbach’s alpha was .90 in our study.

Perceived Organizational Support Scale
On the basis of the needs of millennial employees in China, we used Ling et al.’s (2006) findings as a reference to measure POS with nine items divided across two dimensions: work support (five items) and value identity (four items). Sample items are “My company provides some help to me when I face work difficulties” (work support) and “My manager is very concerned about my living conditions” (value identity). Cronbach’s alpha was .73 in our study.

Self-Identity
We used Chen et al.’s (2015) findings as a reference to measure self-identity, with eight items divided across three dimensions: self-ascription (three items), self-evaluation (three items), and self-development (two items). Sample items are as follows: “I am happy with the way I live” (self-ascription), “The managers appreciate me” (self-evaluation), and “I will adjust myself in time” (self-development). Cronbach’s alpha in our study was .80.

Millennial Employee Well-Being
According to the specifics of millennial employees, we adapted four items from Adil and Baig (2018), which have good reliability and are suitable for use in the Chinese cultural context: “My work makes me happy,” “My work environment is good,” “If I were given a chance to choose my job again, I would not change my mind,” and “My work is desirable.” Cronbach’s alpha in our study was .89.

Results

Measurement Model Evaluation

We examined reliability and validity of the measurement model through confirmatory factor analysis, after which we used structural equation modeling (SEM) to test the research model (see Figure 2). Mplus 7.0 was applied for data analysis. Finally, we tested the mediation effects. The criteria for model fit were as follows: chi-square/degrees of freedom ratio (χ²/df) < 5, Tucker–Lewis index (TLI) > .80, comparative fix index (CFI) > .80, root mean square error of approximation (RMSEA) < .08, and standardized root mean square residual (SRMR) < .08.

The measurement model had a good fit to the data, χ²/df = 2.28, TLI = .84, CFI = .86, RMSEA = .07, SRMR = .07. The fit indices of the four-factor model were superior to those of the other models, indicating that the four variables in this model had good validity and further examination could be conducted.

We measured construct reliability using Cronbach’s alpha and composite reliability values. As expected, all item loadings were higher than .50. Cronbach’s alphas ranged from .73 to .90 and composite reliability ranged from .82 to .90, indicating that the measurement model had good reliability. The average variance extracted for each construct was greater than .50, which suggests good convergent validity (see Table 2).

Test for Common Method Variance

As data collected from a self-report questionnaire are susceptible to common method variance, we tested for this with a one-factor model approach. We connected all items to one latent variable and built a one-factor model, which we tested through CFA. The overall fit indices of this model were poor, χ² = 1325.05, df = 495, CFI = .64, TLI = .61, RMSEA = .12, SRMR = .09. All indices were outside the acceptable range and considerably inferior to those of the original model. Overall, these results suggest that common method variance did not pose a significant threat to the validity of our findings.

Correlation Analysis

Means, standard deviations, and correlation coefficients of study variables are shown in Table 3. Correlations among the four variables in the four-factor model were all positive.

Structural Model

The overall fit indices of this model are shown in Table 4. All indices showed a satisfactory fit, and we then tested the hypotheses. First, the path coefficient of the effect of organizational career management on millennial employee well-being was, β = –.03, p = .82; thus, the direct effect was nonsignificant. Therefore, Hypothesis 1 was not supported. Second, Hypothesis 2 was supported. The path coefficient of the relationship between organizational career management and POS very high (up to .81; p < .001). Third, stronger POS by millennial employees had a positive relationship with well-being. Therefore, Hypothesis 3 was supported. Finally, Hypotheses 5 and 7 were supported. Specifically, POS by millennial employees had a positive effect on their self-identity (Hypothesis 5: path coefficient = .61, p < .001), and self-identity had a positive effect on millennial employee well-being (Hypothesis 7: path coefficient = .40, p < .001).

Mediation Effects Analysis

We used bootstrapping analysis to obtain 95% confidence interval (CIs; Preacher & Hayes, 2008), and investigated the mediating effect using MPlus 7.0. As shown in Table 5, POS and self-identity played mediating roles in the relationship between organizational career management and millennial employee well-being. The specific effect of organizational career management on self-identity was nonsignificant, indicating that there was no direct effect. However, zero did not appear between the lower and upper limits of the 95% CI in the result for the indirect effect of organizational career management on self-identity through POS, indicating the indirect effect was significant. Thus, Hypothesis 4 was supported. Likewise, organizational career management had no direct effect on millennial employee well-being but did have a positive effect through POS and self-identity. Thus, Hypotheses 6 and 8 were supported. Self-identity played a partial mediating role in the relationship between POS and millennial employee well-being.

Discussion

We examined the positive effect of organizational career management on millennial employees’ well-being, and the mediating roles of POS and self-identity in this relationship. From our path analysis results we can conclude that, first, organizational career management had no direct positive effect on millennial employees’ well-being, but an indirect positive effect was generated through the mediating roles of POS and self-identity. Although researchers have indicated that unemployment negatively affects well-being, most have not provided the reasons for unemployment (see, e.g., McKee-Ryan et al., 2005; Vansteenkiste et al., 2005), thus neglecting the underlying causes. Y. Zhao (2018) explained why millennial employees choose to leave their jobs, such as being dissatisfied with work tasks that do not match their career plan, limited opportunities for growth in the organization, and lack of professional training. Provision of organizational career management offers a solution to millennial employees’ attrition, by offering fair promotion (George & Wallio, 2017), appropriate training (Raza, 2015), self-cognition (Sghari, 2016), and sufficient job information (Yan et al., 2016). These factors show the significance of individual perceptions; providing these may effectively reduce millennial employees’ desire to leave. We found that individual psychological perception played a major role in well-being formation. In addition, the psychological transmission mechanism of POS and self-identity demonstrated that POS was helpful in building self-identity in millennial employees’ well-being. To improve millennial employees’ well-being and ensure their retention, managers must provide organizational career management based on their employees’ individual characteristics.

Second, we found that self-identity had a direct positive effect on millennial employees’ well-being, that is, stronger self-identity was related to greater well-being. Because there have been few studies conducted on the relationship between self-identity and well-being, this is a novel discovery. According to Maslow’s (1943) hierarchy of needs (cited in Healy, 2016), an individual’s highest need is self-actualization, followed by self-esteem and affiliation, all of which improve the individual’s well-being (Zou et al., 2015). Regarding self-identity, managers should build bridges with millennial employees to set a positive example and vision for the future to consolidate a promotion focus, and motivate the employees’ desire for success in their current position and organization (Chang & Zhou, 2016).

Third, we found that POS had a positive effect on millennial employees’ well-being through the mediating role of self-identity. The importance of organizational support to increase employees’ well-being (Caesens et al., 2016; Langove et al., 2015; Wattoo et al., 2018) indicates that managers should offer a comfortable work environment, positive and instant feedback, and useful professional advice.

Practical and Theoretical Implications

We paid specific attention to the theory of organizational career management to discuss how millennial employees’ well-being is formed, and have thus made a theoretical contribution to the literature. Well-being has been described as deriving from self-effectiveness, social trust, and fairness (Ahmed et al., 2018; Herrbach & Mignonac, 2004; Wilkins et al., 2018). However, to investigate millennial employees’ well-being, we proposed a new direction by combining it with organizational career management, and we examined self-identity as a mediator of this relationship. Many researchers have shown that POS affirms employee self-identity (Filippetti & Tsakiris, 2017; George and Brief, 1992) and that self-identity is positively correlated with performance (Rhoades & Eisenberger, 2002; Zimman, 2019). However, previous researchers have neglected to examine the effect of self-identity on well-being, and the organizational career management–millennial employees’ well-being relationship as a link. Our findings enrich theoretical work via our survey of the relationships among organizational career management, POS, self-identity, and millennial employees’ well-being.

We have several suggestions for practitioners. First, our results fully support that organizational career management and POS have a positive impact on millennial employees’ well-being. Therefore, it is useful for managers to provide support to millennial employees, such as fair promotion, diversified training, and timely rewards. In addition, our results show that self-identity played a critical role in shaping millennial employees’ well-being. Thus, organization managers should explore good communication techniques to understand the needs of millennial employees, help them to play an appropriate team role, and assist them to overcome difficulties in their career development.

Limitations and Directions for Future Research

There are two main limitations in this study. Owing to the complicated and volatile characteristics of millennial employees, these variables fluctuate over several months or years. To acquire more support for our results, future researchers could conduct longitudinal studies. In addition, comparative studies are needed to verify the differences between the well-being of millennial and older generation employees.

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Yiwen Xu, School of Economics and Management, Beihang University, No. 37 Xueyuan Road, Haidian, Beijing 100191, People’s Republic of China. Email: [email protected]