Generations, motivation and workplace

2.6.1 Generations

Before diving into specific generations, generation as a basic concept needs a definition.

Generation can defined as an identifiable group, or a cohort, which shares, age, location, birth year and most significant life events at critical development stages of their lives (Kupperschmidt 2000). Palese et al. (2006) simplify this definition, but stating generation being those born within the same historical timeframe and culture. Crumpacker and Crumpacker (2007) continue that each generation shares the same experiences or at least is aware of them, as they mature and advance through different stages of life. Crumpacker and Crumpacker though explain that not every person in a generation experiences these events personally, and Weingarten (2009) continues by stating that caution needs to be taken when stereotyping individuals based on generational values and characteristics. Even though there is no perfect agreement on the years and the events that unify different generations, there is a strong consensus and satisfactory evidence among researchers and published sources to define different generations (Berk 2013).

2.6.2 Generation Y

Generation Y most commonly seen as the individuals born between 1980 and 2000 (Cennamo and Gardner 2008; Sayers 2007; Weingarten 2009) but views on this differ, and it has yet been decided when Generation Y either begins or ends (Crumpacker and Crumpacker 2007;

Broadbridge et al. 2007; Hess and Jepsen 2009; Smola and Sutton 2002). Although, to this date, the literature on the topic of Generation Y, or the Millenials as they are also called, has been particularly normative in nature, but there are rather recent empirical evidence on Generation Y having special attributes which separate them from previous generations (Solnet et al. 2012;

Furnham et al.2009 and Wong et al. 2008). Generation Y are no longer the most recent, but definitely the largest generation to enter the workforce. They possess high levels of confidence and optimism, paired with expectations for instant feedback and constant recognition (Crumpacker and Crumpacker 2007). Smith (2010) argues that the most significant characteristic of Generation Y employees, which separates them from previous generations, is their extremely technologically oriented approach to life as they have grown up surrounded by technology and many of them no longer could even survive without it. Smola and Sutton (2002)

describe Generation Y to be socially very active and talented, which may have been influenced by the technology they have been surrounded by. Generation Y is also characterized to be very comfortable with change (Hart and Brossard 2002) and eager to develop their skill as well as to take on new challenges at work (Wong et al. 2008).

2.6.3 Generation Y workforce

As workers, Generation Y exhibits the tendency and preference for working in teams while being collaborative as well as result-oriented (Shih and Allen 2007). Generation Y individuals are well aware of the fact that lifetime employment is very unlikely which makes them even less committed to the organizations they work for than previous generations (Dries et al. 2008), and they expect their workplace and job to change often during their professional lives (Kim, Knight and Crutsinger 2009; Morton 2002). At a workplace these individuals also expect the ability an possibility to learning and development (Alch 2000) on top of extensive on-the-job training (Morton 2002) as they recognize that in order to remain marketable they need to continuously and proactively plan their own careers and professional development (Kim et al.

2009; Westerman and Yamamura 2007). As Generation Y workers are often highly educated, they are also very achievement-oriented (Berk 2013). Work-life balance is highly important for Generation Y individuals (Crumpacker and Crumpacker 2007) and the goal is to both achieve professional satisfaction and success as well as personal freedom (Sayers 2007). Generation Y workers are great at multitasking, especially when it comes to utilizing technology to their advantage (Freifield 2007) and they may change a job task significantly to create a more appealing outcome for themselves as well as for the organization (Wrzesniewski and Dutton 2001). These individuals expect freedom when it comes to their work, as trust that they will get the job done, but they also need clear directions as well as managerial support and assistance (Martin 2005; Morton 2002). Generation Y workers are fast and efficient, and they despise micromanagement and get highly irritated with slowness and laziness (Weingarten 2009).

Crumpacker and Crumpacker (2007) highlight Generation Y’s need to constant approval and appraisal, as they expect continuous feedback for their work in order to remain motivated.

According to a study by Bartford and Hester (2011) into motivation of Generation Y, Generation Y individuals required advancement possibilities and potential much more than Generation X and Baby Boom individuals. In the same study, it was also noted that the importance of compensation was significantly lower, whereas their need for free time was much higher.

2.6.4 Other generations: Generation X, Baby Boomers, Traditionalists and Generation Z

Generation X, generally seen to be born between 1960 and 1980, are most typically characterized as individualistic, cynical and pessimistic (Kupperschmidt 2000; Smola and Sutton). As member of an organization and as employees, Generation X individuals are said not to display loyalty, and they are likely to leave one job to see out a higher salary, improved benefits or more challenging and rewarding options (Hays 1999; Lyons and Kuron 2014).

Generation X employees work to live and they view personal values and goals to be more important than work-related goals (Zopiatis et al. 2012). Individualistic Generation X members do not often find enjoyment in teamwork, collaborations or meetings, as they are self-sufficient, self-reliant and usually prefer to work alone (Schullery 2013). Keeping personal lives separate from work is important for Generation X members, and they do not see networking as having much significance for them (McGinley et al. 2011).

Baby Boom generation immediately precede Generation X as the generation begins approximately in 1943 and ends in 1960 (Kim 2016; Kolarova et al. 2016; Seipert et al. 2014).

This generation grew up with relative prosperity and safety from terrorism, pollution, and other general pessimism that seem to be very present in society today (Crampton and Hodge 2009).

Baby Boomers are seen to be idealistic, individualistic as having strong core values (Berk 2013). In terms of work, they are said to be ‘workaholics’ who are competitive (Berk 2013;

Kolarova 2016). Berk (2013) claims the Baby Boomers to reject authority, which is in contrast with Crampton and Hodge (2009), who say that the generation respects authority, but prefer to be seen as equals. Crampton and Hodge continue describing Baby Boomers as a cohort that embraces growth, change and expansion, and that they have high commitment to work that includes loyalty to the employer.

Preceding Baby Boomers are the Traditionalists, born between 1922-1945 (Berk 2013). As this generation is no longer considered to be a significant part of today’s workforce no further investigation into the generation was seen necessary.

Generation Z is the newest addition to todays workforce as these individuals born after 2000 (Bennett et al. 2012; Ozkan and Solmaz 2015) and are now starting to enter the working life.

Some scholars see the start of Generation Z to be 1995 (Williams 2010) or even as early as 1992 (Glass 2007). Generation Z, also referred to as “Generation me” (Glass 2007) or as

“internet generation” (Ozkan and Solmaz 2015), has many similarities with Generation Y, as

both have grown up with the internet and the major advances in technology. Just like Generation Y, Generation Z individuals are seen to have the ability to adapt to the global world (Williams 2010). As a workforce, they are believed to be multi-taskers who have the ability to process a great amount of information and to be highly productive (Glass 2007). Research also shows, that members of Generation Z are very self-confident, have an optimistic view on their future professional life and have entrepreneurial initiatives (Iorgulescu 2016).

2.6.5 Multigenerational Workplace:

Having many different generations working in the same organization or under one roof is nothing new, but most often these different generations have been separated from each other by either the system hierarchy or simply by their job descriptions and rankings (Gursoy et al.

2008). Today at least four different generations are working side by side; Generation Y, Generation X, Baby boomers, Generation Z and even Traditionalists. Combining the different generations at a workplace issues must arise due to generational differences in communication, values and the way of working (Sessa et al. 2007).

Individuals from the same generation are likely to share the same work values, and these values vary between generations (Gursoy et al. 2008), such as views towards authority (Smola and Sutton 2008), leadership styles and preferences (Sessa et al. 2007) and goals related to work (Crawford and Hubbard 2008). Existing literature suggests that while previous research has examined the differences in work values between different generations (e.g. Smola and Sutton 2002; Yu and Miller 2003), empirical evidence on generational differences on motivational drivers in the workplace have been limited (Wong et al 2008) and the results of studies conducted contain inconsistencies. While an individual’s motivational drivers are likely to be related to and influences by his/her work values, it is important to maintain a distinction between these concepts (Wong et al 2008).

According to Eisner (2005), different generations exhibit characteristics, which affect work attitudes and relationships, which lead to differentiation between their motivation, and Kaplan and Taoka (2005) concur with this by saying that keeping generational cohorts happy in the workplace is a task, which is unique to each cohort. A study by Solnet et al. (2012) found that individuals within Generation Y rated their engagement, job satisfaction and organizational commitment to be significantly lower than other generations, which conflicts with previously mentioned work by Hays (1999) as well as with Lyons and Kuron (2014). Moynihan and

Pandey (2007) also found that older employees are more likely to be more satisfied and committed to their work. On the other hand, Furnham et al. (2009) did not find any significant connection between motivation and age, and Catania and Randall (2013) did not discover any differences between younger and older respondents regarding their intrinsic motivators, but found that younger respondents in the study were more concerned with extrinsic motivators, especially financial factors. Catania and Randall’s findings are very much different from the findings of Kultalahti and Viitala (2014) discovered that the sample of Generation Y was clearly more concerned about intrinsic rewards rather than extrinsic rewards. In the study, they found that interesting work content, flexibility with timetables and working hours, a possibility to learn and develop at work, a good work atmosphere and work-life balance were much greater motivators than promotion, formal roles and status symbols. A study by McGinley et al. (2011) found that both Generation Y and Generation X were more motivated by intrinsic aspects of their work such as learning and challenging themselves. Even when it came to reward and recognition preferences, both generations found verbal recognition to be the most important reward (McGinley et al. 2011). The four generations of workers co-existing in one organizations with their differences can be a huge blessing and asset, but it also has high potential for conflict, with the most common sources of conflict being: work ethic, technology, expectations for advancement, respect, professionalism and communication (Berk 2013).

Bell and Jones (2013), along with other scholars, discuss the age-period-cohort identification problem (APC) and the fact whether the issues with managing a multigenerational workforce have anything to do with generational differences, or is a workers age or the period of time, which has the biggest effect on ones motivation. Nevertheless, generational differences are worth being taken into consideration, with of course acknowledging that one’s changing life situation and aging might have an effect too. In their study, Deal et al. (2013) investigated whether generations differ in level of their work motivation and whether these differences in work motivation could be better explained by managerial level rather than by generation. In their results indicate that managerial level better explains work motivation than being from a different generation does. They did find that different generations did differ in their work motivation, but they found that there was much more variance in work motivation explained by managerial level as individuals at lower managerial levels had much higher levels of external motivation than the ones in higher managerial levels displayed intrinsic motivation much more.

The study focused specially on the differences between Baby Boomers and Generation X at

work, meaning that the results might be different if Generation Y was compared to the previous generations.