Management of Gen Y Employees Through Psychological Contract - 'An Exploratory Study in IT/ITES Companies'

Globalization has led to diverse workforce for most of the multinational corporations. Today's workforce is highly diverse based on Gender, Race, Ethnicity, Nationality, Age, Physical capabilities at a surface level and values, attitudes, personality, education and religion at a deeper level.

Diversity Management means valuing the differences in people. In India, Diversity mostly referred to gender related initiatives in the past. But today companies are moving to include national culture, age, physical ability and sexual orientation. In the context of generational diversity, four generations exist at workplace today namely the Veterans, Baby Boomers, Gen X and Gen Y. Gen Y is born between 1980 and 2000 make up 25% of the world population and nearly half the Indian population. They will soon form the largest employee base for organizations around the globe. However there is lack of substantial academic research on Indian Gen Y. Purpose: The study tries to explore and understand the important workplace expectations of Gen Y through the lens of psychological contract. 11 focus group discussions were held with 89 Gen Y employees currently working in IT/ITES companies. It further explores the unique expectations of Gen Y women and Gen Y differently-abled employees which may contribute to the unique elements in their psychological contract. Research Design/Methodology: Focus Group Discussions Exploratory study Findings: The study revealed that Salary, Career Growth, Opportunities at work, Job Satisfaction and Work Life Balance emerged as the top expectations of Gen Y as a whole. However it was interesting to note that when comparison was made between men, women and differently-abled employees within Gen Y, the expectations were completely different with only challenging work being common to all the three groups. Research Limitations: This study is an exploratory study with focus groups and qualitative data. A further large scale cross sectional study needs to be done with quantitative analysis to confirm the important workplace expectations of Gen Y. Study is limited to IT/ITES employees in Bengaluru. Only three specific employee groups under Gen Y namely men, women and differently-abled were explored due to time constraints. Studies in the future can include more employee groups like ex-army employees, employees from rural and urban background, LGBT etc. Practical Implication: If IT/ITES organizations want to attract engage and retain young Gen Y employees, they must proactively understand the needs and expectations of these youngsters. It is also critical that specific needs of various employee groups within Gen Y are also understood and met. Originality: Until now most organizations have had a reactive approach to managing diversity either as a response to a minority discrimination case or legal compliance. The paper argues for a more proactive approach to managing Generation Y expectations using psychological contract framework which has never been proposed before.