Generational Differences in Work Attitudes : A comparative analysis of Generation Y and preceding generations from companies in Sweden

Sammanfattning: Introduction: A population that can live and work longer has resulted in a wider range of generations being active in the workplace simultaneously and the diverse multi-generational work environment is a new challenge for human resource management. The most recent generation that is entering the job market is Generation Y, which is also referred to as Millennials. Currently, organizations and Human Resource departments are facing the issue of Generation Y entering the workforce and the issue at hand is considered to be real. The main focus in this paper is Generation Y and how their work attitudes in the workplace differ or resembles that of the previous generations. Purpose: With this research we want to primarily establish and present our observation of the differences in Generation Y and preceding generations’ work attitudes occurring in multi-generational workplaces, and later evaluate to what extent it is present in the work environment of the chosen business sectors in Sweden. Method: This thesis major applies the deductive approach. Both primary data and secondary data were collected during the research. Primary data was collected through interviews and the secondary data was gathered from Internet resources, books, published articles and journals. Conclusion: The differences between the generations’ work attitude are present within all of the aspects of work attitudes studied excluding individual vs. team orientation where the data was conflicting. Differences in some aspects were more and the potential to cause clash was noticeable and in other aspects there were less differences or personal factors found to be more important than generational factors.