Expanding the Younger Worker Employment Relationship: Insights From Values-Based Organizations

This article aims to expand understanding of managing younger workers by making work values central to their employment relationship. Attention is focused on values-based organizations where intrinsic values of societal contribution, work-life balance, and inclusive management practices may take on added significance for younger workers. Asking younger workers to explain what "success" or "efficiency" means to them in their work provides a window into the values-based reasoning underpinning younger workers' work-related attitudes and behavior. Person-organization values fit findings suggest areas where the younger worker employment relationship has possibly expanded (prosocial work, direct communication, managers as mentors, work-life balance). Implications for managing younger workers in values-based contexts are discussed.