Workplace Culture and Its Impact on Motivation, Job Satisfaction, and Turnover Intention among Generation Z Employees in the corporate world

Abstract

The Indian workplace today is undergoing structural and cultural change, which has been brought by the fast dynamics in technological progress, the changing pattern of employment, and the change in the generational workforce. Gen Z (those born around the year 1997-2012) is proving to be a force to reckon with in any organization operating in any sector. Contrary to their predecessors, Gen Z employees are digital natives, and they come to the workforce with their own expectations of how the organization should be operated, the kind of leadership, mode of communication, and integration of work with their lives. Available studies indicate that Generation Z values the inclusion of workplaces, open communication, psychological safety, flexibility, and meaningful relationships in the workplace (Sharma and Bansal, 2021, Chauhan et al., 2024). Research on the global and Indian levels is consistent in indicating that Gen Z workers are more likely to appreciate autonomy, transparency, participative decision-making, and respect more than the established hierarchies of authority (Riyanto et al., 2021, Management Dynamics, 2021). Nonetheless, there are still numerous Indian institutions that still have a strict hierarchical structure, which could not align with the expectations of the Gen Z work environment. This disparity has led to detectable organizational issues like a decrease in motivation, job dissatisfaction, turnover intention, and disengagement tendencies like quiet quitting (Nature Scientific Reports, 2023). The need to comprehend how Generation Z views workplace culture and how these views affect their attitudes and intentions to behave has thus emerged as an important issue on the agenda of organizations that intend to attract, engage and retain young talent. This capstone project is therefore aimed at investigating how the workplace culture would influence motivation, job satisfaction, and employee turnover intention among the employees of generation Z in the Indian workplace.