Prelims

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GENERATIONS Z IN EUROPE

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THE CHANGING CONTEXT OF MANAGING PEOPLE

Edited by Professor Emma Parry, Cranfield School of Management, Swindon, UK

The past two decades have represented a time of unprecedented social, technological, and economic change that has required a transformation in human resource management (HRM). Shifts in demographics, continued increases of women in the workforce, and greater mobility across national borders have led to higher diversity in the workplace. Advances in technology, including social media, have enabled new ways of doing business through faster communications and vast amounts of data made available to all. Mobile technology with its ubiquitous connectivity has led to renewed concerns over work-life balance and extreme jobs. These and many other changes have seen evolving attitudes towards work and careers, leading to different expectations of the workplace and mean that existing ways of managing people may no longer be effective. This series examines in depth the changing context to identify its impact on the HRM and the workforce.

Titles include:

Managing Technology and Middle- and Low-skilled Employees: Advances for Economic Regeneration

Claretha Hughes, Lionel Robert, Kristin K. Frady and Adam Arroyos

Advances in the Technology of Managing People: Contemporary Issues in Business

Pamela A. Gordon and Julie A. Overbey

Managing the Ageing Workforce in the East and the West

Matt Flynn, Yuxin Li and Anthony Chiva

Electronic HRM in the Smart Era

Tanya Bondarouk, Huub Ruël, and Emma Parry

Work in the 21st Century: How Do I Log On?

Peter K. Ross, Susan Ressia, Elizabeth J. Sander, and Emma Parry

Social Recruitment in HRM: A Theoretical Approach and Empirical Analysis

Ginevra Gravili and Monica Fait

Title Page

GENERATIONS Z IN EUROPE: INPUTS, INSIGHTS AND IMPLICATIONS

EDITED BY

CHRISTIAN SCHOLZ

Saarland University, Germany

ANNE RENNIG

Saarland University, Germany

United Kingdom – North America – Japan – India – Malaysia – China

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Emerald Publishing Limited

Howard House, Wagon Lane, Bingley BD16 1WA, UK

First edition 2019

Copyright © 2019 Emerald Publishing Limited

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British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data

A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library

ISBN: 978-1-78973-492-8 (Print)

ISBN: 978-1-78973-491-1 (Online)

ISBN: 978-1-78973-493-5 (Epub)

About the Contributors

Slavko Alčaković is Associate Professor at the Faculty of Business in Belgrade, Singidunum University, and currently holding the position of Vice Dean of the Faculty of Physical Education and Sports Management at Singidunum University. He teaches subjects in the field of marketing such as marketing, Internet marketing, marketing research and sports marketing. Fields of academic interests include digital marketing and media, neuromarketing, consumer behaviour and sports marketing. He is the Owner and Chief Editor of the advertising portal Lumiere.rs. He is also a Lecturer of ERP SAP module Sales and Distribution and a Certified NLP Practitioner.

Valentina Battista is a Lecturer in Human Resource Management at the School of Management of Cranfield University (UK). Valentina holds a PhD in Management from the University of Pescara in Italy. Her research is mostly focused on understanding the ways of managing performance in the workplace. You can reach Valentina at v.battista@cranfield.ac.uk.

Sebastiano Benasso, PhD in Sociology, is a Research Fellow and Adjunct Professor at Di.S.For. (University of Genoa, Italy) working on many social researches using both qualitative and quantitative methods. He is specialised in the biographical transitions of young adults, youth cultures and lifestyles. He is a Member of the Observatory of Social Inequalities hosted at Di.S.For. (University of Genoa, Italy) and is a Member of the editorial team of About Gender, International Journal of Gender Studies.

Aart Bontekoning is a Dutch organisational Psychologist and Generation Expert. In the 1990s, he ran numerous experiments to study generations in Dutch organisations. Between 2000 and 2007, he developed a generation theory and a generation research methodology, building forward on what has been written about generations by historians and sociologists in the last two centuries, such as Karl Mannheim, José Ortega y Gasset, Julian Marías Aguilera, Howe and Strauss. In 2007, his groundbreaking generation research, video analyses of generations, culminated in a PhD thesis titled Successive Generations in Organisations, Hidden Powers of Evolution of Cultures. Today, many Dutch companies are using his insights. He also did generation research in Brazilian and European young professional networks. In his last book The Power of Generations: How to Keep Aging Organisations Up to Date, the results of his ongoing generation research are available for people outside The Netherlands.

Miguel Chaves has a master’s degree in Social Sciences and a PhD in Sociology. Currently he is Professor at the Faculty of Social Sciences and Humanities of the Universidade Nova de Lisboa (UNL), where he coordinates the Graduation in Sociology and the Observatory of Professional Insertion (OBIPNOVA). As a Researcher he coordinates the Research Group ‘Citizenship, Work and Technology’ of CICS.NOVA. He has been leading projects, teaching and writing books and articles on the topics of sociological theory, deviance, social exclusion, youth culture and transition to work, which are his most important fields of research.

Valentina Cuzzocrea (MA and PhD, Essex) is a Senior Assistant Professor in Sociology at University of Cagliari, Italy, where she teaches (advanced) theory and methods of social research and is a Visiting Senior Research Fellow at the Department of Sociology, University of Vienna. She is Past Coordinator of the Research Network ‘Youth and Generation’ of the European Sociological Association. She is interested in various aspects of research on young people, and more recently in how this intersects with issues of time and space in Italy and transnationally across Europe.

Elodie Gentina received her PhD in Business from University of Lille 2 in 2008. She is an Associate Professor of Marketing at IÉSEG School of Management in France. Elodie Gentina is also the CEO of E&G Consulting Group, specialising in Generation Z (Management).

Her principal research interests lie in Generation Z (digital natives) and consumer behaviour. Elodie Gentina also studies innovative management strategies on Generation Z for the recruitment process, loyalty and management. She has published not only in marketing (Journal of Business Research, Journal of Marketing Management, Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Recherche et Applications en Marketing, etc.), ethics (Journal of Business Ethics) and psychology (Applied Psychology: An International Review) but also in medical journals (Public Health). Her research has been the subject of media coverage worldwide by, among others, Harvard Business Review (France), Forbes, BFM Business, Management, Challenges, Le Nouvel Observateur, Le Monde, etc.

Elodie Gentina is the author of two books on Generation Z: Marketing et Génération Z (Marketing and Generation Z; Paris: Dunod, 2016) and Des Z consommateurs aux Z collaborateurs (Generation Z: From Z Consumers to Z Co-workers; Paris: Dunod, 2018, in French).

Lisa-Dorothee Grotefend studied at Justus-Liebig-University Gießen (Germany) and at University Paris X Nanterre (France). She received her degree in Business Administration and Economics (Specialisation: Management), minor subject Industrial and Organisational Psychology. After being employed in HR, she was working at Saarland University in the field of Organisational Behaviour, Human Resource Management and Information Management as Research Associate and Doctoral Candidate.

Mariya Karaivanova was born in 1985 and comes from the second largest city in Bulgaria – Plovdiv. She has defended her PhD in Differential Psychology in 2016 at St. Kliment Ohridski Sofia University in Bulgaria on the topic ‘Values, Self-evaluations and Future Expectations of the Young Generation in Bulgaria’. Her interest in generational differences dates back to 2011 when she defended her master thesis. Since then, Mariya has had several publications on the topic of generational differences.

Mariya made an academic exchange in 2016–2017 in the Wissenschaftszentrum für Sozialforschung Berlin (Social Science Research Centre Berlin), Germany, supported by the DAAD (Deutscher Akademischer Austauschdienst, in English – German Academic Exchange Service). Since the beginning of 2018 she is an Assistant Professor in Psychology at Medical University of Plovdiv, Faculty of Public Health. Besides, she is a part-time Teaching Assistant at the European Higher School of Economics and Management and at Plovdiv University Paissiy Hilendarski in the town of Plovdiv, Bulgaria.

Kristine Klein is a former Master’s Student at Saarland University, who was born in 1991. Raised in a bilingual family in Rousse (Bulgaria), she belongs to the representatives of the young generation in the country. In 2010 she decided to move to Saarland, the home of her father, to pursue new opportunities abroad. She started her bachelor’s studies in Economics and Law at Saarland University and afterwards pursued her master’s degree. Generation Z in Bulgaria was the subject of her master thesis at the Chair of Business Administration, especially Organisational Behaviour, Human Resource Management and Information Management (Univ. Prof. Dr. Christian Scholz) at Saarland University. Therefore, she conducted interviews and conducted her own research on the young generation in Bulgaria. Nowadays, she works as Manager of Candidate Relations at an international company in Berlin.

Emma Parry is a Professor in Human Resource Management at the School of Management of Cranfield University (UK) and Head of the Changing World of Work Group. Her research interests focus on the impact of the changing context on managing people, in particular the influence of national context, changing demographics and technological advancement on people management. Emma is the Author or Editor of several books, and has published numerous academic papers in the area of age and generational diversity. Emma can be contacted at emma.parry@cranfield.ac.uk.

Danica Čigoja Piper is Assistant Professor at the Faculty of Media and Communications of Singidunum University, Belgrade. She defended her PhD thesis at the Faculty of Political Science of University of Belgrade. During her postgraduate studies she participated in two international research projects: ‘Representation of Gender Minority Groups in Media: Serbia, Montenegro and Macedonia’ and ‘Gender in a Changing Society’. She is the Author of numerous papers related to media studies and communications. Her fields of academic interests are new media, media framing, critical media analysis, media and food relations.

Anne Rennig has a Master of Arts in Comparative Literature. She is Managing Director of the Collegium Europaeum Universitatis Saraviensis (CEUS), an institution coordinating interdisciplinary research on Europe at Saarland University (Saarbrücken, Germany). Anne has Co-edited, with Tiziana Chiusi, the proceedings of the 1st European Conference in Saarbrücken Europa, quo vadis? Was macht einen Europäer aus? (2017) and, with Christian Scholz and Peter Dörrenbächer, Europa jenseits des Konvergenzparadigmas. Divergenz – Dynamik – Diskurs (2019).

María Ángeles Rubio Gil holds a PhD in Sociology and Political and Administration Sciences from the Complutense University of Madrid, and is a University Professor in the Faculty of Legal and Social Sciences at the Universidad Rey Juan Carlos (URJC) in Madrid. She is the Author of 30 social essay books and university manuals, as well as more than 60 papers in journals and books with academic impact; the latest on Youth and Rural Employment in Spain: Factor of Development through Consumption and Sustainable Tourism. She is an Evaluator and Member of the scientific committee of various international conferences, editorial collections and scientific journals. She has directed multiple research projects on her topics of interest, such as youth and the Internet, or tourism and development, for organisations such as the Ministry of Economy, the Ministry of Education or the Institute of Youth of Spain (Ministry of Social Affairs). She has obtained 17 grants and prizes for research from organisations such as Europa Universitas, the CEOE (Confederación Española de Organizaciones Empresariales, in English – Spanish Confederation of Employers’ Organisations), the Bioethics Foundation, etc. She is Head Researcher of the Nonnobis-URJC Social Research group, writes books on personal development and collaborates with reports on youth and social change in various press and audiovisual media; in her free time, she likes to discover and design cultural routes for socioeconomic development. More information is on www.angelesrubio.net

María Victoria Sanagustín-Fons is Associate Professor of Sociology at University of Zaragoza (Spain). She obtained her PhD from Pontifical University of Salamanca (Spain) and a master’s degree in Family Studies. She is a Visiting Scholar at Harvard University (Autumn 2018).

She has been leading two European research projects on sustainable development, culture and tourism (2014–2017). She has published more than 50 national and international papers on sociology, organisations, culture and education and has been participating in international conferences. She was Visiting Professor at different South-American and European universities. She has held positions at the University of Zaragoza: Vice Chancellor of European Convergence, Head of Business School at Campus of Huesca and Deputy Director of the Department of Sociology.

Her research interests are social, institutional and responsible innovations; sustainable development, tourism and culture; business ethics; social network analysis; content analysis; participatory social research methods and techniques; and socio-political processes around European identity and global crisis of refugees.

Christian Scholz has since 2018 been Professor Emeritus for Organisational Behaviour, Human Resource Management and Information Management at Saarland University in Saarbrücken, where he joined the Faculty for Law and Economics in 1986. He is Editor/Author of several books, including Human Resource Management in Europe (Routledge 2006), Generation Z (Wiley 2014) and Mogelpackung Work-Life-Blending (Wiley 2018).

Tobias M. Scholz is a Postdoctoral Researcher of Human Resource Management and Organisational Behaviour at the University of Siegen, Germany. He has published articles on international management, human resource management, media management and virtual teams. His research focuses on organisational technology studies, big data, gamification, eSports, algorithms and blockchain. He recently published the book Big Data in Organisations and the Role of Human Resource Management and is Co-editor of the eSports Yearbook.

Daria Vyugina is a PhD Candidate and Teacher in the Faculty of Journalism at Lomonosov Moscow State University in Moscow, Russia where she has taught courses in the fields of media and modern culture, multimedia journalism, media and creative industries, digital media audience in Russia and media economics. Earlier, she had studied at the Faculty of Journalism at Lomonosov Moscow State University and at Humboldt-Universität of Berlin, Germany (Media Studies). Her research interests are digital economy, media sociology, media consumption in Russia, the theory of generations in the research of media practice, media and modern cultural practices.

Series Editor Foreword

The attention paid to generational differences over the past 10 years has been overwhelming. If you open almost any media publication in the areas of human resource management, marketing or politics, you will find an article discussing the values, expectations and preferences of the younger generations and how these are different from those of people in their 50s and beyond. In particular, practitioners, consultants and the media alike have become fascinated with the Millennial generation (those born between the early 1980s and late 1990s) who have entered the workforce in large numbers over the past 20 years. Attention is now moving on to the newest generation, that is, just starting to enter the workplace – known as Generation Z (born from the late 1990s onwards). This book is one of the first to provide a detailed examination of that generation within Europe.

In academic arenas, the idea of generational differences – at least those depicted in the popular groupings of Veterans, Baby Boomers, Generation X and Millennials – has been treated with some cynicism and with frustration at the overwhelming reliance on this concept within practice. This is mainly due to doubts about the strength of the evidence for differences between these groups. In fact, analyses of this evidence, including those that I have undertaken myself, suggest that the findings in regard to generational differences are mixed and do not provide substantive proof of differences between generations. In addition, those studies that do show generational differences fail to agree in relation to what the characteristics of each generation are.

One reason behind this confusion might be the tendency for commentators to take those characteristics ascribed to generations in the United States and apply them universally, regardless of the country or the context. Indeed, given that theory around generational differences suggests that individuals develop their values, attitudes and expectations as a result of their experiences when growing up, I have always felt that it makes no sense to presume that these experiences – and therefore the characteristics of a generational group – would be the same across different countries and societies. This text, finally, addresses this issue in some detail by examining the recent contexts within a number of European countries and the impact of growing up in these contexts on the characteristics of those individuals from Generation Z. This text is unique in providing this analysis, and therefore, I was very pleased to include it as part of this series – and also to contribute a chapter myself. I hope that you will enjoy this detailed analysis and use it to obtain a deeper understanding of how generational characteristics are shaped by the environment, and how we might expect the attitudes of younger people to be changing over time.

Emma Parry

Series Editor, The Changing Context of Managing People

Preface

For several years, ‘millennials’, ‘digital natives’ and other names for ‘Generation Y’ have been in the focus of academic research and at the forefront of the discussions among practitioners in companies, politicians, teachers, parents as well as the media. However, in the last few years, a new generation has moved into focus. Even though ‘Generation Z’ is not particularly an inspiring name, this group of young people born sometime after the beginning of the 1990s are about to become real game changers. As the New York Times phrased it: Move Over, Millennials, Here Comes Generation Z. Generation Z is totally different from other generations before, as they are more realistic, mistrust politicians, companies and the media, and furthermore prefer to keep their work and private life strictly separate. In this regard, companies should start to get ready for them.

Since Generation Z is totally connected to the Internet, they are also quite often considered as the first truly global generation. But what exactly does that mean? Global, yes, but identical? This is the question we are dealing with. For us, Europe, with its social, cultural, political and lingual diversity, is a perfect research object.

We are going to find out whether there is a specific European Generation Z and what drivers have been influencing the shaping of this generation. What, for instance, does the Generation Z in Russia have in common (or not) with the Generation Z in Spain? How do factors like the social, economic and political environment or family influence the development of special (same or different) value systems in Generation Z members? To the best of our knowledge, there is no book out dealing with the Generation Z in Europe. This means, our book Generations Z in Europe, might be the first one.

Our book compares the European Generation Z in terms of country- and culture-specific drivers based on interdisciplinary and international scientific research. It presents a generation born into a crisis-ridden, mobile and digitalised Europe. We do not talk about ‘the’ Generation Z in Europe in singular, since beyond all the similarities of young people in Europe, we see striking differences. Therefore, we use the plural and talk about Generations Z in Europe.

As the Generation Z is now and will be in the years to come, entering the labour market, the time is right to sensitise companies to the needs of these young future employees. We have to reflect on the opportunities a generation might create for a labour market that grew up in different social, cultural and political contexts in different European countries, but in a completely globalised world, and that is more mobile than any generation ever before. What challenges does the working world face as ‘GenZ’ enters professional life? How can diversified companies benefit from these country-specific differences between generations? What do companies need in order to respond effectively to the generational change in working life? What consequences can be seen for politics and the educational system in dealing with Generation Z?

Being academics ourselves, the authors of this book also aim at academia: both to give a little impetus for research about young people in Europe and to provide material for teaching. What more could be interesting than discussing with young people in Europe the Generations Z in Europe?

There are segments in this book where objective facts about Generation Z are combined with personal thoughts about Generation Z in that particular country. Our goal as Editors of this book is to give the reader a chance to understand Generation Z in its variety across Europe. This includes impressions as indicators for a culture-specific perception of social reality, history and zeitgeist.

Taking this into account, there is a second target group for our book: politicians, even though they do not have discovered these young people in their relevance yet and we are sceptical that they will. But the dynamics of Europe are changing and the political establishment in Europe might find out that there is something else beside the traditional group of voters and lobbyists. In the process of convergence and divergence politicians should in their own interest begin to think about Generation Z.

It looks as if politicians neither understand Generation Z in their own country, not to speak of Generation Z in Europe. We do not judge whether they are not able to do so or just see other and basically older groups more of interest as voters. But this is dangerous. The idea of Europe can only continue to be developed if the young people get a chance to be part of it. Therefore, we would be happy if at least one or two of the ten thousands of politicians in Europe would read our book.

Our book starts with the section ‘Input: What Great Thinkers Would Let Us Know’, which provides some theoretical approaches and scientific background. How can basic sociological/philosophical theories be applied to research about Generation Z? This part introduces classical thinkers like Karl Mannheim, Jean Baudrillard, Marshall McLuhan and Neil Postman. It aims to embed the following country-specific chapters in common theories, taking into account the deeply interdisciplinary approach to Generation Z. The Editors chose, in this part, a more dynamic approach to the basic theories, so the short chapters focus on ‘how the theorists would have talked to us’, experimenting with a change of perspective.

The following main section is titled ‘Insights: What the Experts Tell Us’ and gathers together different analyses of researchers from all across Europe. All country-specific chapters follow the same structure, with every chapter giving us information about the Generation Z in each country. It starts by contextualising the research: Which historical lines might influence the younger generation’s lives? What is the specific cultural context? What demographic, economic or political outlines are given in the country? How is education organised? What conflicts and tensions are present in the social discourse? To be able to compare the scientific results, we have to consider and understand the different situations that Generation Z is growing up with. Another question would be: What technological drivers, media, or role models influence the younger generations – compared to the Generation Z in other European countries, but also in relation to previous generations?

Furthermore, for the main section, it is important to explore what the ‘typical Z’ in each country is feeling, thinking or doing. Are there special attitudes and visions? What is the younger generation expecting from future employers or jobs? What about their work–life arrangement? How is their consumption oriented? Are they more pessimistic or more optimistic? Last but not least, the contributors had to develop some recommendations for different target groups.

The chapter ‘Implication: What Do We Want?’ offers a look into the future: representatives from Generation Y share their visions and expectations about Generation Z and its future role in Europe.

Thanks to all the authors who worked on this project. Since we did not just want to put together some isolated articles, interaction and coordination were necessary: this book is based on an international and interdisciplinary conference held at Saarland University in Saarbrücken, Germany, in November 2016 organised by the Chair of Business Administration, especially Organisational Behaviour, Human Resource Management, and Information Management, and the Collegium Europaeum Universitatis Saraviensis (CEUS). This conference brought together an excellent team of researchers from the whole of Europe and was such a great experience that we went on to organise a symposium about Generations Z in Europe at the Academy of Management in Atlanta, USA, in August 2017. Now in November 2018, the book is completed and more joint projects will follow.

We also thank the team at Emerald and our other partners who helped us realise both the conference and the publication, in particular, Villa Lessing – Liberale Stiftung Saar, Saarland University’s international research funding and the Eastern partnership programme of DAAD, as well as of course our whole team. They all made this book possible which is not the end of a process. It is a beginning.

Christian Scholz and Anne Rennig