The effect of authentic leadership on intrinsic motivation of millennial engineers working in information technology (IT) sector in Turkey on the basis of self determination theory

As the number of millennial engineers working in Information Technology (IT) sector in Turkey is increasing, the differences of millennials' expectations from the previous generations are becoming more obvious, especially in terms of leadership. Nowadays, leaders are more or less aware of these differences but they have difficulty in understanding millennials' needs and developing a leadership style that fits their expectations. The millennials whose expectations are not met suffer from low motivation levels and have a high intention to leave their companies which in the end inreases the employee turnover of the organizations. Although many studies have been carried out on millennials and their leadership preferences, there is a limited literature on the effect of authentic leadership on intrinsic motivation of millennials. This thesis focuses on millennial engineers working in IT sector in Turkey and aims to investigate the effect of authentic leadership on their intrinsic motivation on the basis of self-determination theory. In this thesis, survey technique is used and surveys were sent to the people working as an engineer in IT departments of banks, telecommunication and software development companies located in İstanbul. The sample included 196 male and female engineers at different ages belonging to millennial generation. The results showed that there is positive relationship between authentic leadership and intrinsic motivation of millennial engineers working in IT sector in Turkey.