Work Values and Beliefs of 'Generation X' and 'Generation Y'

Journal of Youth Studies1

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Journal of Youth Studies

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Work values and beliefs of ‘Generation X’ and ‘Generation Y’

Harvey J. Krahna & Nancy L. Galambosb

a

Department of Sociology, University of Alberta, Edmonton, AB,

Canada

b

Department of Psychology, University of Alberta, Edmonton, AB, Canada

Published online: 16 Jul 2013.

To cite this article: Harvey J. Krahn & Nancy L. Galambos (2014) Work values and beliefs of ‘Generation X’ and ‘Generation Y’, Journal of Youth Studies, 17:1, 92-112, DOI:

10.1080/13676261.2013.815701

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Journal of Youth Studies, 2014

Vol. 17, No. 1, 92112,

Work values and beliefs of ‘Generation X’ and ‘Generation Y’

Harvey J. Krahna* and Nancy L. Galambosb

ab

Department of Sociology, University of Alberta, Edmonton, AB, Canada; Department of Psychology, University of Alberta, Edmonton, AB, Canada

(Received 30 October 2012; final version received 15 May 2013)

This study examined cohort differences and intraindividual change in the intrinsic and extrinsic work values and job entitlement beliefs of Canadian high school seniors (classes of 1985 and 1996, representing ‘Generation X’ and ‘Generation Y’, respectively) surveyed at age 18 and again at age 25. The 1996 cohort placed more value on extrinsic work rewards (at age 25) and reported stronger job entitlement beliefs. Intrinsic work values increased in both cohorts during early adulthood, whereas extrinsic work values increased only in the 1996 cohort. Job entitlement beliefs decreased on average but less so in the 1996 cohort and in women. Predictors of intraindividual change depended on the outcome but included gender, academic experiences at age 18 (grades and post-secondary aspirations), post-high school labour market (unemployment) and educational experiences (obtaining a university degree), and adult statuses at age 25 (full-time worker, parent).

Keywords: generation; attitudes; young adulthood

Introduction

Media and popularised social science accounts of how work values and beliefs of young adults today differ from those of previous generations appear frequently, despite a scarcity of well-constructed cohort-comparison studies (Twenge et al. 2010). Such conclusions about social change are often based on cross-sectional studies in which differences in values and beliefs across age groups are taken as evidence of cohort or generational differences. However, cross-sectional designs confound cohort or generational effects with age differences (Schaie and Caskie 2005), an important concern, given evidence of considerable intraindividual change in work values as teenagers become young adults, acquire further education, gain labour market experience, and move into adult roles (Johnson 2001a, 2001b; Johnson and Elder 2002).

Time-lag studies comparing samples of young people of the same age surveyed in different decades are an improvement for drawing conclusions about cohort differences, but better still is the use of a longitudinal sequential design involving two or more longitudinal studies with two or more cohorts (Schaie and Caskie 2005). The current study uses a longitudinal sequence design to compare work values and beliefs at ages 18 and 25 in two cohorts of young Canadians who completed high school a decade apart. The graduating ‘class of 1985’ can be seen as an exemplar of

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‘Generation X’ as described by many in the media and popular social science (e.g. Coupland 1991; Halstead 1999), while the ‘class of 1996’ could perhaps be characterised as representative of ‘Generation Y’, a cohort with supposedly different attitudes and behaviours according to similar commentators (e.g. Howe and Strauss 2000; Montana and Lenaghan 1999; Schneider and Stevenson 1999).

Longitudinal research has demonstrated that young people’s work values, the perceived importance of various job characteristics, help shape their career choices and outcomes (Johnson and Mortimer 2011), and also influence later marital status and parenthood (Johnson 2005). The same body of research reveals that work values change substantially as young people complete their educations (Johnson and Elder 2002), experience the labour market (Johnson and Monserud 2010), and take on new roles (Jin and Rounds 2012). Previous research has shown that intrinsic and extrinsic work values (preferences for interesting work with opportunities to use skills and make decisions, or for material rewards like pay, benefits and job security, respectively) tend to have dissimilar origins and outcomes (Johnson et al. 2007; Johnson and Mortimer 2011). Hence, in this comparison of two cohorts of youth, we also focus on both intrinsic and extrinsic work values. We also examine job entitlement (i.e. the belief that hard work in school entitles one to a good job), a subject that has received very little research attention despite many media and popular social science accounts of how young people today apparently expect and demand more than did their counterparts in the past.

More difficult labour market conditions and rising levels of post-secondary enrollment figure prominently in a number of generational change narratives (e.g. Arnett 2000; Coupland 1991). Hence, we focus explicitly on young people’s labour market and post-secondary experiences in our analyses of how work values change from ages 18 to 25 and how they differ across cohorts. Previous research has highlighted how gender, family socioeconomic status (SES), high school performance, and transitions into adult roles (e.g. marriage, parenthood) shape the work values of adolescents, so we also incorporate these factors into our analyses. Thus, our two-cohort study is shaped by a life course perspective (Elder 1994; Mayer 2009) that takes into account the ongoing interplay among social origins, social and cultural contexts, and individual experiences and agency during the early adult years. When modelling the effects of labour market experiences and educational attainment on change in work values and beliefs, we also rely on value reinforcement theory (Johnson 2001a), which predicts that people bring their values into alignment with their current (or anticipated) work rewards.

Work values: cohort/generational differences?

Karl Mannheim ([1927] 1952) argued that a series of adjacent birth cohorts could be called a ‘generation’ if, during the formative years (childhood and adolescence), they encountered sufficiently large-scale social and economic change (i.e. ‘dynamic destabilization’) to develop a shared understanding of their cohorts’ common destiny. More recently, Eyerman and Turner (1998) defined a generation as birth cohorts with a collective memory emerging from a highly unique shared ‘habitus’ (Bourdieu 1990) and culture. Thus, from this theoretical perspective, generations are not simply 25 year sets of birth cohorts (i.e. children, parents, grandparents). Nor should we assign a generational label to a set of adjacent birth cohorts on the basis of

Journal of Youth Studies1

relatively small attitudinal or behavioural differences. In contrast, as an example, the ‘children of the Great Depression’ (Elder 1974) would be considered a unique generation.

Given rapid economic growth, expanding educational opportunities, widespread upward social mobility, and significant cultural change in western societies in the post-war decades, ‘baby boomers’ (about 20 very large cohorts born between 1946 and 1965) are also often considered a generation (Foot and Stoffman 2001; Owram 1996). As our review below of economic and social change in the 1970s and 1980s suggests, the post baby-boom cohorts might warrant a label like Generation X. We also note below that some commentators refer to children born in the 80s and 90s as Generation Y, although it is not clear to us that this set of birth cohorts is, in fact, a unique generation. Because the Generation X and Y labels are ubiquitous, however, we use them to identify the two cohorts we examine in this paper the graduating classes of 1985 and 1996.

Generation X

Major recessions at the beginning of both the 1980s and the 1990s led to several extended periods of very high youth unemployment in Canada, the US, and Western Europe. Both decades were characterised by industrial restructuring, organisational downsizing, contractions in government hiring, and rising rates of part-time and temporary employment, all of which particularly affected youth. Despite their growing participation in post-secondary education, transitions from school to work for the post-baby boomers became more complex, prolonged, and difficult (Andres and Wyn 2010; Krahn, Howard, and Galambos 2012; Furlong and Cartmel 1997; Marquardt 1998; Shanahan 2000). Some media commentators called the 1966 to 1980 birth cohorts the ‘lost’ or ‘scarred’ generation. The label that stuck Generation X came from a best-selling novel (Coupland 1991).

The mismatch between high career expectations (based on their parents’ success) and limited labour market opportunities for Generation X could certainly have led to lower work commitment and to more value placed on extrinsic rather than intrinsic work rewards (the scenario painted by Coupland and most media accounts). Barnard, Cosgrave, and Welsh (1998, 199) reached a different conclusion, claiming that this generation is not at all disaffected, even though its members are less committed to traditional institutions. In fact, ‘...what they want most from work [is] challenge, collaboration, task variety, and greater impact’. In short, according to this popularised social science account, members of Generation X appear to be primarily intrinsically, not extrinsically, motivated. A recent meta-analysis of longitudinal studies of intraindividual change in work values does not directly address this issue, but concludes that, compared to Baby Boomers, Generation X exhibited lower rankorder stability in work values during early adulthood (Jin and Rounds 2012).

Generation Y

Youth unemployment rates were not as high in the late 1990s and early 2000s as they were in the two previous decades, but industrial restructuring and corporate and government downsizing continued, as did growth in part-time and temporary, often low-skill jobs (Kalleberg 2009; Vosko 2005). Even more than the Generation X cohorts, birth cohorts of the 1980s and 1990s bought into the belief that postsecondary education was required for labour market success (Reynolds et al. 2006; Schneider and Stevenson 1999). Hence, post-secondary enrollments continued to rise in both the US and Canada (Davies and Guppy 2006; Goldrick-Rab 2006), even though opportunities for the rewarding jobs young people hoped to obtain did not expand accordingly.

Some observers were concerned about the long-term societal effects of large numbers of youth whose high ambitions were not aligned with reality and who frequently chose educational pathways unlikely to lead to satisfactory adult employment (Reynolds et al. 2006; Schneider and Stevenson 1999). While a recent US study (Reynolds and Baird 2010) suggests that unmet post-secondary educational aspirations may not have the negative mental health consequences some predicted, a Norwegian study does show negative mental health effects of unmet occupational aspirations (Gjerustad and van Soest 2012). Other commentators have described high school and college students demanding and feeling entitled to immediate rewards, while failing to work hard to obtain them (Coates and Morrison 2011, 112114; Twenge 2006). These two lines of argument suggest that members of more recent birth cohorts (Generation Y) might believe more strongly than members of Generation X that if they have worked hard in school they should be entitled to a good job.

Howe and Strauss (2000) describe teenagers in the late 1990s as highly motivated, eager to work in teams, and socially concerned. Yet they say little about specific work values beyond observing that jobs with fringe benefits and opportunities for promotion are most desired. This sounds like Generation Y is more extrinsically than intrinsically motivated. However, Bibby, Russell, and Rolheiser (2009, 196) present 2008 data showing that three-quarters or more of Canadian teenagers agreed that finding a job with interesting work and that provided a feeling of accomplishment (intrinsic work values) was very important. Fewer (about two-thirds) agreed that jobs that paid well and offered chances for advancement (extrinsic work values) were very important. In other words, they were somewhat more intrinsically motivated. In contrast to both accounts, Twenge’s (2006) assessment is much less positive and optimistic, characterising this generation as having very high expectations and a strong sense of entitlement.

Time-lag studies of cohort differences in work values

Differing opinions about the work values of Generation X and Generation Y can be investigated through time-lag studies that directly compare cohorts/generations. Twenge et al. (2010) used data collected from US high school seniors in 1976, 1991, and 2006 to compare the work values of Baby Boomers, Generation X, and Generation Me (Twenge’s label for Generation Y). Generation Me reported marginally lower intrinsic work values than did both Generation X and the Baby Boomers. Generation X placed the most emphasis on the material rewards of work (extrinsic work values), followed by Generation Me and, then, the Baby Boom generation. In short, few generational differences were observed in intrinsic work values, but higher extrinsic work values were found in Generation X.

Although they did not explicitly compare ‘generations’, Wray-Lake et al. (2011) examined the work values of 30 cohorts (19762005) of US high school seniors, using annual Monitoring the Future survey data. Compared to high school seniors of the 1980s, more recent cohorts (the 1990s and early 2000s) placed less value on job security, and somewhat less emphasis on other extrinsic work rewards (i.e. pay, promotions, status). Intrinsic work values also tended to be lower in more recent cohorts. Thus, Wray-Lake et al.’s (2011) findings suggest higher intrinsic and extrinsic work values in Generation X compared to Generation Y.

Turning to Canadian data, Bibby, Russell, and Rolheiser (2009) reported that similar proportions of teenagers in 1984 and 2008 agreed on the importance of work that was interesting, provided a feeling of accomplishment, offered chances for advancement, and paid well. However, 50% of the 2008 cohort, compared to only 32% of the 1984 cohort, agreed that decision-making opportunities were very important. In short, the general findings from these three time-lag studies do not lead to a clear conclusion about differences between Generation X and Y in extrinsic and intrinsic work values.

Lowe and Krahn (2000) compared the work aspirations and attitudes of two cohorts of Canadian high school seniors (classes of 1985 and 1996). They found little evidence of cohort differences in work values and beliefs, but speculated that larger differences might be found if the same participants were surveyed after they acquired experience in the post-secondary educational system and the labour market. The current paper responds to that suggestion by examining work values and job entitlement beliefs of members of these same two cohorts at both ages 18 and 25. Below, we review research that shows the importance of taking intraindividual change in work values during early adulthood into account when comparing ‘generations’.

Work values: intraindividual change

Using longitudinal data from five sequential cohorts (197680) of high school seniors surveyed in the University of Michigan’s annual Monitoring the Future survey, Johnson (2001a) explored how work values shifted in the decade after high school, between ages 18 and 3132. She concluded that ‘job values change substantially during the young adult years’ (311) but that they tend to stabilise with age. In general, extrinsic work values declined considerably, but intrinsic values changed relatively little. Two other longitudinal studies examining change between ages 18 and 22, one Dutch (Van Der Velde, Feij, and van Emmerik 1998) and the other American (Cotton, Bynum, and Madhere 1997), also showed extrinsic work values declining with age. Intrinsic work values showed an increase, but only in middle-class youth in the US study. A recent meta-analysis of longitudinal studies (Jin and Rounds 2012) revealed considerable instability in work values during early adulthood, but did not show significant changes in either intrinsic or extrinsic work values between ages 18 and 22 and between ages 22 and 26. Thus, beyond agreement that work values change during the post-high school years, there is no consensus about the direction of change in intrinsic and extrinsic work values.

Work values of young adults: gender, family, educational, and occupational influences

Early studies of gender differences in the work values of youth emphasised men’s preference for jobs offering extrinsic rewards in contrast to jobs with social and altruistic rewards typically preferred by women (e.g. Bridges 1989; Lyson 1984).

Since then the occupational aspirations of young women rose (Andres et al. 1999; Shu and Marini 1998) as did their post-secondary enrollments (Cho 2007; Jacobs 1996). Consequently, gender differences in work values have also changed. A study of US high school seniors graduating between 1976 and 1980 showed higher extrinsic work values among men and higher intrinsic, social, and altruistic work values among women (Johnson 2001a, 2002). In the mid-1990s, young women appeared to be more intrinsically oriented than young men, but there was no gender difference in extrinsic work values (Johnson and Mortimer 2011). Johnson (2001a) observed few gender differences in intraindividual change in work values in early adulthood. Johnson (2001b) also concluded that, to the extent they existed, gender differences in value change were likely the result of the types of jobs women held.