Examining the work values of generation Y and generation Z: An application in Bilecik province

ABSTRACT Since the early 21st century, rapid technological developments and the widespread use of the Internet worldwide have facilitated people's access to information. Today, the effective and widespread use of smartphones, especially by the young and middle-aged population called Generation Y and Z, has greatly accelerated intercultural interaction by eliminating the borders between nations. This interaction shortens the average generational periodicity of 20 years, which is accepted in the literature, and leads to rapid changes and an increase in intergenerational understanding differences. With the shortening of the generational periodicity due to the aforementioned reasons, multiple generations have started to take place in today's business life. Accordingly, organizational conflicts that may be experienced make it necessary to develop a management approach according to generational understandings. It is not yet known how the work values and motivation sources of Generation Z, which is called "instant online" and grows up with online life, are shaped. In order to compare the work values of Generation Y employees, who constitute the majority of today's workforce, and Generation Z employees, who have just entered the working life and will constitute the majority of the workforce in the future, data were collected from 387 participants by convenience sampling method, conducted in four different enterprises operating in different sectors in Bozüyük and Söğüt districts of Bilecik province. The collected data were analyzed with IBM SPSS 22 package program and the business values of Generation Y and Generation Z were compared according to generations and demographic variables. As a result of the statistical analysis, it was concluded that there were significant differences between the work values of Generation Y and Generation Z. In the analysis of work values according to demographic variables, no significant difference was found according to gender, while significant differences were found between the participants according to variables such as marital status, educational status and seniority. Keywords: Generation Theory, Generation Y and Z, Values, Work Values