Generational differences in the perception of corporate culture in European transport enterprises

Abstract

The workforce of an enterprise consists of employees of various ages with different personality types. Members of each generation differ not only in their behaviour, but also in their attitudes and opinions. A manager should identify generational differences. Subsequently, the management style, leadership and employee motivation should be adapted forasmuch as well-motivated employees are able to affect the efficiency of enterprise processes in right way. The objective of the paper is to identify differences in perception of the preferred level of corporate culture in terms of various generations. Preferred level of corporate culture in six areas is evaluated using a questionnaire consisting of 24 questions. Sixty-four European transport enterprises are engaged in the survey. Following the outcomes, we find that all generations of respondents working in the European transport enterprises prefer clan corporate culture in the course of five years. This culture puts emphasis on employees, customers and traditions. Loyalty and teamwork are considered to be the essential tools for business success. Following the statistical verification using the ANOVA test, we can state that the hypothesis regarding the existence of generational differences in the perception of corporate culture was not confirmed.