Generation Z and Their Perceptions of Work

Available online at www.sciencedirect.com

ScienceDirect Procedia Economics and Finance 26 (2015) 476 – 483

4th World Conference on Business, Economics and Management, WCBEM

The Changing Face Of The Employees- Generation Z And Their Perceptions Of Work (A Study Applied To University Students) Mustafa Ozkana*, Betul Solmaz

b

a

Asst. Prof. PhD., Cumhuriyet University, Sivas 58600, Turkey b Research Asst., Istanbul University, Istanbul 34126, Turkey

Abstract It is known that the Generation Z's, whose was born after 2000, character and mindsets are different according to previous generations. The generation Z who will participate or participated in the labor force shortly before, their expectations are different from other employees. Increasing workplace flexibility are more like work-life balance and career-oriented work faster. This study is to determine how the work perception of Generation Z. For the measurement of work perception, it is utilized the scale of organizational behavior Minnesota job satisfaction scale, personality inventory scales, at the same time it is planned to create a new scale. This study was carried out with 276 university students. In the analysis of the obtained data, it was used to chi-square test and ANOVA analysis. © 2015 2015The TheAuthors. Authors.Published PublishedbybyElsevier Elsevier B.V. © B.V. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/). Peer-review under responsibility of Academic World Research and Education Center. Peer-review under responsibility of Academic World Research and Education Center Keywords: Generation, Generation Z, Work, Perception of Work

1. Works and Generation Z As etymological, work conception, which means “sorrow”, “exhaustion” and “bother” in ancient Greece and Rome (Lordoglu, Ozkaplan, Toruner, 1999: 1), is defined at different states. Work means person’s ability of using his body and memory power as planned on the direction of a specific goal (Soyer, 1996: 2). Before industrial

*Mustafa Ozkan. Tel.: +9 0532-764-9887. E-mail address: [email protected]

2212-5671 © 2015 The Authors. Published by Elsevier B.V. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/).

Peer-review under responsibility of Academic World Research and Education Center doi:10.1016/S2212-5671(15)00876-X

Mustafa Ozkan and Betul Solmaz / Procedia Economics and Finance 26 (2015) 476 – 483

477

revolution the notion of work was known as occupation, which is being done at home or on field (Watson, 2004: 1). Generally it means, an economic resource to able to continue his life, providing dignity, creating sense of belonging and identity, supplying a person a regular life, establishing social relations, configuring identity and personality, evaluating leisure time, improving his abilities, reaching to personal goals and physiological satisfaction (Keser, 2008: 6-7). On the pre industrial societies work was considered punishment or a way of liberation but societies’ thoughts about work were not perceived totally sorrow, worry and troubled life, it was perceived potentially getting award and obtaining satisfaction. Together with industrial revolution, increasing factories and need for worker to be more skilful and educated caused people to perceive the work as displaying tool of their abilities by receiving education (Oztemel and Yuksel, 2011: 206). Until the last quarter of the 20th century, while the work was seen as the center of the life for individuals, together with the improving technology expectations of worker’s from the professional life became different (Sabuncuoglu, 1997: 2). Changing professional life as well as individuals’ changing perceptions and perspective on work made the generation concept a subject, which is needed to be surveyed more closely. Mostly seen on literature of sociology, this conception became an important topic that must be emphasized on business community and in a wide selection of fields. Taking place the manager and workers of business community on different generations interests the business community intimately. Generation concept is defined a group that shares important vital events at the same birth year and critical developments within these events (Kupperschmidt, 2000: 66). Consuming habits and individually basic social values of every generation are formed with the effect of environment and values that surrounds it on growing period (Seckin, 2000: 101). Silent generation (1925-1944), Baby increment (1945-1964), Generation X (1965-1979), Generation Y (19802000) (Cooman and Dries, 2012: 44). In the national and international literature, Generation Z doesn’t take place on the classify vastly. The cause of it could be the period of time on which researchers of that time were in or being not predicted of changing of improving events on the World and ways of life rapidly with the effect of globalization at the same time. Generation Z which will get in the business community recently and mostly born after the year of 2000 on literature is known as mobile generation. They grow up with technology a fortiori and together with world wide web, mp3 players, short message, cell phones, PDAs, YouTube, IPADs, media technologies (Kapil and Roy, 2014: 10-11). Generation Z is self-confident, happy, fit to the team spirit and likes social service activities and also more interested in activities than the prior generations (www.psychologyfoundation.org). Recently featuring on the literature the topic of Generation Z, which is not taken part on the business community, answers the question of how kind of worker is waiting the managers in the future on the studies being done. 2. Methodology The goal of this study is analysing the working perceptions of individuals including in Generation Z. For this, study consideration was made with by using a questionnaire for 276 university students. On the questionnaire scale, a new scale was presented also by utilizing from organizational behaviour scale, Minnesota Job Satisfaction scale and personality inventory scale. For the analysis of the obtained data, it was used to non-parametric statistical tests and ANOVA. 3. Findings Some demographic information about the Generation Z students in the study, expression is seen in Table 1. Table 1. Demographic Findings GENDER

Women Men

Frequency

Valid %

162 114

58.7 41.3

478


AGE

TYPE OF HIGH SCHOOL

Total

276

100

17-20 21-24 Total Regular High School Theology High School Super High School Anatolian High School Vocational High School Other types Total

167 109 276 177 16 3 17 61 2 276

60.5 39.5 100 64,1 5,8 1,1 6,1 22,1 0,7 100

When you look at Table 1, you will see that 58.7% of participants, who participated in the survey, are composed of women and the other 41.3% participants are composed of men. In addition, 60.5% of students is 17-20 age groups, 39.5% of students is 21-24 age groups. They are high school graduates of the participants are shown in Table 1. According to Table 1, 64.1% of students have graduated from regular high school, 5.8% of students have graduated from theology high school, 1.1% of students have graduated from super high school, 6.1% of students have graduated from the Anatolian high school, 22.1% of students have graduated from vocational high school and 0.7% of students have graduated from other types. Also, although at least once before 64.1% of students have a work experience; there has been no work experience before of 35.9% of students. According to survey responses, while 69.3% of the students aim at the occupations that have wages at normal levels and with job guarantee, 30.7% of students aim at the occupations that have higher wages and risks. According to the responses to the survey questions, the participants see themselves as participants generally, as trusted themselves at the rate of 97.5%, as loyal at the rate of 96.7%. 79% of respondents also see themselves as individual patient. 85.6% of respondents identify themselves as hardworking. In addition, 80% of respondents agree with everyone able to and 92.4% stated that everyone loved them. Still, they think about themselves that 96% of them are honest, 87.6% of them are conciliatory, 79% of them are helpful, 80.9% of them are guaranties, 95.9% of them are depending on their faiths, 75.9% of them are unrealistic (dreamer), 88.4% of them are open to working in a group, 86,7% of them are innovative persons. For the study, established to investigate hypotheses are listed below. H1: There is a statistically significant correlation between participants who indicating that someone who is open to working in a group and who thinks that it is important for them to work with social environment. H2: There is a statistically significant correlation between participants who connect or not to their faiths and who think that working in a job mean rather than a religious duty for them. H3: There is a statistically significant correlation between participants who think being patient and being happiness in business environment and who think that they will be afford to leave their jobs when the business environment start up to have unhappy environment. H4: There is a statistically significant correlation between participants who see their self see as the risktaking person (guaranty) and who think that working means for them, to secure their future, to ensure that economic freedom and livelihood, to earn money and to prepare a better future for their descendants. H5: There is a statistically significant correlation between participants who describe themselves as a dreamer and who think that working means for them, to realize their dreams, to satisfy personal interests and hobbies, to sightseeing fun. H6: There is a statistically significant correlation between participants who open or not to any idea and who think that working means or not for them as, to learn new things, to improve themself, to produce something good. H7: At least one variable, which are “loving independence and freedom, loving authority and age group”, varies from the mean. Crosstabs belonging to the significant chi-square test, for it is given in Appendix, only evaluations will be carried out in this section. H1: Hypothesis H1, which has 9 missing values, was statistically significant according to the chi-square analysis of the results made (p=0.021). When belonging to analyse crosstab of H1 hypothesis, you will see that 88.76% of respondents of the survey whose rating levels are good, very good and excellent, stated that they are open to working with a group. But the other 11.24% of respondents stated that in uncertain or weak in this idea.


479

Furthermore, 73.78% of respondents think that the social environment in business is important but the other 13.11% of respondents don’t agree this idea and last part of respondents, which have 13.11% of rate in survey, are unstable to this idea. In another aspect, 75.22% of the participants stated that open to working with a group, think that social environment is important at workplace, but 11.81% of the participants stated that open to working with a group don’t agree to that. According to these data, the individuals who are open to group work, it can be concluded that they care about the business environment in the high sociability and communication. H2: Hypothesis H2, which has 12 missing values, was statistically significant according to the chi-square analysis of the results made (p=0.000). When belonging to analyse crosstab of H2 hypothesis, you will see that 96.21% of respondents of the survey, whose rating levels are good, very good and excellent, stated that they have attached themselves to the faith. But the other 11.24% of respondents stated that in uncertain or weak in this idea. Excluding the 12.99% of respondents of survey, 75.20s% of people, who have this idea, think that working means for them as God's good pleasure or hereafter bliss, or as bringing out a task. The 11.81% of respondents were undecided. An overall evaluation, we can say that individuals connected to their faith consider working as a religious duty. H3: Hypothesis H3, which has 6 missing values, was statistically significant according to the chi-square analysis of the results made (p=0.001). When belonging to analyse crosstab of H3 hypothesis, it is seen that 78.89% of respondents of the survey whose rating levels are good, very good and excellent, think of themselves for the patient individuals. 75.12% of this population think that working means happiness for them and 9.9% part of them don’t agree these idea and last part of participants, whose percent is 15.02%, were undecided about this idea. In generally, we can say that even many participants who have expressed themselves for the patient members, business environment that may arise in relation to deprivation affects adversely continue their work. H4: Hypothesis H4, which has 5 missing values, was statistically significant according to the chi-square analysis of the results made (p=0.032). When belonging to analyse crosstab of H4 hypothesis, you will see that 80.81% of respondents of the survey whose rating levels are good, very good and excellent, think of themselves for the warrant person. 92.24% of this population think that working like as to guarantee the future, to ensure the economic freedom or win his/her financial power and build the future of himself/herself and their children. In generally, we can say that participants are warranting for their life and members people who care about their future. H5: Hypothesis H5, which has 3 missing values, was statistically significant according to the chi-square analysis of the results made (p=0.002). When belonging to analyse crosstab of H5 hypothesis, you will see that 75.82% of respondents of the survey, whose rating levels are good, very good and excellent, think of themselves for the dreamer person. 64.25% of these participants think that working is equal to realize their dreams. But 16.91% of participant, who described themself as dreamers, don’t agree to this equality and last part of participant whose rate is 18.84%, were undecided about this equality. H6: Hypothesis H6, which has 3 missing values, was statistically significant according to the chi-square analysis of the results made (p=0.007). When belonging to analyse crosstab of H6 hypothesis, you will see that 92.31% of respondents of the survey whose rating levels are good, very good and excellent, think that they are respectful and open to all kinds of intellectual individuals. 85.71% of these participants think that working means that learning new things, developing their self, and producing something good for them. 8.73% of participants, who are respectful other ideas, were undecided for this idea and the other last part of participant, whose rate is 5.56%, don’t agree that working means this purposes. H7: For H7 which means at least one variable which are loving independence and freedom, gender and loving authority; varies from the mean, first analysed the equality of variance and it was determined that variances are equal (p= 0.235 and 0.443 for Levene test). As a result of ANOVA, it was understood that there is no effect on disliking of authority (F=0.371 and p=0.984) and being fond of independence and freedom (F=0.371 and p=0.543). 4. Conclusion As result of analysis with the getting data the conclusion is that social environment is important for the Generation Z who is adapted to team spirit. The effect of social environment is an important factor to form the organization culture when they get in the business community. On forming the team spirit the duty of employers is to target setting up more chatty and hearty relations out of the business culture where the hierarchy is in it.

480


This generation is self-confident and wants to guarantee their future. They know that working has an important role to make true their dreams, and if it doesn’t become they would be unhappy. Happiness is very important on the business area. If they cannot find this happiness on the place where they work, they will think quitting the job easily. These generations, who are fond of his independence and do not like authority, don’t have any significant relation with age groups. There is no difference for both man and woman relevant with it. The important point is to be independent and to dispute the authority for both age groups. Even if traditional and cultural values have differences on getting independence in terms of age groups and gender, Generation Z finished this disparity. Moreover they are committed to their faiths and see the working like a religious responsibility. This situation shows that existing perception was removed with this statement in our country where the women has less employment rate. Generation Z breaks down the existing ideas which is about social structure and belief that the women should not work because of religious. As understood from this result Generation Z is more conscious and they don’t accept the traditional expressions, investigate them and search their religious faiths. They are more helpful than Generation Y who is respectful and open to every kind of idea and want to learn new knowledge on the professional life. These results are restricted by our research. But if it is looked at the both national and international studies, it could be seen that it is almost possible to reach to the same results. Generation Y will comprise the majority of the business community at next ten or fifteen years. Generation Y was born between 1980 and 2000 years. They occurred at the last 20 years of the 20th century (Reilly, 2012:2). This generation has more sense of leadership and they think that as social environment is important in the workplace, as work-life stability is well to the fore, as work is a desire to make their profits true and they are open to occupational improvement (Uba, 2012:1). Otherwise this generation, who defines themselves as ‘reliable worker’, declares that they like competition and there must be competition between employees in work life (Turk, 2013:31). Although both Generation Y and Z have common direction on their perception and behavior, Generation Z is well to the fore with its many different ways. According to the research, which had made by Millennial Branding consulting and Questionnaire Company, there are remarkable results among employees’’ working viewpoints between Generation Y and Z (Millennial Branding, 2014): ▪ According to the research, approximately four-fifths of both Generation Z and Generation Y like to work with technology to help them accomplish their goals (Generation Z 77%, Generation Y 81%). ▪ Both state a strong preference for being hands-on with projects (Generation Z 76%, Generation Y 81%). ▪ Generation Z and Generation Y both selected a corporate office space as their top work environment; however Generation Y (45%) has greater preference for a traditional office than Generation Z (28%). ▪ Notably, the generations’ second choice of work location is a co-working space that operates independently of the employer (Generation Z 27%, Generation Y 26%), and Generation Z shows a slight preference for a home office (Generation Z 19%, Generation Y 13%). ▪ Generation Z (61%) has stronger desire for managers to listen to their ideas and value their opinions over Generation Y (56%), and Generation Y (58%) has a stronger desire for managers to allow them to work independently than Generation Z (46%). Both Generation Z (65%) and Generation Y (69%) say the people whom they work with would enable their best work. While facility location is more important to Generation Y (47%) over Generation Z (36%), Generation Z (38%) has greater interest to personalize own workspace than Generation Y (34%). Presently and potential managers of business world must go out of traditional business culture and adjust themselves to the technological improvements if they want to be stable on the national and international competition market. Correspondingly they must show a big effort to supply their workers to be happy at the work place and to understand Generation Z workers and to be in close relations with them. Even if Generation Y managers have similar perception and behaviors with Generation Z, our opinion is that working with Generation Z will change their perception on the working life slightly.

481


Appendix A.

A. 1. Crosstab for H1

I am open to work with a group

Total

Poor

Count Std. Residual Average Count Std. Residual Good Count Std. Residual Very Good Count Std. Residual Excellent Count Std. Residual Count

Social media in the workplace is very important to me. No Strongly Disagree Disagree Opinion Agree Strongly Agree 2 0 2 0 7 1,2 -,8 ,5 -1,7 ,8 3 2 2 3 9 1,2 1,0 -,3 -,9 ,0 3 4 6 18 18 -,4 ,9 -,2 1,5 -1,1 4 6 12 33 36 -1,2 ,6 ,0 2,0 -1,2 9 2 13 15 58 ,5 -1,4 ,1 -2,0 1,7 21 14 35 69 128

Total 11 19 49 91 97 267

A. 2. Crosstab for H2 Working means to fulfil a religious duty for me Strongly Disagree I'm Poor connected to the faith. Average Good Very Good Excellent Total

Count Std. Residual Count Std. Residual Count Std. Residual Count Std. Residual Count Std. Residual Count

1 2,1 2 2,7 2 ,4 4 ,1 5 -1,1 14

Disagree 0 -,5 1 ,5 6 2,3 9 1,0 7 -1,7 23

No Opinion 0 -,6 3 2,3 7 1,9 7 -,7 16 -,7 33

Agree

Strongly Agree

1 ,1 0 -1,5 5 -1,2 29 1,5 45 -,2 80

Total

1 -,3 1 -1,2 8 -1,2 24 -1,3 80 1,7 114

3 7 28 73 153 264

A. 3. Crosstab for H3

I'm patient.

Total

Poor

Count Std. Residual Average Count Std. Residual Good Count Std. Residual Very Good Count Std. Residual Excellent Count Std. Residual Count

Happy to be where I tried to work is a priority for me. If I am not happy in work place, I will leave my job easily. Strongly No Strongly Disagree Disagree Opinion Agree Agree 3 1 1 4 11 1,9 -,3 -1,1 -,4 ,4 4 4 6 11 12 1,5 ,9 ,3 ,7 -1,5 2 3 16 18 26 -,7 -,7 2,2 ,6 -1,1 0 6 7 19 20 -1,6 1,2 -,2 1,8 -1,1 5 5 9 13 64 ,0 -,7 -1,3 -2,1 2,4 14 19 39 65 133

Total 20 37 65 52 96 270

A. 4. Crosstab for H4 Working means that to secure the future, to ensure economic freedom, and livelihoods, to earn money to get what I want, to provide a better life for my children. Strongly Strongly Disagree Disagree No Opinion Agree Agree

Total

482

Mustafa Ozkan and Betul Solmaz / Procedia Economics and Finance 26 (2015) 476 – 483 I'm cautiou s about everyth ing. (guaran ties)

Total

Poor

Count Std. Residual Average Count Std. Residual Good Count Std. Residual Very Count Good Std. Residual Excellent Count Std. Residual Count

0 -,2 0 -,4 0 -,5 1 1,4 0 -,5 1

1 1,9 0 -1,1 1 -,6 4 1,6 1 -,8 7

0 -,6 5 1,6 5 ,7 3 -,5 2 -1,2 15

0 -1,1 11 ,9 16 1,0 16 ,8 7 -2,1 50

6 ,4 29 -,7 45 -,6 47 -,7 71 1,5 198

7 45 67 71 81 271

A. 5. Crosstab for H5 Working means that to realize my dreams, to satisfy my personal tastes and hobbies and sightseeing fun. Strongly Disagree I'm a dreamer.

Poor

Count Std. Residual

Average Count Std. Residual Good Very Good

No Opinion

Agree

Strongly Agree

Total 19

5

4

4

3

3

1,7

1,5

,1

-,6

-1,4

8

9

13

7

10

,9

2,0

1,1

-1,1

-1,6

Count

7

5

15

23

17

Std. Residual

-,5

-,6

,3

2,1

-1,3

Count

5

4

11

16

24

Std. Residual

-,9

-,8

-,4

,7

,7

Excellent Count Total

Disagree

9

5

13

12

41

Std. Residual

-,3

-1,0

-,8

-1,4

2,5

Count

34

27

56

61

95

47 67 60 80 273

A. 6. Crosstab for H6 Working means that to gain information, to learn new things and develop myself, to produce something good Strongly Disagree I'm Poor respectful to all ideas and behaviours. Average

Count Std. Residual Count Std. Residual

Good

Count Std. Residual

Very Good

Count Std. Residual

Excellent

Count Std. Residual

Total

Count

Disagree

No Opinion

Agree

Strongly Agree

0

0

1

1

5

-,3

-,6

,5

-,7

,5

0

2

1

3

8

-,5

1,8

-,2

-,4

,0

3

2

10

15

27

2,4

-,3

2,2

-,1

-1,1

1

2

7

32

38

-,2

-,8

,0

2,2

-1,3

0

6

5

23

81

-1,3

,4

-1,6

-1,5

1,7

4

12

24

74

159

Total 7

14

57

80

115

273

483

Mustafa Ozkan and Betul Solmaz / Procedia Economics and Finance 26 (2015) 476 – 483 A. 7. ANOVA Results for H7 Test of Homogeneity of Variances Levene Statistic I do not like authority.

df1

df2

Sig.

1,414

1

268

,235

,591

1

272

,443

I love being independent; I'm fond of my freedom.

ANOVA Sum of Squares I do not like authority. I do not like authority.

Between Groups


df

Mean Square

,001

1

,001

Within Groups

370,651

268

1,383

Total

370,652

269

Between Groups

,424

1

,424

Within Groups

311,050

272

1,144

Total

311,474

273

F

Sig.

,000

,983

,371

,543

Descriptives 95% Confidence Interval for Mean N

Mean

Std. Deviation

Std. Error

Lower Bound

Upper Bound

Minimum

Maximum

I do not like authority. I do not like authority.

17-20

162

3,34

1,222

,096

3,15

3,53

1

5

21-24

108

3,34

1,104

,106

3,13

3,55

1

5

Total

270

3,34

1,174

,071

3,20

3,48

1

5


17-20

166

3,99

1,067

,083

3,82

4,15

1

5

21-24

108

3,91

1,072

,103

3,70

4,11

1

5

Total

274

3,96

1,068

,065

3,83

4,08

1

5

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