=Paper=
{{Paper
|id=Vol-2789/paper8
|storemode=property
|title=How Millenials, Gen Z, and Technology are Changing the Workplace Design?
|pdfUrl=https://ceur-ws.org/Vol-2789/paper8.pdf
|volume=Vol-2789
|authors=Marija Topuzovska Latkovikj,Mirjana Borota Popovska
|dblpUrl=https://dblp.org/rec/conf/stpis/LatkovikjP20
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==How Millenials, Gen Z, and Technology are Changing the Workplace Design?==
https://ceur-ws.org/Vol-2789/paper8.pdf
HOW MILLENNIALS, GEN Z, AND TECHNOLOGY ARE CHANGING
THE WORKPLACE DESIGN?
Marija Topuzovska Latkovikja, Mirjana Borota Popovskab
a
University “Ss. Cyril and Methodius”, marija_t@isppi.ukim.edu.mk, Skopje, Republic of North Macedonia
b
University “Ss. Cyril and Methodius”, mborota@isppi.ukim.edu.mk, Skopje, Republic of North Macedonia
Abstract
Today’s youth population is consisted from two generations: Millennials and Generation Z. It
is expected that these two generation cohorts will dominate workplace environments by
2025. Companies will need to have a workplace they would like to work in. Digital
technology, changing lifestyles and an emphasis on company culture have had a significant
influence across every industry. The evolution of technology and the Internet, in particular,
are transforming the workplaces and the world of work in general. The entrance of these
younger generations into the workforce is further impacting the way companies organize
themselves, communicate, and conduct business. In terms of workplace design, there is a
responsibility to respond to these evolving needs with spaces that empower both, people and
businesses. A debate and interest regarding this issue, especially from the socio-technical
theory/perspective, human resource management and strategic management are highly
required and expected in academic and business communities.
Keywords
Socio-technical theory, human resource management, strategic management, generational
differences, technology, workplace design
1. Introduction
Socio-Technical Systems Design (STSD) methods are an approach to design which consider
human, social and organizational factors, as well as technical factors in the design of organizational
systems [1]. According Bednar & Welch [2] “effectiveness in any purposeful activity is a socio-
technical phenomenon“ and “in contemplating design of work and/or organization, a systemic
perspective is needed”. Every aspect of socio-technical change requires a human-centered design
perspective, whether work systems comprise people-to-people interactions, machine-to-machine
interactions, or combinations of both [3].
On the other hand, human resource management is defined as “a strategic and coherent approach
to the management of an organization’s most valued assets – the people working there who
individually and collectively contributes to the achievement of its objectives” [4] and strategic
management “as the art and science of formulating, implementing, and evaluating cross-functional
decisions that enable an organization to achieve its objectives” [5]. This definition implies “strategic
management focuses on integrating management, marketing, finance/accounting,
production/operations, research and development, and information systems to achieve organizational
success” [6].
With work itself changing, the organizational structures and systems within which it is done
changing, the character of the workforce changing, and the tools used to do work changing, the
physical spaces in which work occurs must change as well [7]. However, there is scant attention paid
to workplace design and its implications for business strategy and success. Academics generally
Proceedings of the 6th International Workshop on Socio-Technical Perspective in IS Development (STPIS 2020), June 8-9, 2020
EMAIL: marija_t@isppi.ukim.edu.mk (a); mborota@isppi.ukim.edu.mk (b)
ORCID: 0000-0001-6069-5690 (a) 0000-0002-7272-7554 (b)
© 2020 Copyright for this paper by its authors.
Use permitted under Creative Commons License Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0).
CEUR Workshop Proceedings (CEUR-WS.org)
53
ignore the effects of workplace design in their research on work and the organization of work, and
practitioners rarely tie workplace design to their business strategies or to the performance of their
organizations [8].
The workplace (re)design examines people, systems and processes, results, and the culture of the
workplace to result in increased efficiency, potential financial savings, and employee well-being and
satisfaction. The model that workplace (re)design follows is: getting started, planning the changes,
making the changes, and finally sustaining the changes that were made [9]. But it’s important to note
that the role of the workplace hasn’t changed; it remains the primary space where business strategy is
delivered. What has changed, however, is the way these business strategies are delivered – which
requires much more adaptability, flexibility, speed and collaboration.
Workplace design is a highly iterative, messy, and never-ending process that (according the
management literature) involves four dimensions depicted in Figure [10]: financial management,
organizational design, information technology, and facilities management. Workplace design,
centered among these four dimensions, must integrate the goals, objectives, and considerations of
each dimension to successfully support business strategy.
Figure 1: Workplace design model
Work design theory and research have largely overlooked workforce diversity issues and the
human-centered technology approach, which is the main authors’ position in this paper.
Increasingly diversified workforce in general and generational differences specifically should
encourage scholars and HR professionals to question traditional notions of what makes workers thrive
in work contexts. Demographic trends, accompanied with economic, technological and cultural
changes, require commensurate shifts in how work is structured and organized [11][12][13][14].
Consequently, work design should meet personal values and work preferences of different
generations of employees, the same should be considered regarding the workplace design. Personal
values and work preferences of workforce generations in particular delineate organizational behavior
patterns that can be further shaped through a careful design of the organizational work setting [15].
By taking into consideration personal values and work preferences [16], of various generational
cohorts and through achieving a person-job fit, organizations can potentially increase the performance
level of their employees [17].
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1.1. Generation cohort theory
The scientific consideration of generational differences can be traced back to the 1950’s. All
individuals, no matter whether they would admit it, belong to a certain generation location within a
particular society [18]. The generation’s (social) location indicates to definite modes of behavior,
feeling and thought. The generation “cohort” is defined as people of a particular population who
experience the same significant event within a certain time period or as a set of individuals entering a
system at the same time, who are presumed to have similarities due to shared experiences that
differentiate them [19]. The way in which Mannheim’s [20] theory of generations illuminates the
multiple nature of time arises from the mutual phasing of two different calendars, the one of personal
life span (biological age/life cycle) and the other of history. Generational time refers to the age groups
or cohorts in which people are grouped, based upon their age, while historical time refers to societal
or large-scale changes or events and how these affect individuals and families, such as political and
economic changes, wars and/or technological innovations [21]. A generation is defined as “a set of
historical events and related phenomena that creates a distinct generational gap” [22].
Six generations have been identified in the literature: Veterans, Baby-boomers, Gen X, Gen
Y/Millennials, Gen Z and Alfa generation (Figure 2). Apart from detailed characterization of each
generation, the paper rather focuses on the generation Y/Millennials and generation Z.
Figure 2: Timeline of generations [23]
The Millennial generation is a cohort of young people whose “leading edge” members graduated
high school in 2000, what gives this generation its name [24]. Oxford Living Dictionaries describes
Generation Z as "the generation reaching adulthood in the second decade of the 21st century” and
similarly psychologist Twenge [25] describes Generation Z as those born in 1995 or later.
1.1.1. Technology, generational differences and work(place)
One of the most frequently named generational dividers is technology. So much so that it’s now a
common trope that Millennials and gen-Zers can intuitively find a fix to any techy issue while Gen X
(born from 1965 to 1979) has little hope of catching up [26]. Millennials and Gen Z are the first
generations to have been born into households with computers and/or to have grown up surrounded
by digital media [27] [28]. Millennials’ comfort with new media technologies suggests that they bring
to the workplace potentially beneficial characteristics related to the use of information and
communication technologies [29]. Millennials’ interactions with others in the workplace may also
change the way older generations, and Millennials themselves, perceive and use these technologies
[30].
There also are popular depictions of Millennials’ purported admirable attributes from
organizations’ perspectives, including beliefs that they are more accepting of diversity than were past
generations, have capabilities with advanced information and communication technologies, have the
ability to see problems and opportunities from fresh perspectives, and are more comfortable working
in teams than were past generations [31] [32] [33] [34].
Many Millennials are entering workplaces that include virtual teams and telework [35]. Whether
Millennials will be productive in these time-and-space flexible working arrangements is still unclear.
Millennials are argued to have some attitudes that are compatible, and some attitudes that seem
incompatible, with virtual organizing and telework. At the same time, Millennials desire high levels
55
of supportive supervision and structure at work [36] both of which may be difficult to obtain in
geographically distributed and technologically mediated settings.
Both Millennials and gen-Zers are ‘tech-savvy’ [37]. They are accustomed to being connected and
comfortable using technology to facilitate their work. What’s more, they are bemused by outdated
computer systems; these age groups expect modern technologies such as Wi-Fi, cloud computing,
automated software and smart buildings [38].
Alsop [39] describes the ultimate dream job for the Millennial generation as the one which offers
unlimited career opportunities, plenty of praise and rewards, flexible work schedules, casual and fun
atmosphere, and ‘meteoric rise to the executive suite’. Some management-targeted websites forewarn
that Millennials may desire more flexible working conditions and hours (e.g., working from remote
locations) than have been normative in most organizations [40].
Millennials appear to highly value the quality of their workspaces, with nearly 70 percent of those
surveyed in the CBRE report [41] saying they would make various trade-offs to secure a better
workspace. It is an interesting finding, that this preference doesn’t understand open-plan collaborative
workspaces. In fact, only a third of those surveyed expressed a preference for those kinds of offices.
Surprisingly, two-thirds aspire to have a personal (private) office.
While Gen Z shares many traits with the Millennial generation, it also brings in new patterns of
behavior, most of them still unknown. The most prominent of these include lack of work experience,
the advent of the smartphone and social media, social justice movements, and growing up in a culture
of safety [42].
As interesting examples of workplace designs that adapts to the needs of new generations we
would like to highlight the following: “Google lets many of its hundreds of software engineers, the
core of its intellectual capital, design their own desks or work stations out of what resemble oversize
Tinker Toys. Some have standing desks, a few even have attached treadmills so they can walk while
working. Employees express themselves by scribbling on walls” [43]; ‘Augmented Circle’ was
developed at MIT, combining a people analytics system based on the kind of the socio-metric badge.
The solid panel of a typical work cube was modified with a shade that allowed people to control their
visibility as they left appropriate to their task and the social context. Taken to its logical conclusion,
when linked to sensors and motors, the office layout could physically reconfigure in reaction to
worker behavior [44]; Meet&Work service system (digital workplace), is proposed as a mobile
working solution for Millennials. It should help them never to compromise the quality of their lives
and always to achieve work-life balance. Meet&Work provides a mobile working in flexible hours as
either an individual or a team. It gives a great emphasis to people and technology by providing mobile
workspaces located in open urban environments where they can easily meet/reach in any time/day of
the week [45].
Although the modern workplace should be reimagined in a way that accommodates the Millennials
and generation-Zers, it must also allow older generations (as Baby Boomers and Xers) to feel
comfortable.
2. Discussion about next steps and further challenges
Hence, this position paper raises the following questions for future research actions, which are
considered as very significant from the perspective of Socio-Technical Systems, Human Resource
Management and Strategic management disciplines’ theory/literature and practice development:
1. How Millennials, Gen Z, and technology together are changing the workplace design?
2. How the workplace design can successfully support HR strategy?
3. How the workplace design can successfully support business strategy?
4. Which are the main challenges/opportunities and risks/obstacles during this process?
5. Which are the main differences toward the workplace design across low-risk and high-risk
work environments, having in mind the impact of the technology and generational
differences?
6. How to lead, organize, motivate/encourage and control the process of employees’
participation in the workplace (re)design?
56
7. How to make the workplace a common place for different workforce/generation cohorts?
8. How human-centered design helps build digital workplaces?
Other attention-worthy research questions, especially this period, would be:
9. How the health, economic and social crisis caused by Covid-19 affects the workplace design?
10. Which generation is in a better or worse position during the pandemics (having in mind
homeworking or teleworking/technology usage and/or the temporary reorganization of the
workplace)?
We would like to stress that there is an obvious need for mutual cooperation between the scholars
and practitioners from all three disciplines toward this particular issue and potential revision of the
existing theoretical-conceptual models, based upon a holistic and interdisciplinary approach
(Ergonomics as a discipline is also of a great importance).
As technology continues to permeate interiors and with an increased demand for more human-
centric environments, the academic, business and ICT, architecture and design communities must
work together in a synergy and extend their knowledge of how to create innovative, attractive,
comfortable, safe, smart and productive workplaces.
Once mostly driven by a functional and aesthetic approach, commercial building design must now
pay greater attention to considerations related to human health and well-being, technology
development and to the changing needs of a new generation of workers.
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