Expectations of Gen Z with demands of Industry 4.0

ABSTRACT

Understanding employee expectations are important not only for employee well-being but also for organizational development. The purpose of this paper is to provide a contextual overview that illustrates some of the defining characteristics of the Generation Z and their expectations with the demands of Industry 4.0 from the existing literature, an informal survey, and a formal survey. This may help the organizations foresee and build a workplace suitable for them which in turn will impact the organizational performance and development. This exploratory study offers a framework for understanding the most compelling issues organizations and Generation Z face with respect to job satisfaction. Our Hypotheses were - Null (H0): Generation Z expects Flexibility and Independence in work to be as important as other facets of Job Satisfaction; Alternate (H1): Generation Z expects Flexibility and Independence in work to be more important than other facets (pay, nature of work, colleagues, security) of Job Satisfaction. Considering ‘Flexibility and Independence’ in work for employees as the most important facet of their job satisfaction, we framed a Likert Scale Survey in which 80 college-educated members of the Generation Z (born between 1995-2001) responded to 29 statements of which 19 statements corresponded to the facet of ‘Flexibility and Innovation’ and 10 to others (Outliers). With the use of z-test in testing our hypothesis, we retained the Null Hypothesis (H0) as our calculated z-value (1.69) was less than the z-table value (1.96). Our results reveal that for the employees of Gen Z many other facets of Job Satisfaction are equally important as Flexibility and Independence. However, due to a small difference of 0.27 in the two z-scores, we may infer that Flexibility and Independence hold a high level of importance for Gen Z employee satisfaction.

INTRODUCTION

While the industry is finding it difficult to understand the needs of the employees, they have a completely new generation entering workforce i.e. Generation Z also known as Gen Z, consisting of those born after 1995. These are the people of age above 20yrs. They are also referred to as iGen, Gen Tech, Founders, Digital Natives, etc. They are anticipated to bring an unprecedented level of technology and interpersonal communication skills to the workforce. They are the most influential group of technology trendsetters. They are born and raised in the digital world and what distinguishes them from other generation is that their existence is more connected to technology and the digital world. By 2019, out of 100% Generation Z will represent more than 20% of the workforce. It is very important for us to understand who they are, what are they expecting, and how do they think. Only by studying about them we will be able to work with them, develop them and lead them as they enter into their first jobs.

The previous literature work on Gen Z holds freedom and security to be on the top facets of their job satisfaction. However, empirical research has not adequately explored this phenomenon. Over the past years, the industry has been focusing on the millennial mind-set. But, given the change in the future generation’s behaviour, it’s time to focus on Gen Z. It is very important to know the expectations and demands of people from Gen Z. They are the future of our world. We need to understand their psychology and know what do they really want. An empathetic understanding of their psychology will be beneficial not only to the employees of Gen Z but also to their employers and organizations. The following research study concerns the expectations of Gen Z employees. An informal survey was conducted to know which facets of job satisfaction are more important for Gen Z employees. This helped us to do an in-depth research on what are the expectations of Gen Z employees. On the basis of the facets shortlisted a formal survey was conducted on 80 college-educated members of Gen Z to check the hypothesis.

LITERATURE REVIEW

A generation is defined as “an identifiable group that shares birth years, locations, age and significant life events at critical stages of development” (Kupperschmidt 2000: 66). When society changes generations are inclined to adopt a different mind-set, which leads to different attitudes, beliefs, behaviours, and values (Xander et al. 2012).

 The Millennial Generation, also often referred to as “Generation Y”, “Echo Boomers”, “Generation Next” (Sheahan 2005; Parry and Urwin 2011), or “the Millennials” (Kultalahtii and Viitala 2015), were born between early 1980s and approximately 1995 (see e.g. Parry and Urwin 2011, Lyon et al. 2010Hays 2013). This “most technically educated, literate and ethnically divergent generation in history” ((Eisner 2005, p. 6), imparts a challenge for management, as “everyone sees the world their own way” (Sheahan 2005:205). According to the studies, Millennials expect work to be meaningful (Dries et al., 2008), and be in quest of interesting and challenging job content (De Hauw and De Vos 2010; Baruch 2004) with dynamic & spirited tasks (Kultalahti and Viitala 2015) with consistent and constructive feedback (Martin 2005).

Nowadays, Generation Z, also known as Generation C (Krej?ová and Tomá?ková 2014), are often seen as “digital natives” (Friedrich et al. 2010) born between 1995 and 2018 (Seemiller and Grace 2016; Koulopoulos and Keldsen 2016) is rapidly replacing Generation Y on college campus (Seemiller and Grace 2016) and wholly beginning to enter the world of work. Though many firms have succeeded in adjusting their practices to the changed expectations of Generation Y, the challenge begins with Generation Z entering the workforce. Some authors (Bolser and Gosciej 2015; Robert Half 2015) state that Generation Z, is “Unlike other generations seen before, the first truly Global generation”, that will decide “the most considerable generational shift the workplace has ever seen before” (Tulgan 2013). Robert Half, 2015; draws attention on the fact that Generation Z will bring something new in terms of expectations for their prospect professional life. Compared to the prior Millennials whose ability to multitask is already acknowledged, Gen Z has an even greater ability to work on several tasks at the same time, while being more productive (Addor 2011) Generation Z, is expected to encourage the ever increasing virtualizations of the organizations, 24/7 connectivity, social media networking, as well as demand more personal freedom, work flexibility and thus continue to move organizations away from traditional hierarchical structures (Friedrich et al. 2010).

 Moreover, research shows that people who belong to Generation Z are extremely self-confident, have an optimistic view on their future professional life and tend to have entrepreneurial initiatives (Adecco 2015) as they are very innovative and creative (Robert Half 2015) Another fascinating characteristic is the fact that despite being constantly connected on social media, this generation seems to be      less involved in civil engagement , compared to older generations (Addor 2011) Studies (Adecco 2015) show that Generation Z prefers independent work and tend to be reluctant to get in teamwork. This can be determined by Generation Z propensity for communicating in a virtual environment, using an abbreviated language that affects their interpersonal & socialization skills (Addor 2011, Tulgan 2013). Also, the activity on social media influences their writing skills as they seem to need detailed training on developing formal communication skills (Robert Half 2015).

However, an accepted idea is that Generation Z could easily be integrated in organisations by inculcating in mentorship programs with the help of experienced generations (Adecco, 2015) The research study conducted by Robert Half (2015) strengthens the need to mentor Generation Z, as the members of this generation need to be constantly taught and require constant feedback on their activity Also Tulgan (2013) says that compared to millennials, Generation Z don’t tend to resist authority relationships, as they report a strong need for human connection which means that they could only work for superiors who manage to develop a strong working relationships with their subordinates.

As retaining Generation Z employees in the organisation for several years may be difficult issue to resolve, the persons in this generation could become loyal to their employer if the organisation offer them the opportunity to grow, experience new things & achieve leading positions (Adecco 2015; Robert Half 2015). In fact advancement opportunities like work flexibility and freedom to work are the most important facets when members of Generation Z select a full-time job, which explains why they tend to work in midsize companies or for multinational corporations (Robert Half, 2015). Also, in addition to mobility and development expectations, Generation Z professionals are likely also expect to have a culture that supports independence and prioritizes well-being.

Study (Tulgan 2013 and Robert Half 2015) suggest Generation Z’s need for security, as the members of this group grew up in a recessionary period. Since they developed in a competitive environment, study of Robert Half (2015) indicates that almost 80% of the members of Generation Z expect to work harder as compared to older generations in order to have a successful professional path. Moreover, the economic and social conditions they grew up with influenced them to be very realistic in terms of demands and expectations at the workplace than the older generations (Tulgan, 2013)

Having said this, the paper aims to present a profile of Indian representatives of Generation Z, by indicating results of a study aimed at identifying the expectations regarding the workplace and the professional life.

OBJECTIVES

·      To study the important facets of job satisfaction to meet Gen Z’s expectations

·      To study the elements responsible for Job Satisfaction

·      To study the gap between employee expectations and perception

HYPOTHESIS

Null Hypothesis (H0): Generation Z expects Flexibility and Independence in work to be as important as other facets of Job Satisfaction;

Alternate Hypothesis (H1): Generation Z expects Flexibility and Independence in work to be more important than other facets (pay, nature of work, colleagues, security) of Job Satisfaction.

RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

The study consists of review of articles and reports to analyse and draw findings for further research directions. In order to study Gen Z’s expectations from work, an exploratory research was conducted with the help of a Google form survey based on a structured informal and formal questionnaire. An informal-preliminary question was prepared for determining the facets with respect to job expectations, where in the respondents were asked to assess the importance of a set of job satisfaction facets namely pay, nature of work, flexibility, job environment and security. For this, 178 responses from the representatives of Gen Z were received indicating flexibility (39.8%) as the most favourable facet.

Taking this into consideration, a formal Google Form Survey was designed with 29 statements and 3 identification items (aimed at indicating the age, gender and email of the respondents). The survey comprised of 29 statements which were to be rated on a 4-point Likert scale where, 1=Disagree, 2=Agree, 3=Moderately Agree, 4=Strongly Agree. Out of the 29 statements, 19 statements (further referred to as Wanted Statements or WS) focused on Flexibility and Independence in work as an important facet of Job Satisfaction while the remaining 10 statements (outliers) focused on other facets like pay, job security, work environment, colleagues, etc. (Wanted Statements are mentioned after the results and interpretation.) Only the WS were considered while calculating the results.

The respondents were asked to determine the importance of the particular statements (regarding their decision making) on a 4-point Likert scale representing 1=Disagree, 2=Agree, 3=Moderately Agree and 4=Strongly Agree. In conducting the research, a convenience sampling method was adopted to conduct the survey among representatives of Gen Z who were easy to contact and were willing to participate in the study for which 80 responses were received. The respondents were 51.2% male and 48.8% female.

Data obtained had been transferred to MS Excel spreadsheet to obtain descriptive statistics and calculate the mean values for all answers within each statement. Since the responses were above 30, Z-test was employed.

RESULTS

The formal research survey acquired the data from 80 college-educated members of Gen Z, out of which 51.2% were males and 48.8% were females. 85% of the respondents were born in the year 1995, 1996 and 1997, who are on the very verge of commencing their professional careers and adding value to the organizations.

The Hypotheses of the study were - Null (H0): Generation Z expects Flexibility and Independence in work to be as important as other facets of Job Satisfaction; Alternate (H1): Generation Z expects Flexibility and Independence in work to be more important than other facets (pay, nature of work, colleagues, security) of Job Satisfaction.

Statistical Test Used: Because the sample size was more than 30 and we had to compare the two means (ideal mean, calculated mean), z-test was employed to test the hypothesis.

Formula: z = (x – μ) / σ

The first set of data was considered, hypothetically, to be an ideal one. A respondent can score a maximum of 4 on each statement and with 19 WS, the ideal total of an individual should be 19 x 4 = 76. Thus the ideal mean (μ) was 4 and the Standard Deviation (σ) of the ideal population was found to be 0.57.

The second set of data was the data of the respondents. The scores of respondents for 2 of the 19 WS (No.5 and No.12) were reversed (1 was converted to 4, 2 to 3, 3 to 2 and 4 to 1). This was done to match their scoring style to the other 17 WS as the above 2 WS were negative. The average total of the 80 respondents’ scores was 57.64. The mean score (x) of WS of the respondents was found to be 3.034.

With a sample size (n) = 80, Level of Significance to be 0.05%, the normal distribution curve gives a z score = 1.96 (table value)

Thus, the decision was to reject H0, if calculated z-score > Z score (table value) i.e. 1.96

Calculation: z = (x – μ) / σ

Where, x = 3.034, μ = 4, σ = 0.57

∴ z = | 3.034 – 4 / 0.57 | = | 0.966 / 0.57 | = 1.69

INTERPRETATION

Since that calculated z-score i.e. 1.69 is less than the table value of z i.e. 1.96, we decided to retain the Null hypothesis (H0). Thus, Gen Z expects Flexibility and Independence in work to be as important as other facets of Job Satisfaction. This reveals that, for Gen Z, many other facets of Job Satisfaction are equally important as Flexibility and Independence. However, due to a small difference of 0.27 in the two z-scores, we may infer that Flexibility and Independence hold a high level of importance for Gen Z employee’s job satisfaction.

LEARNINGS

·      According to the results, Gen Z gives equal importance to other facets of job satisfaction as much as to Flexibility and Independence. However, the ratings of respondents to WS no. 1, WS no. 5 and WS no. 6 clearly reveal their desire for Independence.

·      42.5% (34/80) of the respondents do not feel that Industry 4.0, which brings with Artificial Intelligence, Big Data, Cloud Computing and other booming technologies, is a threat to their jobs. Thus, it can be said that job security, as a facet of their job satisfaction, has a lower matter of concern as compared to other facets.

·      Responses to WS no. 7 and WS no. 8 reveal that Gen Z is flexible in its working hours and is willing to abide by the organization norms.

·      Gen Z even expects a communication transparency, autonomy and independence from the management of the organizations which can be seen through the ratings of WS no.11, WS no.12, WS no.13 and WS no.14.

·      In this technically oriented Industry 4.0, if given flexible working hours, a little independence and autonomy in thought processes and a supportive working environment, Gen Z would flourish and work optimally in the workforce.