Dissertation Proposal: Gen Y Workplace Preferences and Expectations

This dissertation proposal examines the evolving landscape of the workplace, specifically focusing on Generation Y (Millennials) and their expectations and preferences. It delves into the background of the study, highlighting the increasing importance of understanding generational differences in today's rapidly changing work environment, driven by technological advancements, globalization, and shifting demographics. The proposal addresses the problem statement by identifying the challenges organizations face in attracting, engaging, and retaining Gen Y employees, emphasizing the need to align workplace practices with their unique values, attitudes, and expectations. The literature review will explore the definition of Generation Y, strategies for managing them, effective leadership styles, new approaches to performance management, the significance of work-life balance, and the impact of technology. The proposal also outlines a quantitative research methodology, including a questionnaire designed to gather data on work-life balance, engagement, retention, expectations, preferences, and the influence of technology on Gen Y employees. The study aims to provide valuable insights for organizations seeking to adapt to the changing needs of the workforce and foster a productive and engaged environment for the future.

Dissertation Proposal
Hamood Saleh Al Rashdi
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The future of work: Gen Y expectations and preferences, evidence from Oman.
1.1 Background of the study
In today’s environment, the role of human capital in any organization is becoming increasingly vital to
understanding the requirements of today’s labor market and the rapid changes in the workforce, skill-set, and
most importantly the technological revolution and disruption which promote innovation, growth and agility
(Deloitte, 2019). The role of human capital goes far and beyond to ensure that the different workforce
categories are highly engaged to drive productivity, efficiency, innovation and creativity at the workplace. Most
importantly is how different generations contribute to the country at large and organizational objectives in
particular (Gallup, 2016). Researches and social scientists put forward four different generations; the silent
generation (1930 – 1945), baby boomers (1946 – 1964), generation X (1965 – 1979), and generation Y (called
the Millennial) (1980 – 2000) (Sharon, 2015). Thus, suggested for more understanding about differences in
terms of preferences and expectations in these generations. Additionally, understanding the difference between
these generations, expectations, and the way to engage them is crucial in order to determine the right practices
and policies in place (Eddy, 2010). According to Devany et al, (2015), certain factors defines generations; the
age of the events happened in individual life, the period of individual lifetime, and the cohort where group of
individuals shares their experiences and behaviors.
With today’s disruption of technological advancement, the challenges on the economic environment and
globalization have effects on the workplace, culture and most importantly the workforce from different
generations. However, with increasing number of retirement from baby boomers and gradually by generation X
it’s quite vital to start paying attention on generation Y (Millennials) and more importantly to understand their
expectations, preferences, and job wishes in order to engage and retain them in the workplace (Harry, 2017).
The millennials are people born between 1980 and 1997 or 2000; consist of the largest and most diverse
generation in today economy (Pew Research Centre, 2016). They have been described by Howe and Strauss
(2009) as educated, affluent, and ethnically diverse. They are considered as the first generation to become
worldwide group due to the technology advancement and the opportunity to move across the borders (Howe &
Strauss, 2009; Jeffries & Hunte, 2004). Besides, these category of people are increasingly preoccupied the
focus of educators (Burskirk-Cohen et al., 2016), policymakers (Moos et al., 2018) as well as organizational
managers (Stewart et al., 2017). Tapscott (2008) asserted that Gen Y is characterized by, collaboration, need
for speed, integrity, entertainment and fun, innovation, customization, and freedom (Tapscott, 2008). Even
though Hidalgo, (2016) argued that millennials will soon bring seismic change to the industry. However, little
is still known of this generation’s ability to influence organizations (Collins & Vaughn, 2009; American
Hospital Association, 2014) and managerial roles in particular. This gap in the research motivated the current
research, to my knowledge, which is the first of its kind in Oman tocapture millennials’ preferences and
expectations in the oil and Gas industry.
In the current workplace, ever-changing technologies and changing demographics have resulted on certain
imbalance in the workplace that mostly includes generation Y employees (Alghafri et al. 2017). In the human
resource perspective, most difficult change observed to be experienced by the companies is regarding hiring
new employees, particularly if they are young and belongs to generation that is first entering within the
workplace. All the companies in Oman are observed to be influenced by the values as well as preferences of
their generation Y employees (Alghafri et al. 2017). For this reason, it turns out to be highly indispensible to
realise the workplace values of these employees that can facilitate the companies in appreciating the manner in
which structure can be decided for jobs, working conditions, remuneration packages along with the human
resource policies in order to attract, engage as well as retain generation Y. Failure to realise such the demands
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of such new generation joining the workplace can lead to misunderstanding, miscommunication and can also
have negative impacts on these employees creativity, productivity and corporate citizenship. It has also been
evident that the generation Y employees facecertainchallenges in the companies in Oman regarding attainment
of employee engagement in the highly vulnerable world (Ali et al. 2017). Importance of employee engagement
is getting immersedwithin the workplace and it is the zeal, dedication and engagement of the employees to
invest their time through engaging themselves in the work. For this reason, employee expectations as well as
preferences are givenincreasedpriority to make the generation Y consumers highly engaged towards the job of
theorganisation. These employees are observed to indicate a tendency to change jobs in a frequent manner
because of lowered retention as well as engagement levels. The generation Y’s engagement is impacted by their
expectations and preferences in the workplace that is further impacted by distinct external forces like
globalisation, employment outsourcing, foreign investments as well as digital technologies explosion (Al-
Jahwari and Budhwar 2016). Generation Y is considered to be a highly educated generation that responds to
different management style, workplace environment along with the motivational techniques which has drastic
impact on their expectations and preference levels in the company. Due to a drastic increase in the retirement
rates of the Generation X, he generation Y is turned out to be the pool of talented employees entering the
corporate world having increasing workplace expectations (Aruna and Anitha 2015). The workplace attributes
related by the Generation Y in Oman is observed to be creativity, technologically updated, achievement
oriented, sociable, optimistic, high moral values, diverse, tenacity need for supervision along with support,
multitasking abilities as well as collective actions. The workplace value expectations of the generation Y
employees includes “Just Do it Attitude”, “LackLoyalty Genre” along with “Get Successful Quick Syndrome”
(Anitha and Aruna 2016). It has also been gathered that technology has revolutionised the expectations of these
employees in districtdimension. Considering same, the companies are in increased need to redevelop their
corporate culture and management in accordance with the preferences of these employees encouraging their
motivation to become future business leaders and innovators (Aruna and Anitha 2015).
1.2 Problem statement
Organisations and the managers of the companies in Oman are dealing with an increased challenge regarding
understanding of the nature of generation Y along with their expectations in order to transform the workplace
surroundings as per their preferences. For the reason that generation Y have distinct attitudes, behaviours and
ideals it is considered important by the companies of Oman to give a better value to their goals and expects
(Aruna and Anitha 2015). Generation Y in Oman is observed to enter the organisations with high demands,
various attitudes, increased expectations along with huge workplace benefit desires. Considering such research
problem, it is also considered by the companies of Oman to understand the millennialcharacteristics as it is
deemed to have an increasing impact on the companies’performance. Generation Y is deemed to be complex
individuals with several inconsistencies. They are also observed to be technologicallysavvy and highly creative
and they are quite environmentallyconscious and mobile. Their complex expectations from the companies in
Oman are gathered to include instant rewards along with demanding their career development for the long term
(Bilgihan 2016). This generation faces several challenges along with meaningful alignments which are meant
for self-development rather than the lifetime development. Conversely, these employees also seek to constantly
look for opportunities along with learning and nurturing themselves in a professional manner to get on fast tract
leadership programs. They are also observed to have complex preferences such as portable career, professional
satisfaction, increased personal flexibility degrees and always looking for continuous learning such as change.
These characteristics strengthen the perception that the generation Y is high maintenance and alignwith that
they have necessary knowledge and skills that helps them in their professional life (Buang, Hemdi and
Hanafiah 2016). Conversely, as result of development of self-esteem and positive strengthening that helps them
in assertion constructive criticism and managing conflict. The generation Y looks for attaining a development
experience and they have the expectations to feel secure focused on which the companies in Oman are observed
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to struggle in harnessing training and development as an employee retention tool. Organisations in the nation
are also making increased attempts in investing huge amounts in the development programs where there is also
an indication that these programs might not be beneficial for the employer in meeting needs and expectations of
generation Y (Cozon et al. 2018).
In the current management field within any industry in Oman, human resource management is among the
highly complex as well as challenging management field as it deals with the people aspect in the business
management. The HR policies as well as culture is considered to attain alignment that supports valuable
workers like generation Y. Employers are gathered to make investments of a huge amount on employees so that
they can develop their skills along with capacity to address competitive expectations of the employee market.
The companies in Oman are dealing with issues of high employee turnover as individual employees have
certain preferences in return from the companies in the form of remuneration as well as in the form of
development and growth (Damayanti, Yahya and Tan 2019). The major challenge for the managers is signified
to be regarding expected leadership style along with favourite leaders. The managers in the organisations of
Oman face generationaldifferences as a genuine diversity issue which is necessary to be recognised by the
companies and such issue must also be addressed in the development of the recent and future leaders (Aruna
and Anitha 2015). It has also been observed that the learning styles of generation Y is greatly motivated by
despite to improve the professional skills along with marketability to future employers. For the generation Y
employees with various processions it has turned out to be important aspect of their overall remuneration
package. Companies in Oman are also facingdifficulties in realising that generation Y have expectations and
preferences that are highly different from that of the older generation of employees (Dhir and Shukla 2018).
Considering such identifiedresearch problem the workplace environment in the companies of Oman must take
into consideration the need to remain reorganised in order to attain maximum work output from these
employees. With increasing expectations and preferences of the generation Y employees, it also gives rise to
growth and the new opportunities for the companies of Oman because of their varying values, needs,
perspectives, priorities and work ethics among this generation staff (Aruna and Anitha 2015).
It has also been evidenced through observing the generational differences in these companies of Oman that has
attainedincreased attention with time. In the situation of different generations attitude, communication gap
along with distinct work expectations are certain common matters existing within the organisations in the
nation (Galetić, Klindžić and Načinović Braje 2016). These concerns resulted on the previous reasechers to
start focusing on studying the characteristicsof the generation Y in companies of Oman. Generation Y
employees are tech savvy and have an increasedexpectations regarding changing technologiesused in
companies to support their work. It has been gathered that in terms of promotion and growth here is a
considerable difference been the generation Y and the older generations and theirexpectations are quite
different regarding outlook of life based on which the companies of Oman are dealing with issues concerned
with developing effective human resource strategies. Considering suchresearch problem it is important for the
managers of the companies in Oman to understand the value differences among the different members of
generating Y working within the managerial and non-managerial positions within the workplace (Gupta and
Goyal 2018). It is also important for these companies to realise the gap in the organisational culture in fulfilling
employees’ expectations and preferences that can result in misunderstanding and conflict in the workplace. In
addition, employee productivity can also decrease eventually affecting the financial performance of the
organisations (Aruna and Anitha 2015). In such situation understand the workplace preferences and
expectations of can facilitate the human resource employees to develop effective strategies in managing,
recruiting and retaining talented workforce. Focussing on the researchproblem, it can also be deduced by the
employers in Oman to match these generations’ expectations and personal development aligning with the
organisational values (Hemdi, Buang and Saidmamatov 2018). This is for the reason that some benefits that
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generation Y expects from their employers are focussed on retirement investments along with workplace
culture matching the employee values.
Millennials globally has remained a subject of significant discussion in management literature and practice as
one of the most critical area of research in today’s market particularly, as organizations are currently facing the
challenges of attracting and retaining talented workers, mainly the younger generation (Brian, 2012). A study
by Korn Ferry (2018) shows that by 2030, the demand for skilled workers will outstrip supply, which will result
in a global talent shortage of more than $85.2 million and the financial impact could reach $8.452 trillion in
unrealized annual revenue by 2030 equivalent to the GDP of Germany and Japan (Korn Ferry, 2018). As the
baby boomers generation are retiring in large numbers and there are insufficient pool from the generation X
available in the workforce to fill in the gaps (Harry, 2017). By 2025, an estimated 75 percent of the workforce
will be comprised of Millennials as Generation X managers retire (Cheryl, 2016). In view of this,The Global
Retirement Index (2018) asserted that the retirement is driven by demographics and that people who are closer
to retirement aged 65 represent 17.5% of the population in the developed countries, and this figure will increase
to 26.6% by 2050.Hence, the workforce and different generations changing rapidly, with the number of
generation Y employees expected to outstrip the number of baby boomers by 2019 (Fry, 2015). Thus, the
millennials they will consist of almost half of the total working populations in 2020 (Pollak, 2015). Thus, there
is need for more understanding about generational changes particularly in professional career development as it
plays a vital role in recruitment and retention (Richard, 2008). Particularly, understanding the expectations of
millennials is crucial particularly as the workforce is increasingly changing. Studies have showed that “The
Association for Talent Development’s State organizations” spent approximately $164.2 billion in 2012 on
employee training and development without paying close attention to the demographic changes and these
resulted to ineffectiveness of these trainings (MacSweeney, 2012; Robinson & Stubberud, 2012) and
dissatisfaction from the millennials (Thompson, 2012) which ultimately lead to demotivation, turnover, and low
productivity.Hence, researches on generation Y related to their career attitudes to provide clarity and
understanding on their expectations, what they can bring to the workplace, and how they are different from
previous generations is highly recommended (Brown 2013). A study by Deloitte (2019) also argued that there is
clear disconnection between employers and millennials on the business role with regards developing talent for
the fourth industrial revolution.
Furthermore, looking at the gulf region, particularly Oman population consist around 4.4 million, whereby
Omanis around 55% while the expat consist of 45% (National Center for Statistics and Information, 2016).
However, the millennials aged (18 – 29) consist of 27.6% (69.1% male, and 30.9% female) which shows that
there are potential in the future for more jobs in comparison to the percentages of expats (National Center for
Statistics and Information, 2016). Besides, in the Oman labor marketexpats consist approximately 81% while
the Omani millennials consist of 29.1% only and the biggest approximately 69.6% are millennials workers.
These call for questioning about the future of work particularly the millennials in Oman. Even as yearly on
average 44,000 of job seekers who graduated from the colleges and universities are entry the labour market
(National Statistics Center for Information, 2018). Unemployment rate (3.7%) of the millennials is becoming
another issue of concerned in Oman labour market (National Statistics Center for Information, 2018).This will
drive the need to think deeply on attracting, recruiting, and retaining the millennials in the workplace (Fry,
2015; Pew Research Center, 2015). Millennials should be considered in all the future decisions and workplace
aspects to ensure the business moves successfully (Caraher, 2015; Saiidi, 2014).It is crucial to start exploring
and understanding the expectations and preferences of Gen Y, understanding the significant difference of Gen
Y to other generations (Markus, 2016).
Despite this, most of the researches on millennials focused on developed countries such as America, Germany
France and other developed countries, even though Generational changes may possibly be the same globally,
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empirical work on millennials among Gulf countries particularly Oil and Gas in Oman has not be
considered,knowing the significant contribution of this industry to the economic development of Oman.
Besides, even though studies on Millennials are widespread in developed countries most of these studies were
conducted mainly in education sector in developed countries. However, not much attention has been given to
Oil and Gas. As such, researchers called for the expansion of millennials researches to monitor their
expectations and how they adjust it based on the economic conditions (Eddy et al, 2010). Moreover, hardly had
any empirical research on Millennials that have resulted to a framework that can be applied in different setting.
Hence, studies on the Millennial are completely important because understanding the preference, expectation
of the millennials will help organization to achieve the desired organizational goals and subsequent high
performance achievement.Notwithstanding this paradigm, studies have also demonstrated insignificant result
between Millennial and competitive advantage of the organizational (Brian, 2012). However, the present study
is not aware of any empirical study particularly within the Gulf environment that has examined the relationship
between work life balance, technology development, expectation and preference, engagement and retention on
the millennials. Apart from the above, these relationships within the gulf context are yet to be known most
probably because the concept is relatively new. Consequently, this study will address this gap.
This dissertation seeks to examine the expectations of generation Y in the Omani labour market concerning
their viewpoints, job experience and expectations, and their preferences. Through this study, a proposal of the
way to manage and engage with generation Y in the workplace and how to shift the mindset of today’s work
environment culture and leadership to deal with them. Thus, the research objective is:
1.3 Research objective:
Very few studies been conducted in the field of Generation Y particularly in Oman to see their preferences and
expectations. This study will examine the Generation Y (millennial) their preferences and expectations in the
workplace. Specifically, the following are the research objectives for this study:
 To examine the impact of technology development on Gen Y and its effect on their performance.
 To examine the preferences of generation Y in the workplace.
 To examine the expectation of Gen Y on Work life balance.
 To identify ways on how to engage and retain generation Y.
1.4 Research Questions:
1. What is the impact of technological development on Gen Y and its effect on their performance?
2. What are the preferences of Gen Y in the workplace?
3. What are the expectations of Gen Y for work–life balance?
4. What are the ways to engage and retain Generation Y?
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CHAPTER TWO
LITERATURE REVIEW
2.1 Introduction
This section focuses on the review of relevant literatures on generation Y, work life balance, technology
development, preferences and expectation of Generation Y, engagement and retention to have a comprehensive
understanding of the topic under study. The review of literature related to the topic has assisted the
researcher in developing a framework and hypothesis formulated for this study. The researcher first and
foremost presented this chapter by providing the definition of Gen Y, Technology development and Gen Y,
Work life balance and Gen Y, Work preferences and expectations of Gen Y, and lastly engagement and
retention of Gen Y.
An innovative employee’s generation is joining the workforce with new preferences and expectations. Such
increase in the generation Y employees has resulted in a specific level of commotion within the workplace as
the employers strive to understand their perceptions regarding their needs in the workplace along with
outstanding differences among the employers and the generation Y employees (Ismail 2016). The literature
review section is focussed on analysing the set of expectations that is attained by this new employee’s
generation entering the workplace along with the managers’ perceptions regarding managers trying to
understand generational differences between new as well as younger employees. There are several differences
in the expectations of the generating Y while entering the workforce with regard to the preferences in the wages
and salary, financial rewards, flexible wrong alternatives, employee development as well as workplace
environment and employee development in contrast to the managers’ perceptions (Aruna and Anitha 2015). In
order to effectively address as well as manage the expectations of the employees belonging to generation Y, the
companies in Oman are developing a culture of understanding the work values of generation Y employees and
the ways in which they might differ from the values of older employee generations(Jain and Bhatt 2015). In
addition, the literature review will also reveal that generation Y is a dynamic workforce that attains specific
expectations in consideration to workplace factors that subsequently might not align with the managers
perceptions.
2.2 Definition of Gen Y:
“The Generational Theory” mentioned that a social cohort is an aggregate of people, who were born on a span
of 20 years, and they have grown up together in the same political, social, and economical situation and they
share historically similar events on their childhood and adulthood, which make them share similar behaviours
and common believes (Harry, 2017). In addition, are identified as the generations, which come after the baby
boomers as Gen X (1961 – 1981), and everyone born after the 1982 falls under Millennial Generation (Howe &
Strauss, 1991). Gen Y has also been defined as “Millennial, Echo, boomers, generation next, Internet
generation whom were born from 1982 – 2004 (Harry, 2017).
Moreover, they are the historical generation based on interchange of crises and awakenings, as these historical
events would affect the attitudes and behaviours of different generations in the future. A study by Sharon
(2015) stated that age, period, and cohort defines generation. Age is about the age of individual of his/her
events in life and the transition between events to another in the lifetime. Period is all about what happened
within the individual’s lifetime, and cohort is about group of people who shared similar attitudes, behaviours
and experienced similar events in life. Social scientists concluded that there are around four different
generations in America; silent generation, baby boomers, generation X, and generation Y. However, Gen Y
been defined as individuals who were born in the period from 1980 – 2000. They are considered the youngest
generation in the workplace. Their characteristics as digital natives, creative, solution oriented, social
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conscious, and team oriented. On the other hand, Markus, (2016)argued that there is a noticeable inconsistency
especially in the period for different generations. Moreover, the definition of term generation and the context
more or less remain the same. The study referred to Gen Y as the millennials, next generation, nexters, and they
are considered the youngest generation in the workplace. The author agreed with Jeffries and Hunte (2004)
about the period for Gen Y from 1981 – 2000. Gen Y has gone through historical mixture of events and
experiences of globalization, climate change, the incident of 9/11, the Iraqi war, the euro currency issues, the
Asian Tsunami, the revolution of technologies, smart phones, Facebook, and other social media applications
(Markus, 2016).
Generation Y is also referred as millennial generationthat is often referred to as individuals born after the year
1980s (Jauhar et al. 2017). The employees belonging to generation Y are deemed to be tech savvy as they
belong to the era of advanced computers, electronic games and laptops. In comparison to the old generation that
is generation X this generation is observed to be highly immune to traditional sales and marketing processes.
These employees prefer to communicate through text messaging, e-mails along with new social media
platforms used by their colleagues (Aruna and Anitha 2015). The employees of thegeneration Y in Oman are
gathered to have a characteristic of having a fast paced lifestyle and they are also willing to trade increased pay
for limited billable hours, flexible schedules as well as better work life balance. This generation tends to give
high importance to family rather than work but they are also achievement-oriented at their workplace (Aruna
and Anitha 2015). The employees belonging to generation Y are quite confident as wellas ambitious. Lim
(2015) stated that these employees aw also likely to have an increased expectations from their employers and
are likely to face new challenges at the workplace because of which they desire to be involved in meaningful
work along with a solid learning curve.
2.3. Managing Generation Y in Workplace
2.3.1. Leadership Style to Manage Generation Y
Madhavkumar (2016) stated that adapting with the leadershipstyles to deal with the preferences and
expectations of generation Y in Oman is an emergingconcern for the young group of employees. The
companies are focused on learning the ways to evaluate the performance of the businesses through utilizing the
direct resources, plan projects along with communicating effectively will be considered invaluable. The
companies in Oman needs a good leadership must maximize the efforts of all the employees of the team.
Irrespective of the size of the employees team, the leader must assume that the responsibility of increasing
contributions in a way that the companies goals is considered to be attained. Martin and Ottemann (2016)
indicated that there is leadership styles differences between generations. Some organizations in Oman prefer
using different leadership styles for encouraging the generation Y within the workplace. Some prefer highly
autocratic leadership style while others prefer a transformative leadership (Aruna and Anitha 2015). Leadership
styles are followed based on the fact that with communicating within and between the generations. The
preferred leadership styles for generation Y must be vital for the managers for several reasons but majorly
because of employing the preferred leadership style and that is simpler to evaluate all across generations. These
reasechers also indicated that the transactional leadership is mostly followed within the companies of Oman for
the reason that it serves as an effective fit for dealing with generation Y employees. Naim and Lenka (2018)
also revealed that there are several articles that effectively describe generation Y as a coherent group and few of
them explains the leadership attributes and skills which are preferred by thegeneration Y employees. Due to the
relationship developing environment that forms relationships and the previous research also suggests that this
group of employees desires a work environment that develops relationships and this needs a work environment
where there exist humor and constant challenges. These researchers also stated that the generation Y is likely to
positive rate the managers along with the leadership attributes to be important that is an important aspect in
selecting the suitable leadership style for the generation Y employees in the workplace. The generation Y
employees in the organizations are likely to adapt to the changes in their needs and also consider using
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technology in an effective manner in order to attain a great flexibility in their work-life balance. Naim and Piu
(2018) evidenced that past researches in this field also suggested that the generation Y employees of Oman
prefers using transformational leadership and this type of leader also focuses on encouraging these employees
to move past their potential along with intellectually challenging them. A transformational leader is also
centered on tailoring the leadership style towards the followers. In managing the generation Y employees’
expectations and preferences, the leaders in some companies of Oman also follows transactional leadership
where the leader is focused on analyzing the undesirable behavior along with correcting such behavior with
negative reinforcement. Nelson (2017) explained that ne more aspect of leadership theory that is followed in
most of the companies in managing the expectations and preferences of the young employees is lassie fairee
leadership. This style is also characterized by the leader fulfilling all the responsibilities for the decision making
and effusively becoming a non-leader. These reasechers also revealed that generation Y also have an increased
desire to make differences within the organization as well as analyzing the ways in which leaders engage this
group in making sure they follow effectiveleadershiptowards the organizational leadership(Aruna and Anitha
2015). There are several ways in which the millennialare observed to change the traditional leadership. Based
on a survey it has also been analyzed that the companies in Oman must follow strong leadership skills on the
areas of communication as well as relationship building. Perhaps, it has also been revealed that millenarians are
causing several disruptions to the traditional leadership. Omar and Ramdani (2017) stated that the employees of
the generation Y are likely to indicate willingness to leave he organization in a situation where the leadership
style followed in the companies are not as per third standards and expectations. Ordun (2015) indicated that
there is leadership styles differences between generations. Some organizations in Oman prefer using different
leadership styles for encouraging the generation Y within the workplace. Some prefer highly autocratic
leadership style while others prefer a transformative leadership. Leadership styles are followed based on the
fact that with communicating within and between the generations. The preferred leadership styles for
generation Y must be vital for the managers for several reasons but majorly because of employing the preferred
leadership style and that is simpler to evaluate all across generations(Aruna and Anitha 2015). These reasechers
also indicated that the transactional leadership is mostly followed within the companies of Oman for the reason
that it serves as an effective fit for dealing with generation Y employees. These researchers have also revealed
that the generations Y are expressing distinct requirements regarding the leadership training. Millennial are
likely to leave jobs readily in case they do not believe that the leadership style followed within the
companyaddresses their expectations and preferences(Aruna and Anitha 2015). For this reason, associated with
the sheer number of millennialwithin the workplace is deemed to drive the leadership change. It has also been
revealed from evaluating the past researches that the employees of generation Y are that are interested in
leadership are not just aware of theirweaknesses and strengths but are also aware of the facts regarding
improving their skills. The millennial leadership survey carriedout in the study of Rox (2015) inducted that
generation Y in Omanorder to develop theircarriers by means of a combination of mentorship programs as well
as the online training process.
2.3.2. New Performance Management Ways for Generation Y
According to Özçelik (2015) it has been gathered that the generation Y employees are likely to be bored
easily and for this reason they might take the decision to leavethe organization if they are not managed in an
effective manner. These employees seek constant feedback as well as close contact with their managers and
focused on same the companies are developing the performance management processes for managing the young
generation in an effective manner. These researchers also revealed that traditional performance management
systems that is focused on measuring an employee’s achievements against a definite list of objectives within an
appraisal meeting are also considered outdated by this generation. Pant and Venkateswaran (2019) added that
organizations in Oman are taking a modern approach to HR as well as its functions and the HR departments are
considering to use technology in enhancing employee engagement along with employees performances. One of
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the new performance management ways in which the employers of the company are considering to improve
performance management process of the generation Y employees within the workplace includes carrying out
“annual performance review”. This is for the reason that the traditional performance management systems are
not likely to support better performance of employees that must be the foremost purpose of the performance
management. Vijaya (2015) indicated that with increasing base of generation Y employees in the workplace the
employers are looking for new generation performance management solutions which foster timely as well as
frequent communication among the leaders and the employees that increases their workplace engagement as
well as observing increase in their performance. As maximum of the young generation is joining the workforce
they are likely to look for highly consumer-like, effectively designed as well as easy to use experiences in
dealing with better performance evaluation(Aruna and Anitha 2015). The generation Y’s engagement is
impacted by their expectations and preferences in the workplace that is further impacted by distinct external
forces like globalisation, employment outsourcing, foreign investments as well as digital technologies
explosion. Generation Y is considered to be a highly educated generation that responds to different
management style, workplace environment along with the motivational techniques which has drastic impact on
their expectations and preference levels in the company (Aruna and Anitha 2015). Due to a drastic increase in
the retirement rates of the Generation X, he generation Y is turned out to be the pool of talented employees
entering the corporate world having increasing workplace expectations. The workplace attributes related by the
Generation Y in Oman is observed to be creativity, technologically updated, achievement oriented, sociable,
optimistic, high moral values, diverse, tenacity need for supervision along with support, multitasking abilities as
well as collective actions. Researchers namely, Pereira, Malik and Sharma (2016) revealed that priorstudies
have revealed that the generation Y employees that attains regular as well as actionable feedback from their
managers and companies on which they rely and recognition culture are gathered to demonstrate better
performances. These researchers also added that developing an advanced performance management system that
is developed to enhance employee performance turns out to be the top priority for the HR managers.
Previousresearches also indicated that the modern performance management system is likely to address the
expectations and preferences. Pînzaru et al. (2016) revealed that the generation Y responds effectively to the
performance management systems developed by the companies and the management must consider certain
important points in developing of the employee performance management systems that considers alignment
with company strategy, goal setting, regular feedback, performance coaching, recognition, rewards and trust
culture.
The new performance management ways considered to be suitable to manage the generation Y in the
companies of Oman includes considering the aspect of continuous feedback. Pînzaru et al. (2016) observed that
the feedback expectations of this young generation is changing at an increasing pace and for this reason the HR
professionals are taking into consideration implementing the 360 degree feedback or performance management
systems along with implementing the technology considering the ways in which it is enabling continuous
feedback which can be integrated in their workflow(Aruna and Anitha 2015). In addition these reasechers also
revealed that performance coaching is also an effectiveperformance management system that can support better
performance of employees at every level. Coaching also serves as an important aspect of support and it offers
employees with the insight along with the confidence that this generation Y needs to attain success. According
to the study carried out by, Pregnolato, Bussin and Schlechter (2017) it has beenevidenced that rewards,
recognition and trust culture is also given an increased importance in the new performance management
systems developed by the companies for addressing the expectations and preferences of generation Y. In
implementing this performance management system, the companies consider creating a healthy and thriving
organization culture in attaining sustained growth(Aruna and Anitha 2015). Generation Y employees trust to
rewards and recognitions and the company that is an important piece of the performance management to culture
journey. These reasechers also elucidated that in ensuring better performance in the workplace, the millennial
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want an increased feedback from their managers and colleagues along with seeking an increased opportunity to
offer and attain constructive feedback. Rita, Brochado and Dimova (2018) added that the performance
management systems must be developed by the companies of Oman through conducting regular conversations
regarding employee growth as well as development. At the time the managers’ coach their employees in
succeeding and growing they will be increasingly engaged and functional in their job roles.
2.4 Technology development and Gen Y:
Technology was defined earlier by Sahal (1981) as configuration, and observing the transfer of the objects
which determined by set of process and products. In the past, researches have viewed the term technology from
many and different perspectives which has influenced the government policies, and research design in general
(Reddy & Zhoa, 1990). Furthermore, technology has always been considered to obtain certain results, problem
resolutions, and to complete certain tasks through utilizing certain skills and knowledge (Lan & Young, 1996).
It contains two different components; the first component is physical (products, equipment), and the second
component is information (knowledge, skills) (Kumar et al, 1999). On the other hand, different generation have
been exposed differently to different types of technology and generation Y considered to be the first generation
born into more of a technology world (Smola & Sutton, 2002). They are more into technology advancement
they are so called “digital natives” where they have been exposed and gone through different experience into
technological world (Patterson, 2007). Mgngelsdorf (2015) asserted that this generation has never known a
world without email, mobile phones, smartphones, laptops and computers, digital camera, and using different
social media platforms. Martin (2005) emphasized that this generation is more of techno-savvy and they are
utilizing technology in every single aspect of work, life, and passing time.
Furthermore, Glass (2007) argued that Gen Y are unafraid of any new technology as they grew up with
developing technologies and have already been the first people to try these technologies, buy and recommend
them to others “first adapters”. Hence, different researches agreed that there is an impact of these technologies
into Gen Y; as it seems to be the greatest difference from this generation and others. Technology experts
generally believe that young people who are used to modern technology, who are known to be passionately
using social networks, will continue to be more responsible and willing to share personal information on the
internet. Experts who responded to the survey found that the benefits of disclosing the personal information of
generations of the millennium are greater than their fears about their privacy (Janna, 2010). According to
Deloitte (2019), the effects of the forces of change of industry cannot be undermined. Over the last decade,
many jobs gone through some changes due to the digitalization in technology although people have been
trained and developed. Hence, millennials are using a technology that did not even exist when they began their
career. In addition, in some quarters, artificial intelligence is now performing tasks that define certain jobs,
which force people in these jobs to exercise different, just human skills (Deloitte, 2019). The study showed that
49% of the millennials stated that technologies will actually expand their jobs, while 25% stated that the fourth
industrial revolution have not impact and only 15% of the millennials are afraid that it will take over their jobs
(Deloitte, 2019).
Sharkawi, Kayani and Zayadah (2016) revealed that the generation Y employees are also known as digital
natives or millennial that are generallymultitasks involved in working through digital devices and this
generation of employees facedifficulties in communicating within the workplace devoid of an IM system or a
social network. In several cases it has also been observed that the employees of generation Y are also involved
in researching the technology portfolio of potential employers prior to join a job in any organization. Sharkawi,
Mohamad and Roslin (2016) confirmed such view and stated that the non-technology based corporate culture
that avoids implementation of new technologies in the workplace as per expectations and preferences of
employees due to security or budgetary concerns demotivates generation Y employees to join the organization.
These researchers also added that most of the companies in Oman form all the sectorshaverealized that
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maximum number of employees in their employees that is around 80% belong to generation Y that necessitates
them to focus completely on implementing new technologies in retaining as well as recruiting them.
Sharkawiand Roslin (2016) evidenced thatgeneration Y employees in the workplace are an advantage for any
organization as they have the capability to adapt to change, particularly as it is associated with technological
changes. For instance, certain technologies like email and spreadsheet might seem antiquated as the
youngordersare willing to learn through new technologies.
2.5 Work life balance and Gen Y
There is no generally acceptable definition of the term work life balance (WLB), rather there was multiple
overlapping practices into different organizations among different researches which have evolved overtime
(Lewis et al., 2007; Lewis, Anderson, Lyonette, Payne, & Wood, 2016a; Lewis, Anderson, Lyonette, Payne, &
Wood, 2016b). Some scholars defined WLB into and individual level, but others where more focusing on
family level. For example, Grzywacz and Carlson (2007) discuss the “accomplishment of role-related
expectations that are negotiated and shared between an individual and his/her role-related partners in the work
and family domains”. Haar, Russo, Suñe, and Ollier-Malaterre (2014) defined the WLB term as an individual’s
assessment of managing and balancing different roles. However, majority of the researches considered the
“life” part as an interchangeable with the family particularly the responsibility of taking care of dependent and
children (Özbilgin, Beauregard, Tatli, & Bell, 2011).
On the other side, the term balance was explained by different researches as how to signify the low levels of
conflicts between the non-works related with work related demands (Wayne, Butts, Casper, & Allen, 2016). It
also defined as the different ways where individuals managing different roles (Clark, 2000; Gambles et al.,
2006; Hobson, 2014). Rajan (2016) argued about the messy reality between family and community life and the
boundaries around them which differs from country to another as work is part of life not separate element
(Bloom, 2016; Fleetwood, 2007; Gambles et al., 2006; Lewis et al, 2007).
However, it is important to understand different generations and their views toward WLB as generation Y have
continuously seen their parents (the baby boomers) works for long days and hours, and all that to avoid falling a
victim of any corporate redundancy (downsizing), and high divorce rate (Loughlin & Barling, 2001). Hence,
they have been worries to be put in the same situation and choose either by making a life or by living (Zhang et
al, 2007). Different historical events have affected the millennials to re-evaluate their life priorities such as
September 11th attack which allowed the millennials to select their personal live as a priority (Corporate
Leadership Council, 2005). In addition, given they are considered to be an educated generation they are more
likely to negotiate the working terms and conditions and request more for work life balance at every stage in
their career (Corporate Leadership Council, 2005).
Their life experience has been shaped in a way that they believe on collective action, more optimistic on their
future, and trust the centralized authority (Jeffries & Hunte, 2004; Salahuddin, 2010). This gives an emphasis
on their childhood which mainly surrounded by pace and prosperity (Patterson, 2007). However, Patterson
(2007) stated that the experience of 9/11 have actually lowered millennials expectations in life. They have
grown up on an environment more focusing on family. Moreover, they have seen their parents trying to arrange
a balance between life and work. Furthermore, they have focused mainly on the millennials education and well-
being as one of the main priorities, and they were more available to them, which strengthen the relationship
between parents and millennials. They have been even helping the millennials in every deed and word even
though they have grown up but still extending their helps to them in every situation (helicopter parents) and
overseeing their social activities (Glass, 2007; Mangelsdorf, 2015).
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