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The Relationship between Demographic Variables of Gen X and Gen Y Students and Organizational Citizenship Behavior
JOURNAL OF YOUTH RESEARCHES
ness dinners, business trips and trainings since they have responsibilities to fulfill for their
husbands and kids (Örücü at al., 2007: 133).
According to the 2014-2017 data provided by Turkish Statistical Institute (TÜİK), the
main reason of not being in labour force is the responsibility for dealing with household
chores. Besides, based on the 2006, 2010, and 2014 data, monthly average gross wage
and yearly average gross earnings of women employees are lower than the men employ-
ees even though their education levels are alike. For instance, statistics showed that a
male employee with a university degree earned 4296 TL per month, yet a female employ-
ee with a similar quality only earned 3470 TL (TÜİK).
It is recommended that the Turkish goverment should encorce the institutions to develop
some policies. Thus, women employees will be able to cope with glass ceiling related
barriers. Such applications to encourage women employees in male dominant countries
like Turkey will lower the labour turnover rate in institutions and improve OCB of women
empoyees.
Additionally, this study reveals that the mean of Gen X is higher than the mean of Gen Y.
Considering conditions in Turkey, the difference might be attributed to the way they were
brought up, ecomomic, political and technological changes. Gen X witnessed events like
oil crisis, economic distress, and right-left conflicts. In that era, women actively started
to take part in business life. To have a prosperious life, people preferred to have fewer
children. Money became the focal point, and individualism gained importance (Mengi,
2003). Concers for the future forced this generation to work a lot and save up. Gen X is
bound to traditional values which naturally make them susceptible to social problems.
They show respect to authority. Besides, they are challenging, satisfied, and mistrustful.
They value brands. After women started to work, traditional family structure started to be
different (Altuntuğ, 2012: 205-206; Erol & Öz, 2016:54-55; İzmirlioğlu, 2008:44-45). On
the other hand, Aktan (1996), points out that the 24 January Decisions imposed by the
8t
h
President of Turkish Republic, Turgut Özal, played a crucial role to shape Gen Y. As
a result, the characteristics of Gen Y, which put human rights and freedom as a baseline
and which believe in individualism, are founded (Aktan, 1996).
Özmen (2011 states that behavioral characteristics of generations change as generations
get older, and attributes it to ‘age effect’ because different generations behave differently
in the same period of time. To the researcher, each generation has their own history
and background that differentiate them from one another. The difference arises from
the sociocultural and political legacy inherited from previous generations (Özmen, 2011).
The study conducted by Wagner and Ruch (2000) supports the theory of age effect. The
researchers conducted their research in two private hospitals in the USA. Based on the
results, they proved that age is a significant antecedent of altruistic citizenship behavior.
