Factors of Work Motivation and Coexistence of Generations at the Workplace

Abstract This paper focuses on the characteristics of the main challenges posed by the changes in demographic composition of labour market and requisite to adjust motivational programs to expectations of employees in industrial enterprises in Slovakia, but also to develop strategies to manage the cooperation between different generations. The paper describes the situation in Slovakia based on the analysis of data from quantitative research collected in 2018 on a sample of 534 employees in industrial enterprises. The empirical findings presented, which describe the differences between generations, focus mainly on the importance of work motivation factors and the level of achievement of these factors in correlation with the stated intention to change employment. Analysed data confirmed that relationships with colleagues are generally the most important work factor for all generations, but we found some significant differences between generations in work motivation items such as career advancement, personal growth, achievement, advantageous working hours and benefit to society.