Human Resource Management across Generations within the Context of World of Work 4.0

The aim of the paper is to evaluate the expectations of cohorts of workers from Generations X, Y, and Z with regards to their perceptions of what a "good workplace" is. Two research questions were formulated accordingly. Respondents representing workers from Generations X, Y, and Z, from Italy and Austria, were asked to consider and rate (on a 1-5 scale) eighteen criteria on work environment and managerial approach. Multi-sample testing was applied during processing with the ANOVA and Shapiro-Wilk and the Kruskal-Wallis test was subsequently used for multi-sample testing. The findings show that the most popular criterion for all three generational cohorts is "good work atmosphere", followed by "all employees are valued, treated, and rewarded fairly". Interestingly, generational differences were observed for "customer orientation", which was more important for Generation X, and "autonomous organization of work (time)", which was more important for Generations Y and Z. The most surprising result was the significance of corporate image, with less than 4% identifying this as an important issue across all three generations. These findings can help human resource managers create appropriate working environments and motivational tools that meet the real expectations of employees.

particular generation.For the purposes of this study, the authors have therefore used the following: Generation X-born between 1965 and 1975; Generation Y-born between 1980 and 1995; and Generation Z-born from 1996 onwards [8,9].
Current generational cohorts are being faced with Working World 4.0, which is characterized by megatrends, such as globalization, digitalization, and demographic change, as well as the lasting consequences of COVID-19 [10,11].This goes hand-in-hand with a growing disbalance of power between employers and employees, generational conflicts based on Volatility-Uncertainty-Complexity-Ambiguity (hereinafter VUCA), and a lack of qualified specialists [12][13][14].Hence, this paper aims to evaluate the expectations of cohorts of workers from Generations X, Y, and Z with regards to their perceptions of what a "good workplace" is.

2-1-Current Generations in the Workplace
An important feature of the new world of work is the shift in power relations.Although a great deal has changed during the course of the last few decades in terms of the conditions and operational processes within the economic framework, the distribution of power or roles between the main actors has always been clear.[15].For example, in terms of the age structure of an organization, there have always been three generations, at the extremes of which are the "old", who hold the levers of power and gradually hand them over to the next generation, and the "youth", who are just entering the organization and gaining their first experiences of work and who have to wait patiently for their turn, unable to rebel too early [16][17][18].
Today, it can be said that the young, well-educated, and motivated employees of Generation Y and Generation Z are streaming onto the labor market.There they are confronted by older people of generation X who are still fit in their professional lives and are not thinking of handing over the scepter [19,20].Instead, parallel societies can be observed in which three, four, and even five generations work together.Demographic developments, such as increasing life expectancy and low birth rates, and empty pension funds, mean longer working lives.As a result, different age cohorts with very different interests, methods, and goals can end up working alongside one another in the same department, where the balance of power is diluted and corresponding generational conflicts accordingly arise [21][22][23].

2-2-Generation X
The research conducted by Crampton & Hodge [24] and Johnson & Lopes [25] into generational workplace behaviors and expectations revealed that Generation X is more concerned with their career options, prefers organizations that promote skills development, and is motivated by flexible work arrangements and informal work environments.They are the first fully computer literate generation.Likewise, Salahuddin [26] labels Generation X as the first generational cohort to have been introduced to, embraced, and relied on technology.Wey Smola & Sutton [27] state that in the field of work cooperation, people of Generation X tend to be very self-reliant and pragmatic, more "me"-oriented.This generational cohort wants to be independent and autonomous and has an entrepreneurial spirit.They value productivity over the number of hours worked and tend to be outcome focused.Patota et al. [28] state that Generation X people are fully mobile, moving from job to job to improve their careers.This statement is supported by the findings of Lyons et al. [29], who characterized Generation X as self-reliant, independent, and less loyal.Beekman [30] sees this generation as the first to have adopted the paradigm that work is temporary and lifelong employment does not exist, which has been reflected in a decrease in organizational loyalty.These statements correspond to the research results of Whitney Gibson et al. [31], who revealed that instead of trusting authority, Generation X relies on personal entrepreneurial effort, independence, creativity, and demanding fulfilling work.They also see this generational cohort as being not particularly loyal to their employer because they don't expect their employer to be loyal to them.The Generation X stereotype depicts this generation as more likely to leave an employer for more meaningful and challenging work or a higher salary and more benefits because they grew up in a generation where organizations did not reward loyalty.The Generation X cohort responds best to direct communication, which reduces the amount of time wasted.Effective communication with this generation involves clearly communicating expectations and how the outcomes help achieve overall success [30].However, they can be impatient and may have poor people skills.According to Jones et al. [32], one of the most notable values characterizing Generation X is the relatively high value placed on inner harmony and freedom from inner conflict.
Lamm & Meek [33] highlight the significant differences in attitudes towards the workplace between Generation X and Generation Y. Whitney Gibson et al. [31] also studied generational differences in workplace expectations, with Generation Y proving to be far more ambitious, giving preference to securing a comfortable life.Cennamo & Gardner [34], in highlighting the importance of understanding the differences and similarities between generational groups, conversely revealed that there are no generational differences in values, be they intrinsic, social, or altruistic.Similarly, Korn [35] states that there is little scientific evidence to suggest that generational differences are prominent within organizations.Treuren & Andreson [36] go even further, arguing that there are no unique characteristics or behaviors found in different generations, with differences more reflective of life stage and career stage.

2-3-Generation Y
Generation Y has been shaped by the development of megatrends such as globalization, digitalization, and the breakdown of traditional structures and working models [37].Although, unlike Generation X, Generation Y distrusts centralized authority, they do share some values with previous generations.These include optimism about the future and a can-do attitude.Generation Y is also very technologically literate, which has been marked by the widespread use of the Internet and rapid technological advancements [38,39].As a result, communication is less face-to-face and more technology-driven for this cohort.Salahuddin [26] states that Generation Y believes that hard work and goal setting help them achieve their dreams, that they personify tech savviness through social networking and constant connectivity, that they expect to have everyone's full attention and feedback, including mentoring and training, and that they require exciting and relevant work.Within this context, they are also entrepreneurial, while valuing work-life balance more than all previous generations [40][41][42].
Howe & Strauss [43] argue in their publication "Millennials Rising" that, in comparison with previous generations, Generation Y is much more positive, not egocentric, and is more inclined to cooperate in joint activities and team tasks.The opinions of Generation Y and their approach to remuneration are divergent within the scientific community.Constantine [44] and Bilgihan [45] describe the relationship of Generation Y to money and property as very weak.They are convinced that financial evaluation is no longer a major motivating criterion for Generation Y.This belief has been furthered by Generation Y itself by seeking to set themselves apart from prior generations.However, according to research by Aite Research Group, six in ten people from Generation Y said that making a lot of money is as important to them as it is to their parents, with almost 25% stating it is more important and just 15% stating it is less so.The research also showed that about 75% of Generation Y moved money between accounts at least once within the past six months, with 29% doing this six times or more [46].Research conducted by the Families and Work Institute [47] showed that Generation Y is less work-centric than Baby Boomers (13% versus 22%) and more family-centric than Baby Boomers (50% versus 41%).They are looking for work that is creative and brings joy [48].When choosing a job, they focus not only on interesting work but also on the possibility of further professional development and self-realization.They reject routine work, prefer flexible working hours, and appreciate opportunities to work from home or in a dynamic organization [49].Generation Y has a sense of fair play and values teamwork.They want to have a chance to discuss their work or consult with colleagues, and they yearn to be part of projects in which they can learn something new and develop personally.Formal relations are not considered as beneficial as personal relationships.At the forefront of this generation's priorities are personal life, relationships, and family, which is significantly different from Generation X [48].They do not want to be controlled, but coached.They are willing to adapt to their employers' needs but also expect the same from their employers.They are not afraid to express their opinions, do not fear criticism, and prefer open communication.Their weak point may be ignorance of the limits of their own abilities [50].

2-4-Generation Z
Generation X, as is the case with Generation Y, has been researched in depth.Unfortunately, research into Generation Z and work remains limited because of a lack of available data.This is due to the fact that Generation Z workers are still very young and are currently a minority presence in the workforce.It is for this reason that research involving Generation Z has tended to mainly focus on education [51,52] and personal issues [53].

3-Research Methodology
In cooperation with the international personnel service provider Business Pool (www.businesspool.eu), an anonymous survey was conducted from September 2019 to the end of February 2020 among 4,500 employees in the Tyrol, a Euroregion that includes areas of northern Italy and south-western Austria.The survey yielded interesting findings on individual expectations of what a good workplace is.The respondents had to select the 5 most important criteria (each formulated as a statement) from a list of 18 (see Table 1).
The questionnaire consisted of two parts, of which the first involved identification questions: age, gender, industry, size of the organisation the respondent works for (interval <100, 101-500, > 500 employees).The selection criterion for inclusion in the survey was that the respondent had to be working in a company in one of the surveyed industries: industry, trade, hospitality.
A total of 3,650 valid questionnaires were evaluated, representing a return rate of 80%.Multi-sample testing was used during processing.The prerequisite for ANOVA is the normality and homogeneity of the data.The Shapiro-Wilk test was therefore used for this purpose.As the data was determined to be abnormally distributed, the Kruscall-Wallis test was subsequently applied for multi-sample testing [54,55].

Figure 1. Flowchart of the methodology
The null hypothesis of the test is: and the alternative hypothesis is that at least one distribution function is different from the others.If the null hypothesis is rejected according to the test result, post-hoc tests must be applied to find different groups.
For the purposes of evaluating the questionnaire survey, the respondents were divided into three groups [56]:

4-Empirical Results and Discussion
A gender comparison did not reveal any significant differences, with women attaching greater importance to fairness and equal treatment, and men to a common goal.With regards to the level of education of the employees, it can be stated that the importance of work atmosphere, fairness, and work autonomy increases with the level of education.Within this context, it is interesting to note that the lower the level of education, the more important a common goal becomes.With regards to hierarchical level, the apparent lack of importance attached to work autonomy, workload, and corporate image stand out, with the importance thereof decreasing with increasing management responsibilities.Finally, differences were found in terms of company size, with work atmosphere identified as the most important criteria in small companies, and fairness and, unsurprisingly, a common goal in large companies.
The perception of the importance of individual criteria from the perspective of the generations is shown in Table 2.For all three generations, work atmosphere was identified as the most important criterion.This is evidence of the fact that most employees need colleagues they can communicate with and solve problems with.However, the importance of this criterion decreased with the increasing age of the respondents (see Table 2).It can therefore be stated that respondents from Generation Z evaluate work atmosphere as being more important than workers from Generations X and Y.This may be due to employees in Generation Z not having much work experience, which means that communication with colleagues is therefore more important for them.
Respondents selected five criteria and determined their importance on a scale of 1-5.On this scale, 5 represented very important, while 1 not important.The Kruskal-Wallis test was applied to compare values between the three generations.The application of the Kruskal-Wallis test was necessary because the data did not meet the assumption of normality, making it impossible to use the ANOVA test (Table 3).Based on the results of this post-hoc test, a statistically significant difference was found between the evaluation of Generation X and Generations Y and Z, but with none found between Generation Z and Generation Y.It can therefore be stated that both generations think similarly in terms of work atmosphere.

Table 3. Results of post-hoc test for
If the outputs focus purely on the overall number of respondents who consider a given criterion to be important (see Table 2), criterion J (employees are valued, treated, and rewarded fairly) comes in second place for all three generations, with a significant generational gap in importance.Unlike the youngest generation, employees in Generation X are more likely to accept unfairness at work because they realize that the employer's and employees' points of view are different; they also perceive potential complaints as risky, resulting in them potentially losing their jobs (Table 4).This situation may be due to the fact that comparisons and good evaluations are very important at the moment, to which the young generation attaches significant importance.Older, experienced employees already understand that other criteria are also important for work satisfaction.
If the comparison is again made using the Kruskal-Wallis test, a statistically significant difference between the generations can be found.In post-hoc tests, a statistically significant difference was only identified between Generations X and Z.The criteria that comes in third place differs for each of the generations, with the oldest respondents, i.e., Generation X, identifying a sense of belonging and working on common goals as important.For Generation Z, the latter criterion only comes in sixth place, and for Generation Y, it comes in fourth place.Based on this result, it can be stated that the older the respondents, the more importance they attach to common goals.This could be due to the fact that employees in Generation X are more loyal to the company they work for, care about the overall results of the company, and do not prioritize their personal objectives.A statistically significant difference was demonstrated between Generations Y and Z (Table 5).For those respondents in Generation Y, third place went to individual agreement on working hours and content of work (identified as criterion R).The importance attached to this criterion for this generation may be due to the fact that this age group currently represents respondents from households with young children who are happy if they can organize their working times accordingly.It can be assumed that the importance of this indicator will also grow as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, which has seen employees keen on and giving greater priority to the option of organizing their own working hours.

Table 5. Results of post-hoc test for
For Generation X, this criterion comes in seventh place, and for Generation Z, it comes in eighth place.For those respondents in Generation Z, third place went jointly to the fair treatment of employees (identified as criterion F) and the possibility of questioning (identified as criterion G).
Criteria G is considered important depending on the age of the respondents.As the age of the respondents' increases, the smaller the proportion of those who consider this criterion important (Generation Y -21.9%;Generation X -19.3%).This finding is conditioned by the length of the respondents' work experience, whereby older workers do not consider the possibility of questioning to be such a positive.
If focus is placed on the criterion perceived by the respondents to be the most important, as evaluated by the respondents awarding the criterion five points, i.e., TOP5, then, without giving due consideration to the age difference of the respondents, more than 15% identified criterion A (16.38%) and criterion J (15.12%).The only other criterion to exceed the 10% mark was L (12.83%).
The results presented in Table 6 can be summarized as follows: Employees in Generation Z prioritize issues related to fairness for all employees.The most important criterion for them is fair remuneration, despite the fact that these employees do not have much work experience and their opinions can therefore be affected accordingly.A company's corporate image is considered to be of the least importance to respondents across all three generations.This criterion, therefore, does not have to be mentioned when hiring new employees.

4-1-Summary of Results -Implications for Managers
On the basis of the data in Table 6, HR managers can implement measures into the work environment and leadership style that will support their companies' in meeting the expectations of these three generational cohorts.
 Implication 1: corporate image is not important: This was the most surprising finding of the research, with less than 4% of respondents attaching importance to it.
 Implication 2: no significant differences in areas of fairness, work atmosphere, common goals, equal treatment, communication, team spirit and autonomous organisation of work(time): The aforementioned values play an equally important role for employees of all ages, educational levels and industrial sectors.
 Implication 3: for Generation X, common goals and customer orientation are important: The older the employees, the more important it is to work towards a common goal.This aspect is therefore the most important for Generation X. Customer orientation plays a much greater role for the "older" Generation X than for the "young" Generations Y and Z.
 Implication 4: for Generations Y and Z, the autonomous organisation of work(time), fairness and work atmosphere are important: The importance of the latter two criteria to younger workers is very clear.Whereas the autonomous organisation of work(time) is vehemently demanded by young employees (Generations Y and Z), it plays no role for older ones (Generation X).
 Implication 5: work atmosphere is the most important criterion across the generations: Work atmosphere was identified by 53.3% of respondents as the most important criterion, i.e.TOP5, with no other criterion being identified to a similar level.This criterion is often linked to the quality of the work environment, with the majority of respondents apparently being very aware of the fact that this significantly affects the quality and productivity of an individual's work.
 Implication 6: corporate image is the least important criterion: Corporate image was only identified by 2.8% of respondents as important.This applies across the generations: Z (2.8%); Y (5.9%); X (5.8%).
The central question is: How can all these diverse expectations be fulfilled in the best possible way in terms of effective human resource management?The research in this study supports the idea that meeting the expectations of employees in the best possible way and in line with a company's goals is the task of every manager [57].Successful human resource management in the future will therefore lie primarily in an efficient and as concrete as possible division of labor between the HR department and the line manager.Although this idea is easy to describe and understand, it is not always easy to implement in practice.It neither requires major organizational changes nor an increase in resources.It is not a question of decentralization or hierarchical assignment.What is necessary, however, is that this idea find support in the minds of the individual actors [45,46].Due to the exceptional situation caused by the coronavirus, the process of staff management has taken place under particularly difficult conditions, namely often at a distance [47].Especially in such uncertain times, the relationship between employees and managers should provide orientation and security [36].

4-2-Discussion
A better understanding of the generational differences between colleagues can lead to better recruitment, retention, succession management, communication, employee engagement, and conflict resolution [27,58,59].Conversely, there are researchers who criticize cohort theory based on the assumption that no cohort can be seen as homogenous and that not every member of a particular cohort is influenced in the same way by the political, economic, and social environment.They speculate that perhaps these differences should be attributed to life cycle, age, or stage in life instead of generational cohorts [60][61][62].
The TOP5 criterion for each generational cohort was established, and the statistically significant differences in their responses were demonstrated.Similar studies by Yang & Guy [63] and Montana & Petit [64] have focused on motivational factors at work.Deal [65] analyzed, on the basis of a sample of 3,200 US respondents, ten different workrelated areas and proved the support for generational differences, especially in the area of workplace conflict.
The results of the survey presented in this paper show that the older the employees (Generations X and Y), the more important it is to work towards a common goal.In contrast, justice and work atmosphere clearly come in first place for younger workers in Generations Y and Z.This corresponds to the results of Twenge & Campbell [66], who observed that Generation Yers had higher self-esteem and a lower need for social approval.Likewise, Lyons et al. [67] examined basic human value differences between generations using the Schwartz Value Survey, monitoring the differences between Generation X and Y with respect to "openness to change" and "self-enhancement".Wesner & Miller [68] confirmed the need for meaningful work and successful careers expressed by Generation Y workers.Wong et al. [69] recognized the motivational differences among Australian Generations X and Y. Another study found that Generations X and Y varied in their attitudes towards leadership, organizational atmosphere, and work [70].The differences in motivation between these generations were also confirmed by Stapleton et al. [71].The generational difference can also be seen in customer orientation, which plays a much larger role for Generations X and Y.While the opposite is true for the autonomous organization of work (time), which is important for Generation Z. Research repeatedly addresses work values and differences in approach across generations, with Lyons et al. [67].finding generational differences among four of the five work values they studied.Social work values, such as interacting with others, as well as prestige work values, were more important for younger generations (Generations X and Y).Generation X individuals were found to place the most importance on intrinsic work values relative to Generation Y.

Age 1 (
Generation Z)born from 1996 onwards  Age 2 (Generation Y)born between 1980 and 1995  Age 3 (Generation X)born between 1965 and 1975 Research questions RQ1: The older the employees, the more important it is to work towards a common goal.RQ2: Fairness and work atmosphere are clearly the most important values for the younger workers of Generations Y and Z. Kruskal-Wallis ANOVA Survey-provider Business Pool Processing of questionnaires-reduction to filled out 3650 valid questionnaires Test normality of data -Shapiro-Wilk