Millennials’ work values: differences across the school to work transition

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to investigate whether work values vary across different life and career stages in a sample of Millennials. Design/methodology/approach – The sample for this study was comprised of 906 Canadian Millennials (born between 1980 and 1994). Findings – Pre-career and working Millennials varied in terms of the importance they placed on five work values – interesting work, achievement, good co-workers, doing work that helped people and salary – although these differences were small in magnitude. This suggests that Millennials’ work values are relatively stable as they grow older and gain work experience. Research limitations/implications – A large body of research citing generational differences relies upon cross-sectional studies which compares different generations of individuals at different life stages, thus making it impossible to disentangle whether the differences are a result of generational or life-cycle effects. The findings that the importance of work values shift...