Understanding Y: Contributions and Limitations

The purpose of this study was to examine how members of Generation Y talk about and understand the concepts of work, career, and work-life balance. Participants in this study deem a “real job,” as reported by Clair (1996), “a career” and thus draw parallels in describing a career as a real job, one that is not merely a means to an end but something that offers them an opportunity for advancement, fair compensation for their time (via money or other rewards), and the ability to enjoy, if not love, going to work everyday. While the similarities between findings of this study and Clair’s (1996) are noteworthy, three additional primary contributions of this research exist.

First, prior to this research study, little qualitative accounts of Generation Y preferences, viewpoints, and opinions existed. Rather, most accounts of Generation Y entering the work force, both in academic and popular press literature, came from quantitative surveys and polls. Providing a qualitative account of how the generation sees themselves in the coming workforce provides rich information about why generation Y is described with the attributes it is. However, as is custom with qualitative data, the participants of this study do not represent Generation Y as a whole and the findings cannot be generalized.

Second, this research holds important implications for organizations, particularly those that are allocating a large amount of time and resources to understanding this generation. While it rings of a utopian nature, all participants in the focus group had a primary expectation that an organization and the managers treat members of generation Y with respect, give them enough information to do their job correctly, and continuously challenge them with projects they can learn from. Additionally, members of Generation Y were only concerned with money in-so-far that they had enough to be comfortable. More important was that they are given responsibility and trusted to contribute to the organization.

Finally, this research provides an avenue for a more detailed examination of how members of Generation Y expect to achieve and maintain work-life balance. Most focus group participants indicated a clear family first mantra and had an expectation that the organizations they work for will respect that “I work to live I don’t live to work.” Only one participant expressed no interest in having a family. However, all of the others indicated a plan to work hard to get where they need to be so they can afford to put their family first. Several others indicated that working for an organization that does not understand that “life happens” or does not understand that family is important is reason enough to find a new company. This finding holds important implications for employers who do not yet provide adequate time for maternity leave, paid vacation, and other perks that allow employees time away from the office. For example, several references were made to the Google Corporation and how they seem to “have it right, where I can take my kids to daycare right there, work out right there, and be part of an exciting company…now if only that’s what I wanted to do.”

Based on limitations of this study, future areas of research are also proffered. First, this study experienced low attendance at several of the focus groups conducted despite the fact that the primary researcher scheduled focus groups around participants’ schedules, two forms of confirmation were sent out before each focus group, and extra credit was offered to many of the participants. Future studies might consider a more drastic incentive for participants to encourage participation.

Additionally, while the information garnered from participants was extremely useful, nearly all of the participants were speaking about their expectations of an organization and their conceptions of work, career, and work-life balance in a future tense. Only one of the focus groups was comprised of individuals already in the work force and their answers did differ from those still attending college. Future research would do well to examine members of Generation Y who are already in the workforce to examine the expectations that were present before entering the workforce and how those expectations have been met, unmet, exceeded or even changed as a result of being in the workforce.