The 23 Year-Long Research Study Reveals Dramatic Shifts in Workplace Motivations Across Generations
Marlee, a first-of-its-kind collaboration and performance AI that is used by teams in 90% of the Fortune 100, today announced the results of their 23 year-long research report titled, Unlocking Gen Z at Work: A Generational Impact Study, focused on generational differences in workplace motivations. The research, which analyzed data from over 395,000 global participants and 88,000 U.S. workers across multiple generations, reveals dramatic shifts in how different age groups approach work, collaboration, and leadership.
The comprehensive study, conducted between 2001 to 2024, stems from Marlee’s mission to bring out the best in everyone within the flow of work, with a particular focus on empowering Gen Z to thrive in tomorrow’s workplace. This includes exploring connection and engagement between different generational cohorts, uncovering effective strategies for motivating Gen Z in the workplace, and identifying methods to boost cross-generational collaboration. Additionally, the research examines approaches for developing Gen Z, matching them to appropriate roles, and nurturing their potential as future leaders well positioned to continue to solve the world’s challenges.
“At Marlee we are dedicated to understanding what motivates and inspires different people in their work, with a growing focus on how we can best support Gen Z to flourish in the future of work. Far too often we come across stories that emphasize how difficult younger generations are to work alongside, versus their unique strengths and contributions,” said Michelle Duval, Founder and CEO of Marlee. “We’re incredibly excited to see the impact crucial insights from our research can have for all workplaces to unlock flexible, adaptive work environments that accommodate the diverse strengths and preferences of a multi-generational workforce.”
The study reveals three key generational differences in the workplace: communication preferences, decision-making processes, and problem-solving approaches. Gen Z strongly favors text-based communication, unlike older generations who prefer in-person or voice interactions. Younger workers show less reliance on intuition for decision-making, suggesting a shift towards data-driven, collaborative frameworks. Additionally, Gen Z demonstrates a more detail-oriented focus in problem-solving, contrasting with the big-picture thinking of older generations, which has implications for future leadership development and strategic planning in organizations.
Key findings from the study include:
- A 53% decrease in big-picture, strategic thinking from Baby Boomers to Gen Z, with 78% of Gen Z workers extremely focused on details and bottom-up approaches.
- A 60% decline in trusting “gut feel” for decision-making across generations, with Gen Z strongly preferring external feedback and information.
- A 47% increase in preference for text-based communication among Gen Z, coupled with a 26% drop in desire for voice-based interactions compared to earlier generations.
- The study uncovered a 100% increase in Gen Z’s desire for best practices, coupled with a 73% drop in the importance of different ways of doing things, compared to earlier generations – this is a generation always seeking the most efficient ways of working.
The implications of this research extend beyond individual organizations to the broader landscape of work culture and talent development. As Gen Z continues to enter the workforce in greater numbers, their unique motivations and work styles will increasingly shape workplace norms and expectations. This shift may necessitate changes in everything from office design and communication tools to performance evaluation metrics and leadership development programs.
For more information and to download the full whitepaper, please visit Marlee. To leverage the research further, sign up for Marlee for free. Within the Marlee app, users can benchmark themselves alongside the actual generation data from this research.
About the Study:
The 2024 Unlocking Gen Z: A Generational Impact Study Report includes responses from 395,000 global participants and 88,000 U.S. workers across multiple generations conducted between 2001 and 2024. The quantitative methodology measures cultural differences in attitudes and motivations between a global sample and US sample of generation populations and a probable stratified sample of the general US working population (2024) with Gen Z removed. Methods included the 40-question Inventory of Work Attitude and Motivation to specifically measure attitude and motivation in the work context. The assessment’s construct reliability is 95%-98%. The analysis identified statistically significant comparisons in attitudes and motivations between generations.
About Marlee
Marlee is a collaboration and performance AI that helps individuals and teams bring out the best in each other. Providing personalized insights in just minutes, making connecting, motivating, collaborating, and developing easy, right in the flow of work. Marlee is built on 25 years of global human data and evidence-based psychologies, and it is now the world’s largest global database of human motivations.
