Generational differences in the perception of work and workplace

The war for talent (Ware & Grantham, 2003), caused by a shifting workforce and an increasing importance of knowledge workers, has driven organizations to seek optimum working conditions for their staff in order to retain key employees and to optimize performance. In order to retain (future) workers, a thorough insight in workers' needs is required. Age-related or generational differentiation regarding work and workspace has been suggested by several researchers such as Howe and Strauss (2007) and Puybaraud (2010). This study sets out to explore generational differences in facility management employees expectations of their organizations and their workspace and aims to establish links between work environment and outcomes such as organizational commitment and performance. Results from a quantitative study (N=117) suggest that levels of distraction and group cohesiveness influence both performance and commitment, but no evidence was found to suggest that these relationships are influenced by one's generation or age group. Therefore, we conclude that when developing workspace, one should focus on employees' satisfaction and preferences and not focus on popular beliefs of Generation Y's characteristics.