10/12/2010ARCHIVED“Generation Y” doesn’t exist according to a Rouen Business School researcher

The members of Generation Y — the term given to distinguish people born between 1978 and 1994 — are often characterized as having an ease with technology, and an egocentric, cynical attitude in the workplace. But findings in a study conducted by Rouen Business School professor, Jean Pralong, show that there is no generational difference between the attitudes of people in the workplace, debunking the very concept of a Generation Y.

Professor Pralong carried out an inter-generational study on 400 participants with similar educational backgrounds, ranging from students to salaried workers in their 60s. The study showed that attitudes toward the workplace and ideas about careers between Generation X (those born between roughly 1959 and 1981) and the so-called Generation Y are the same.

The research compared three groups: Masters Level students of Generation Y, salaried workers of Generation Y in their first jobs, and salaried workers from Generation X. Through interviews with these groups, primary attitudes emerged. More similarities were found in workplace attitudes and approaches between workers in Generation Y and Generation X than similarities between students in Generation Y and salaried workers in Generation Y, demonstrating that context creates a more significant link between these groups than generation.

“For economists, a generation is constituted of people who confront the same conditions at work. The study showed that no difference exists between 25-year-olds and 45-year-olds at work. This shows that on a scientific level, Generation Y doesn’t exist,” Pralong said.

Attitudes central to the thinking of students of Generation Y included colleagues being dishonest with each other, and the idea that everyone has a vocation but a career is constructed from opportunism. For salaried workers, avoiding unemployment, the role of a manager and the importance of opportunism emerged as central thinking.

Pralong undertook the study because he realized that most perceptions of Generation Y were based on anecdotes told by managers or recommendations by consultants. The large majority of what has been written about Generation Y has not been based on official studies.

The study was published in Revue Internationale de Psychoscoiologie in 2010.