A New Era in Business: Generation Z

The world has rapidly globalized and digitized in the last 20 years. Now everyone has easy access to knowledge and experience from around the world. These developments have enabled children and young people to acquire different characteristics from previous generations. Children and youth today have more digital skills and social interaction than previous generations. This situation causes them to have a different worldview and different needs. These young people and children, born between 1995 and 2010 and called the "Z generation", are the first "digital native" generation who use technology from the moment they are born and interact through social networks.^[1] In order to understand this generation, which has started to participate in business life in recent years, studies are intensifying day by day. As a result of these studies, it is seen that the Z generation attaches importance to new values and approaches in addition to their usual business processes.

One-third of the American population is in Generation Z.^[2] In Turkey, this number is around 18 million.^[3] These young people and children have some unique features. First of all, Generation Z has been in technology from the moment they were born and has a very high access to information. For this reason, it is more affected by all the positive and negative developments in the world.^[4] This makes them more sensitive to social events and more open to development. It is particularly sensitive to issues such as gender equality, environmental awareness and human rights. This situation causes them to expect various changes in business life and want to see the reflections of social transformation in their workplaces.^[5],^[6]

Many industry executives state that with the increasing number of Generation Z in business life, flexible working models will increase, new tasks will emerge, and the number of employees of different cultures, genders and beliefs will increase in business life. Generation Z is more ready for hybrid working order than any other generation and supports this change.^[7] They also expect various regulations in their workplaces. This situation brings about change in the workplace. Living workplaces with environments where employees can relax and social activities are becoming more and more common. Also, generation Z; The manager has an expectation of a more horizontal hierarchy in the leader and employee relationship. It is known that leaders value clarity more than anything else, prefer face-to-face communication with their superiors, like open dialogue, and expect their ideas to be listened to and valued by their managers.^[8],^[9]

The unique expectations of the newest generation, known as the Z generation, also affect their employment preferences. Young employees^[10]:

● They prefer sectors that contribute to their personal lives.

● Jobs that offer entrepreneurship opportunities as well as job security are their preferences. They give priority to the institutions in which they develop themselves.

● Although they prefer the hybrid scheme, they want it to be in a specific structured plan.

● They prefer independent work to team work, but they want to maintain this physical communication. While they prefer individuality, they are against isolation.

● They care about the ethical values and policies of the institutions. They attach more importance to diversity than all generations.

Considering all these characteristics specific to the youth, called Generation Z, it is seen that institutions should give more importance to issues such as diversity, change and intergenerational communication. Combining the experience of more experienced employees with the originality, talent and self-confidence of Generation Z will determine the sustainability of institutions in the future. Rather than adapting generations to the workplace, it may be a good idea to transform institutions according to needs.^[11]

^[1] Lanier, K. (2017). 5 things HR professionals need to know. Strategic HR Rev. 16, 288–290. doi: 10.1108/SHR-08-2017-0051

^[2] Deloitte. (2022). Welcome To Generation Z. https://www2.deloitte.com/us/en/pages/consumer-business/articles/understanding-generation-z-in-the-workplace.html

^[3] Gulec Bekman, O. (2021). The expectations of the managers from the z generation and the business life expectations of the z generation (Master's thesis, Maltepe University, Graduate Education Institute).

^[4] Duzgun, A. (2020). Comparison of Y and Z Generations' Expectations from Business Life. Hitit University Journal of Social Sciences Institute. https://doi.org/10.17218/hititsosbil.734483

^[5] Uğurbulduk, H., & Efeoğlu, İ. E. Generation Z, Values and Expectations from Working Life. Social and Education, 55.

^[6] Deloitte. (2022). Welcome To Generation Z. https://www2.deloitte.com/us/en/pages/consumer-business/articles/understanding-generation-z-in-the-workplace.html

^[7] Deloitte. (2022). Welcome To Generation Z. https://www2.deloitte.com/us/en/pages/consumer-business/articles/understanding-generation-z-in-the-workplace.html

^[8] Gulec Bekman, O. (2021). The expectations of the managers from the z generation and the business life expectations of the z generation (Master's thesis, Maltepe University, Graduate Education Institute).

^[9] Benítez-Márquez, MD, Sánchez-Teba, EM, Bermúdez-González, G., & Núñez-Rydman, ES (2021). Generation Z Within the Workforce and in the Workplace: A Bibliometric Analysis. Frontiers in psychology, 12, 736820-736820.

^[10] deliotte (2022). Striving for balance, advocating for change. https://www2.deloitte.com/content/dam/insights/articles/glob175227_global-millennial-and-gen-z-survey/Gen%20Z%20and%20Millennial%20Survey%202022_Final.pdf

^[11] Benítez-Márquez, MD, Sánchez-Teba, EM, Bermúdez-González, G., & Núñez-Rydman, ES (2021). Generation Z Within the Workforce and in the Workplace: A Bibliometric Analysis. Frontiers in psychology, 12, 736820-736820.