Bridging Generations and Values: Understanding Generation Z’s Organizational Preferences and the Mediating Role of Sustainability and Innovation Attitudes in Turkey

Abstract

Gen Z is well-recognized as the first generation to have lived through the full digital era. They are used to utilizing technology, have been on social media since they were young children, and have even developed an addiction to it because they grew up in a technologically advanced world. Preliminary research has looked at Gen Z’s educational preferences in the marketing and education realms, as well as product promotion techniques directed towards them. Furthermore, most of the early Gen Z research was conducted in the United States. Because there is a lack of reliable literature studies on HR and organizational research material related to Gen Z and their career-related objectives, organizations are ill-prepared to accept this new generation into the workforce. This study identifies the organizational values that the members of Generation Z find significant. The purpose of the study is to ascertain how closely the members of Generation Z align with corporate values and preferences. The research employs a quantitative methodology: 109 Turkish university students who were enrolled in classes were given a survey. Consequently, this identified the preferences of Generation Z members in Turkey. The literature lacks reliable studies regarding diverse investigations on Generation Z’s preferences conducted outside of the United States. This research will add to the literature about this topic. This study’s conclusions highlight how complex and multidimensional Generation Z’s views are regarding innovation and sustainability in the Turkish setting. The analyses did not show any significant mediating or predicting effects, contrary to the initial hypotheses that suggested a direct relationship between these attitudes, society contributions, educational attainment, and personal values. This implies that the variables influencing university students in Generation Z’s sustainability and innovation orientations are more complicated than previously thought and might not be directly impacted by the variables looked at in this study.

Keywords

• Generation Z
• latent class analysis
• organizational preferences
• human resources management