Kuşak Farklılıkları: Mit mi, Gerçek mi?

There is an increasingly prevalent assumption among some authors, management consultants, and popular press that there are substantive generational differences among Baby Boomers, Generation X, and Generation Y in today’s workplaces. Yet systematic research into intergenerational differences has been limited and largely U.S. centric. The purpose of present study was to investigate whether there are differences among generations in their job and organizational attitudes (i.e., organizational commitment, job satisfaction, and citizenship behavior), work ethics, and personal values by using multigenerational theory framework. Data for this study were collected from 731 Turkish employees working seven sectors in Ankara. The research hypotheses were tested with MANCOVA. Only three research hypotheses were supported out of 18. The results showed that there are significant differences among generational cohorts in their affective commitment and non-leisure work ethic. Thus, generational differences were relatively weak. Our Turkish results did not support the common perception that intergenerational differences exist among generations in work-related outcomes and personal values. Furthermore, the generalizability of the Western generational classification to the Turkish context is nonsensical and questionable.