Assessing Covid-19 Threat Perceptions of Employees: A Generation Oriented Research in Turkiye

Abstract

Coronavirus threatens the physical and mental health of human beings throughout the world. Besides that, extraordinary measures, which are taken in order to protect the public health, have devastating effects on the global economy. In this context, it can be said that understanding the perceptions of employees who are surrounded by health and economic risks is crucial for the field of management. In the current study, it was investigated how Covid-19 threat perceptions of employees differ according to generation. With this purpose, data was collected from 535 public and private sector employees working in various provinces of Turkey. In order to analyze the collected data Independent sample t-test and one-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) were conducted. Findings indicated that Generation Z individuals are significantly different from other generations regarding Covid-19 threat perceptions. Generation Z perceives threats less than generation X and Y. The results of this research can be interpreted as that Generation Z employees feel more confident against the risks accompanying the coronavirus. In addition, statistically significant differences were found between some of the demographic characteristics of the participants and their perceptions of COVID-19 threats.

Keywords

• Threat Perception of Covid-19
• Generations
• Employees

References

1. Abrams, J., & Von Frank, V. (2013). The multigenerational workplace: Communicate, collaborate, and create community. Corwin Press. google scholar
2. Aguinis, H., Villamor, I., & Gabriel, K. P. (2020). Understanding employee responses to COVID-19: a behavioral corporate social responsibility perspective. Management Research: Journal of the Iberoamerican Academy of Management, 18(4), 421-438. google scholar
3. Andrea, B., Gabriella, H. C., & Timea, J. (2016). Y and Z generations at workplaces. Journal of Competitiveness, 8(3), 90-106. google scholar
4. Appelbaum, S.H., Serena, M. & Shapiro, B.T. (2005), Generation “X” and the boomers: an analysis of realities and myths. Management Research News, 28(1), 1-33. google scholar
5. Arklina, A., Grinberga, K., Singh, N., & Livina, A. (2020). Influence of cognitive and emotional advertisements on biosphere reserve image and visitation intention for youth. Journal of Environmental Management and Tourism, 6(46), 1391 - 1399. google scholar
6. Ayittey, F. K., Ayittey, M. K., Chiwero, N. B., Kamasah, J. S., & Dzuvor, C. (2020). Economic impacts of Wuhan 2019-nCoV on China and the world. Journal of Medical Virology, 92(5), 473-475. google scholar
7. Ball, K., & Gotsill, G. (2011). Surviving the baby boomer exodus: Capturing knowledge for gen X and gen Y employees. Nelson Education. google scholar
8. Bejtkovskÿ, J. (2016). The employees of baby boomers generation, generation X, generation Y and generation Z in selected Czech corporations as conceivers of development and competitiveness in their corporation. Journal of Competitiveness, 8(4), 105-123. google scholar

9. Beytekin, O., & Doğan, M. (2019). Intergenerational conflict between generation X academicians and generation Y postgraduate students in higher education. Eğitim Kuram ve Uygulama Araştırmaları Dergisi, 5(3), 382-391. google scholar
10. Bonacini, L., Gallo, G., & Scicchitano, S. (2020). Working from home and income inequality: Risks of a ‘new normal’with COVID-19. Journal of Population Economics, 34(1), 303-360. google scholar
11. Bostan, S., Erdem, R., Öztürk, Y. E., Kiliç, T., & Yılmaz, A. (2020). The Effect of COVID-19 pandemic on the Turkish society. Electronic Journal of General Medicine, 17(6), 1-8. google scholar
12. Bozkurt, Y, Zeybek, Z., & Aşkın, R. (2020). COVID-19 pandemisi: Psikolojik etkileri ve terapötik müdahaleler. İstanbul Ticaret Üniversitesi Sosyal Bilimler Dergisi, 19(37), 304-318. google scholar
13. Cilliers, E. J. (2017). The challenge of teaching generation Z people. International Journal of Social Sciences, 3(1), 188-198. google scholar
14. Clarke, M. (2015), Dual careers: The new norm for gen Y professionals?. Career Development International, 20(6), 562-582. google scholar
15. Dolot, A. (2018). The characteristics of generation Z. E-Mentor, 74(2). 44-50. google scholar
16. Doğan, M. M., & Düzel, B. (2020). Covid-19 özelinde korku-kaygi düzeyleri. Turkish Studies, 15(4), 739752. google scholar
17. Evans, O. (2020). Socio-economic impacts of novel coronavirus: The policy solutions. BizEcons Quarterly, 7, 3-12. google scholar
18. Fernandez, A. A., & Shaw, G. P. (2020). Academic leadership in a time of crisis: The coronavirus and CO-VID-19. Journal of Leadership Studies, 14(1), 39-45. google scholar
19. Gaidhani, S., Arora, L., & Sharma, B. K. (2019). Understanding the attitude of generation Z towards workplace. International Journal of Management, Technology And Engineering, 9, 2804-2812. google scholar
20. Gallagher, J. (2020, December 20). New coronavirus variant: What do we know?. BBC. https://www.bbc. com/news/health-55388846 google scholar
21. Gica, S., Kavakli, M., Durduran, Y & Ak, M. (2020). The effect of COVID-19 pandemic on psychosomatic complaints and investigation of the mediating role of intolerance to uncertainty, biological rhythm changes and perceived COVID-19 threat in this relationship: A web-based community survey. Psychiatry and Clinical Psychopharmacology, 30(2), 89-96. google scholar
22. Kanbur, E., & Şen, S. (2017). X ve Y kuşağı çalışanlarının kariyer uyum yetenekleri ve kariyer tatmini açısından karşılaştırılması. Turkish Studies, 12(12), 115-134. google scholar
23. Kim, J. (2020). Impact of the perceived threat of COVID-19 on variety-seeking. Australasian Marketing Journal, 28(3), 108-116. google scholar
24. Kizildag, D. (2019). Z kuşaği hangi beklentilerle iş yaşamina giriyor? Seçme ve yerleştirme sürecine ilişkin bir değerlendirme. Uşak Üniversitesi Sosyal Bilimler Dergisi, 12, 32-46. google scholar
25. Kolnhofer-Derecskei, A., Reicher, R. Z., & Szeghegyi, A. (2017). The X and Y generations’ characteristics comparison. Acta Polytechnica Hungarica, 14(8), 107-125. google scholar
26. Krahn, H. J. & Galambos, N. L. (2014) Work values and beliefs of ‘Generation X’ and ‘Generation Y’. Journal of Youth Studies, 17(1), 92-112. google scholar
27. Lissitsa, S., & Kol, O. (2016). Generation X vs. generation Y-A decade of online shopping. Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, 31, 304-312. google scholar
28. Manuel, T., & Herron, T. L. (2020). An ethical perspective of business CSR and the COVID-19 pandemic. Society and Business Review, 15(3), 235-253. google scholar
29. Morioka, R. (2014). Gender difference in the health risk perception of radiation from Fukushima in Japan: The role of hegemonic masculinity. Social Science & Medicine, 107, 105-112. google scholar
30. Norc (2020, June 11). As COVID-19 continues, 40 percent of laid-off workers are turning to debt to get by. NORC. https://www.norc.org/NewsEventsPublications/PressReleases/Pages/as-covid-19-continues-40-percent-of-laid-off-workers-are-turning-to-debt-to-get-by.aspx google scholar
31. Paredes, M. R., Apaolaza, V., Fernandez-Robin, C., Hartmann, P., & Yanez-Martinez, D. (2020). The impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on subjective mental well-being: The interplay of perceived threat, future anxiety and resilience. Personality and Individual Differences, 170, 1-6. google scholar
32. Perez-Fuentes, M. D. C., Molero Jurado, M. D. M., Martos Martinez, A., & Gazquez Linares, J. J. (2020). Threat of COVID-19 and emotional state during quarantine: Positive and negative affect as mediators in a cross-sectional study of the Spanish population. PloS one, 15(6), 1-11. google scholar
33. Roberts, M. (2020). Is the Covid vaccine safe?. BBC. https://www.bbc.com/news/health-55056016. google scholar
34. Ratten, V. (2020). Coronavirus (covid-19) and entrepreneurship: Changing life and work landscape. Journal of Small Business & Entrepreneurship, 32(5), 503-516. google scholar
35. Sa’aban, S., Ismail, N., & Mansor, M. F. (2013). A study on generation Y behavior at workplace. International Conference on Business Innovation, Entrepreneurship and Engineering, 549-554. google scholar
36. Schroth, H. (2019). Are you ready for gen Z in the workplace?. California Management Review, 61(3), 5-18. google scholar
37. Twenge, J. M., Campbell, S. M., Hoffman, B. J., & Lance, C. E. (2010). Generational differences in work values: Leisure and extrinsic values increasing, social and intrinsic values decreasing. Journal of Management, 36(5), 1117-1142. google scholar
38. Vaziri, H., Casper, W. J., Wayne, J. H., & Matthews, R. A. (2020). Changes to the work-family interface during the COVID-19 pandemic: Examining predictors and implications using latent transition analysis. Journal of Applied Psychology, 105(10), 1073-1087. google scholar
39. Verma, S., & Gustafsson, A. (2020). Investigating the emerging COVID-19 research trends in the field of business and management: A bibliometric analysis approach. Journal of Business Research, 118, 253-261. google scholar
40. Waligora, L., & Austen, A. (2019). Criticism of the intergenerational diversity concept towards diversity of employees due to age. Zeszyty Naukowe WyzszejSzkofyHumanitas. Zarzqdzanie, 3, 241-255. google scholar
41. World Health Organization. (2020, October 28). Coronavirus disease (COVID-19): Vaccines. https://www. who.int/news-room/q-a-detail/coronavirus-disease-(covid-19)-vaccines google scholar
42. World Health Organization. (n.d.), COVID-19: vulnerable and high risk groups. https://www.who.int/wes-ternpacific/emergencies/covid-19/information/high-risk-groups google scholar
43. Worldometer. (2021, January 06). Covid-19 coronavirus pandemic. google scholar
44. https://www.worldometers.info/coronavirus/ google scholar
45. Zimmer, C., Corum, J., & Wee, S. (2020). Coronavirus Vaccine Tracker. NYTimes. https://www.nytimes. com/interactive/2020/science/coronavirus-vaccine-tracker.html google scholar