What Are the Leadership Competencies for the 21st Century? A Qualitative Study of French Millennials at an Elite Business School in France

ABSTRACT This study examines the impact of national culture on the perceived required leadership competencies for the 21st century among French millennials. To capture French millennial perception, the study relies on the qualitative research methodology and on semi‐structured interviews with a sample of 22 French graduate students born between 1996 and 1999 attending an elite business school in France. The findings of the research indicate that participants do share similar perspectives on leadership with other millennials around the world including the expectation for a collaborative leadership style, more human orientation, and global leadership competencies. However, they also distinguish themselves by expecting certain leadership competencies influenced by their national culture such as the need for an autocratic and coercive style, a hierarchical and legitimate approach to leadership, and the need for the leader to be charismatic. The findings of this study bring a new perspective to the generational cohort theory and show that the implicit leadership theory adds value to the study on generations and more specifically on millennials. The managerial implications are that organizations operating in France should adjust their human policies to the French millennials' perception and not have a global approach when hiring and managing elite business schools' graduates. Furthermore, it shows that an organization that implements a transformational leadership style will be more successful in attracting and retaining millennials. The main limitation of this research is that it is based on the view of millennials graduating from an elite business school in France and does not consider graduates from other fields or from other “grandes écoles”.