1 Introduction

The generation gap is one of the major concerns of organizations, since it has become a crucial factor in terms of human resources impacting the achievement of organizational goals. A generation is usually referred to as a group of individuals who share the same historical or social life experiences (Kupperschmidt 2000; Smola and Sutton 2002; Weston 2006). Furthermore, a ‘generation’ is defined as individuals with the same characteristics such as age, birth years, location, behavior, similar personalities and feelings (Eletter et al. 2017). In addition, some authors have defined the term generation as a ‘cohort’ which is known to be a collection of individuals who share the same birth years and life experiences.

However, more and more generations have evolved with time. Nowadays, workforce of most organizations consists of many generations. It has been noted that gaps exist between these generations which affect the performance of organizations in many different ways. According to Russell and Patrick (2017), employees in diverse generations are often mutually opposed to one another. These scholars have also stated that these employees in different generations make assumptions and reach conclusions that are often contradictory and mismatched. There are situations in which some employees have to work under employees from earlier generations. Sometimes, employees from earlier generations have to work under members of the present or the latest generation. Characteristics of a respective generations such as similar attitudes and feelings may be distinctive to that of another generations, thus resulting in generation gaps. These scenarios could lead to conflict at the workplace. Therefore, it is necessary to explore the characteristics of these diverse generations that have to co-exist in workplaces to achieve positive organizational outcomes.

Generally, organizations employ Generations ‘X’ and ‘Y’ as well the latest Generation, which is called Generation ‘Z,’ with a few employees who belong to the ‘Baby Boomer’ generation. Of these, the researchers are of the opinion that Generation ‘X’ and Generation ‘y’ are the most discussed and most widely represented Generations in organizations. Hence, a comparison was needed between the various characteristics of the two Generations. This comparison would help to identify what really makes Generation ‘X’ different from Generation ‘Y’. In fact, these characteristics might lead to formulating well-focused strategies and effective decision making regarding a particular Generation to be prioritized as leaders within the organization as well.

Generation ‘X’ individuals are defined as those who were born between 1960 and 1975 and may be between 1960 and 1982 as well (Greene 2003; Patterson 2007; Skiba and Barton 2006; Smola and Sutton 2002; Sujansky 2004; Vejar 2018). In most organizations, Generation ‘X’ employees hold the most senior management or middle management positions. These employees generally value hard work, education and money (Wiant 1999). As per Leibow (2014), Generation ‘X’ employees are generally expected to maintain a balance between work and family life and do not generally work for long periods of time for money and titles. Concurrently, it has been noted that the most potential and younger employees in their twenties and thirties are born between 1980 and 1995. They are known as Millennials or the so-called Generation ‘Y’ (Pereira et al. 2017). Most Generation ‘Y’ people are confident, independent and target oriented. Success is of prime concern to them and they place utmost importance on career growth which describes how goal driven they are when compared to Generation ‘X’. Therefore, it is important to investigate circumstances Generation ‘Y’ will look forward to remain within an organization or what makes them want to leave an organization (Meier et al. 2010).

It has been observed that Generation ‘Y’, in certain ways, is more ‘advanced’ than Generation ‘X’. Thus, they are more in demand at workplaces because of their high involvement with the tasks assigned to them at the workplace. Consequently, it would be of importance to identify what really makes Generation ‘Y’ more advanced than Generation ‘X’ and what helps to retain Generation ‘Y’ employees within the same organization.

Most organizations experience the generation gap among their employees. It has been noted that the generation gap does have an impact on organizational efficiency and the sustaining of a healthy corporate environment as well. In addition, it was observed that companies have ended up with a much higher turnover rate of Generation ‘Y’ employees than Generation ‘X’ employees during previous years. This problem has mainly surfaced within companies which belong to the service and industrial sectors. Hence, it was necessary to find a solution to this problem as well as to predict the turnover rates of Generation ‘Y’ who are currently working in organizations.

Some statistics related to the above research problem were extracted from the annual reports and internal reports of well reputed companies.

According the 2018/2019 annual report of the ABC Private Limited which is a reputed service company, the rate of resignation of Generation ‘Y’ employees was calculated based on the percentages of employees in the age groups 26–40 years. Turnover rates of Generation ‘X’ employees was also calculated based on the percentages of employees in the age groups 41–65 years. Therefore, as per the given statistics, the turnover of Generation ‘Y’ employees is 87% whereas for Generation ‘X’ employees, it is 11%. Hence, in 2018/2019, for employees of Generation Y, the resigning rate is higher than that of employees of Generation X.

Additionally, a few statistics related to the turnover details of employees based on age categories such as baby boomers, Generation ‘X’, and Generation ‘Y’ have been extracted from past internal reports of a leading manufacturing company in Sri Lanka.

According to internal report of CBA Company 2017/18 and 2016/17, the turnover rate of Generation ‘Y employees was 62% whereas for Generation ‘X’ employees the turnover rate was 33% in 2017/18. Hence, it has been proved that Generation ‘Y’ has a higher turnover rate than that of Generation ‘X’. In the 2016/17 financial year, the employee turnover rate of Generation ‘Y’ and Generation ‘X’ are 63% and 33% with counts of 722 and 374, respectively. Hence, in the financial year of 2016/17, the turnover rates of Generation ‘Y’ is once again proved to be higher than that of Generation ‘X’.

Thus, the impact of this Generation gap within organizations is significant and the researchers’ surmises have been validated as per the evidence that has been gathered so far.

The main research objective of the study is, to present a predictive analysis of the turnover of Generations ‘X’ and ‘Y’ at the workplace.

The results of this study would be important to organizations in their efforts to retain both Generations ‘X’ and ‘Y’ employees. It would also help Generation ‘Y’ to have faith and remain within the same organization, and to achieve career progress in the same organization by doing their best to fulfill organizational needs. There may be instances where all the needs of employees may not be satisfied and also is not be feasible to do so by organizational initiatives. However, employees need to compromise with what they desire (their career aspirations and expected benefits from the employer) and what the organization is ready to provide (based on organization’s perks and policies). Whether to stay or leave the organization is ultimately a personal matter and at the discretion of each employee. However, a compromise between personal wants and organizational provisions seems the best way forward to achieve personal and organizational goals for mutual benefits of both the employee and employer (organization).

Moreover, this study would be beneficial for undergraduate researchers since they can acquire valuable experience in conducting a research study that is of significance in a local setting. Moreover, these researchers could familiarize themselves with qualitative and quantitative aspects of gathering data in the field as well as with data analysis. The study will be also helpful to them in gaining a broad knowledge and skills in thesis writing, statistical techniques and time management as well. Thus, these improved skills will help the researchers progress their profession and gain competitive advantage in future. This study will also add value to future researchers in identifying what kind of solutions they should come up with to retain the current employees in organizations, especially members of Generation ‘Y’.

2 Literature review

There have been several research studies conducted previously regarding Generational behavior at the workplace. These authors have discussed how the two Generations ‘X’ and ‘Y’ behave at the workplace, their different characteristics and some common characteristics that are shared by both Generations. The present researchers focused on providing a clear definition of the nature of working styles, personal values and social values of the two Generations together with their workplace behavior all of which determine the factors that affect Generation ‘Y’s intention to leave, which is seen to be greater than Generation ‘X’s intention to leave.

2.1 Characteristics of generations ‘X’ and ‘Y’

This study primarily discusses separately the characteristics that the two generations possess and what cause them to be unique during a particular stage of their career. Data are included in Table 1. Later, the common characteristics of the two Generations ‘X’ and ‘Y’ will be discussed in Table 2.

Table 1 Characteristics of Generations ‘X’ and ‘Y’
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2.2 Common characteristics of generations ‘X’ and ‘Y’

The identified common characteristics of the two generations are shown in Table 2.

Table 2 Common Characteristics of Generations ‘x’ and ‘y’. (
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2.3 Generational behavior of generations ‘X’ and ‘Y’

The researchers have focused on how the two generations behave at the workplace. To do this, the researchers followed Frame Analysis Theory which was posited by Erving Goffman (1974) in order to determine some of the main characteristics of the two generations. These characteristics are the nature of working styles, personal values and social values of the two Generations ‘X’ and ‘Y’. The researchers focused more on flexibility, job performance and knowledge sharing under the nature of working styles of Generation ‘X’ and ‘Y’. Particular attention was paid to mentoring and leadership under personal values and respect and community values of Generation ‘X’ and ‘Y’ under social values.

2.4 Nature of working styles

As per the observations, Generation ‘X’ employees are more likely to focus on their families and their quality of life rather than exerting effort to rise to senior positions in their careers (Patterson 2007). They use realistic and practical approaches to solve problems at the workplace. Nevertheless, Generation ‘X’ employees prefer to work in organizations that are not very hierarchical in structure (Lyon et al. 2005). On the other hand, Generation ‘Y’ employees do not see or do not emphasize the difference between work and life (Anantatmula and Shrivastav 2012). In line with this, Generation ‘Y’ engages in more continuous learning than Generation ‘X’ does (Lester et al. 2012). Therefore, most millennials have better educational backgrounds than their elders. Accordingly, the majority have more diplomas, degrees or other professional qualifications than their contemporaries in other Generations (Williams 2000). Thus, Generation ‘Y’ is more likely to face numerous challenges successfully by using new technologies and other advanced techniques (Anantatmula & Shrivastav 2012). As a comparison, Generation ‘Y’ and Generation ‘Z’ are digital native and Generation ‘X’ and Generation ‘Z’ is more tech-savvy or native than previous generations (Mahmoud et al. 2021a).

2.4.1 Flexibility

This refers to the practices that allow employees to decide and manage their work schedules freely, to have control over their jobs and to make decisions about the time and the place in which they will engage in job-related tasks (Omondi and Obonyo 2018). Generation ‘X’ employees are more likely to change jobs if a new one provides flexible working hours that allows for greater worklife balance (Glass 2007). According to Ritter (2014), this Generation has a desire for flexible work schedules where they can create a suitable balance between work and other life activities. On the other hand, Generation ‘Y’ hopes for work and career flexibility. These employees believe that they can do more tasks in a lesser time period; as a result, they feel they deserve the freedom to work less hours while still taking jobs that are very challenging (Lloyd 2007). Cogin (2011) has stated that career success of employees could be defined in terms of work-life balance and flexibility. Hence, previous researchers have confirmed the manner in which the two Generations favor flexibility at the workplace in order to maintain a proper workflow within the organization.

2.4.2 Job performance

Job performance can be defined as the behaviors that employees display at the workplace; in other words, how well these employees perform their work while being proficient in the tasks assigned to them and being behaviorally related to all the tasks (Fogaca et al. 2018). According to Wiant (1999), Generation ‘X’ members are more likely to feel that they should work really hard even when they are not supervised. Moreover, these employees work to achieve their own goals as well as to achieve organizational goals. On the other hand, Generation ‘Y’ employees work hard when they work to get what they want. By doing so, they enjoy themselves while performing the job well (Bencsik et al. 2016). Thus, Generation ‘Y’ works well with friends and in teams as well. They are collaborative, resourceful and innovative thinkers. These Generational members often try to generate something worthwhile (Deloitte 2015). Therefore, this section describes how the two Generations perform individually at their jobs with reference to the nature of their styles of work.

2.4.3 Knowledge sharing

Knowledge sharing is defined as a process or a tool of exchanging knowledge among people or organizations by a knowledgeable person; the purpose is to promote decision making and evidence-based practices for an organization’s strategies and effectiveness (Tsui et al. 2006). Ipe (2003) has stated that the main aim of knowledge sharing is the transfer of knowledge by a knowledgeable person to his/her colleagues in an organization. In addition, the same author emphasized that for an employee to be rich in knowledge that can be shared among others, he/she should be motivated enough. Cultivating a knowledge sharing culture in an organization is not an easy task. It depends, in particular on the readiness of each individual on the staff to share his/her knowledge while motivational factors also influence the intentions of employees to share knowledge (Akhavan et al. 2013). Hence, knowledge sharing has become an important aspect that impacts the nature of the working styles of the two Generations ‘X’ and ‘Y’.

2.5 Personal values

There are different kinds of people working together within organizations and every employee has to work with others possessing diverse mindsets and attitudes. There may be circumstances where an employee has to learn how to behave in an organization among other employees with highly diverse behavioral patterns. On the one hand, Generation ‘X’ employees always believe in themselves, like to be very independent and do not desire to be supervised. They are, on the whole, honest and loyal to their occupations whilst taking their jobs seriously (Jorgensen et al. 2003; Shragay and Tziner 2011). On the other hand, Generation ‘Y’ is willing to embrace and accept cultural differences including personal and societal differences since they have grown up in a much more diverse society (Blain et al. 2008; Brown et al. 2009). Therefore, it is vital to identify the kind of personal values and characteristics the two Generations ‘X’ and ‘Y’ bring in to organizations.

2.5.1 Mentoring

Many previous researchers have defined the term mentoring. Nevertheless, most of these definitions have been developed on the one proposed by (Kram 1985). This author has defined mentoring as a process of developing a relationship between a much more experienced employee called the mentor and a less experienced employee called the mentee. According to Patterson (2007), Generation ‘Y’ members enjoy being mentored and learning from others or their supervisors. Thus, Generation ‘Y’ looks for mentors, seeking advice, feedback or guidance in order to obtain results more productively and satisfactorily (Bennett et al. 2012). In addition, Kram (1985) has affirmed that role modelling helps mentees to watch and learn from all the actions and activities of mentors. Hence, it is quite clear how mentoring helps organizational activities to flow consistently. In particular, when young newcomers join, it is important if this younger generation to be retained within the same workplace. This can be achieved if the new recruits get a better awareness of tasks that should be performed well at the workplace. Mentoring will help in this regard.

2.5.2 Leadership

Leadership is the ability to influence the behavior of a group in order to achieve the objectives of an organization (Stoner et al. 2016). The study of leadership in an organization is known to be the study of executives who possess overall responsibilities in the organization and the manner in which leadership has an impact on effective organizational outcomes. Generation ‘Y’ employees learn, collaborate and socialize pretty quickly within their working environment where they obey their leaders (Smola and Sutton 2002). On the other hand, Generation ‘X’ believes that working very hard is an indication of one’s worth. In this regard, it is noteworthy that they do not work hard only when their supervisors or team leaders are on site. These employees always attempt to balance doing a good job and maximizing their own individual goals (Wiant 1999). Due to these factors, Generation ‘X’ leaders have a strong sense of purpose and are aware of the right direction to which the organization has to progress and engage in proper decision making which will help their organizations reach strategic goals (Daft 2005; Ireland and Hitt 1999).

2.6 Social values

It is essential that employees be socially active within the working environment and social interaction is beneficial for employees rather than they sit alone and attempt to carry out challenging tasks in the workplace by themselves. Nevertheless, it has been observed that the two Generations ‘X’ and ‘Y’ behave somewhat differently in this regard at the workplace. Kultalahti and Viitala (2014) affirmed that Generation ‘Y’ employees are generally more socially active than Generation ‘X’ employees. Generation ‘Y’ desires independence, flexibility, mobility, broad but superficial knowledge, success, creativity and freedom of information, all of which are prioritized in their work lives. On the other hand, Generation ‘X’ is characterized by hard work, openness, respect for diversity, curiosity, practicality and respect for hierarchy (Bencsik et al., 2016). According to Ryan (2000), Generation ‘Y’ is the first Generation to be very socially active since the 1960s. Therefore, it is crucial to justify what kind of social values the two Generations possess within organizations.

2.6.1 Respect

Respect is a key aspect wherever a person lives and works. In organizations, employees must respect others and behave in a way that respects the rights of fellow employees. Respect is defined as a basic aspect of how people relate to each by way of esteem paid to other people while desiring to share their own values and opportunities (O'Grady 2017). Moreover, it has been noted that both Generations ‘X’ and ‘Y’ seek comfort from and have more respect for those who share their own values. Hence, value matching provides an easier opportunity for group assignments (Kipnis and Childs 2004). Deloitte (2015) has also mentioned that Generation ‘X’ values guidance and expects respect at the workplace. On the other hand, Generation ‘Y’ respects leaders who are honest, forthright and open while they do attempt to be their own bosses.

2.6.2 Community

Community is referred to as a feeling that a set of people have of belonging and being valuable to each other while sharing trust among members who favor team work and who see team work as a friendly way to organize tasks and initiatives (Zani and Cicognani, 2012). As per the opinion of Patterson (2007), personal relationships are vital to Generation ‘X’ members as many workers of this generation are poor team players. They often try to do things or tasks themselves. Generally, Generation ‘Y’ members favor team work whether it is face-to-face or through virtual projects that are assigned by their organizations. They see team work as a team-friendly way to organize tasks and initiatives as well as to continue further tasks (Cole et al. 2002; Howe and Strauss, 2000; Skiba and Barton, 2006). These employees give importance to greetings associated with team members; also, they usually never forget to wish their team members and colleagues on their important days of lives such as birthdays and anniversaries.

2.7 Workplace behavior

Jagannathan (2014) has defined workplace behavior or workplace attitude as the behavior of individual employees within the organization. When considering Generations, the behavior of each Generation does vary where Generation ‘X’ is more likely to be cool, calm and composed while Generation ‘Y’ is more efficient and self-motivated. Many employees in an organization tend to work hard to make their organization succeed almost all the time. Despite this, it is very important to identify what causes employees within an organization to make decisions to remain with the same employer or to leave the current employer to work for someone else. In this regard, the generational gap which exists within organizations has an impact on both employee retention as well as on intentions to leave. Hence, the researchers focused on the past literature relevant to retention and the intention to leave the organizations related to the two Generations ‘X’ and ‘Y’.

2.7.1 Retention

This refers to a process in which employees are given the support and encouragement to remain within the same organization for an extended period of time or till a particular task is completed (Das and Baruah 2013). The lack of promotions available in an employee’s career to enhance employee growth will reduce when employees in Generation ‘X’ are willing to remain with the same employer (Weston 2006). Goessling (2017) has stated that Generation ‘X’ prefers to engage in interesting, self-paced work and may remain at one workplace for a long period of time enjoying the concomitant informality in the work environment. On the other hand, Generation ‘Y’ has an increased preference for extrinsic rewards which is why they hope to stay in the same workplace (Twenge 2010). Moreover, these authors have elaborated on these extrinsic rewards as consisting of tangible rewards such as salaries and fringe benefits. By providing these rewards as incentives, the organization can retain their Generation ‘Y’ employees. One researcher has mentioned that organizations should provide career counseling programmers to Generation ‘Y’ employees to improve employee retention (Lowe et al. 2011).

2.7.2 Intention to leave

Intention to leave or turnover intention is known to be a mental decision that employees make either to stay or to leave (Jacobs and Roodt 2007). Price (2001) stated that turnover is the individual movement taken by an employee across the membership boundary of an organization. However, Smola and Sutton (2002) have described millennials as comparatively less loyal to their employer organizations. If their jobs in the current organization are not challenging, they gravitate towards other jobs. Thus, Generation ‘Y’ values freedom-related items more than Generation ‘X’ does and seeks employment opportunities that provide an independent environment. However, if these requirements are not met, millennials may leave their current jobs (Cennamo and Gardner, 2008). Therefore, Generation ‘Y’ likes to be challenged and independent and if not, employee turnover occurs among members of this Generation where these members will quit their jobs (Queiri et al. 2014).

3 Conceptual framework and research methodology

Based on the literature review, the researchers constructed the conceptual framework. The research methodology followed is mentioned below.

3.1 Conceptual framework

Figure 1 shows the conceptual framework of the current study which was designed by the authors after a literature review. The conceptual framework consists of three independent variables which are the nature of the working styles, the personal values and social values of the two Generations ‘X’ and ‘Y’. The dependent variable of the conceptual framework is workplace behavior. The researchers focused mainly on the factors that affect Generation ‘Y’s intention to leave and reveal that it is higher than that of Generation ‘X’.

Fig. 1
figure 1

Source: Author’s Own)

Conceptual model. (

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4 Research methodology

This study was reviewed and approved by SLIIT Business School. Data were collected by using online forms and in printed version as well. However, priority was given to the Google Form where the main reason for the selection of online version (Google Form) was due to the limited time consumption and the inability to distribute the printed questionnaire to the respondents on account of the prevailing situation of the country (Covid-19). The questionnaire comprised of two sections. The first section intends to gather demographic data of respondents. While the second section intend to gather data about generational behavior of respondents. Independent variables are measured through seven dimensions: flextime, job performance, knowledge sharing, mentoring, leadership, community and respect. The dependent variable is measured by two types of dimensions which are the retention and intention to leave of the two Generations ‘X’ and ‘Y’. Three questions were assigned for each variable. In the current study, researchers used a set of questions adopted from the extant literature and previous scales (Omondi and K’Obonyo, 2018; Fogaca et al. 2018; Tsui et al. 2006; Megginson and Robert. 2004) to assess the independent variables and nine questions were developed based on the work of previous researchers (Das and Baruah 2013; Kim et al. 1996) to assess the dependent variable. The questions were developed using a five-point Likert scale to measure each model variable, on an ascending scale from 1 to 5, depicting (1) strong Agree to (5) Strong disagree.

The researchers proposed a quantitative methodology to conduct this study. The population of the study explained the total number of elements that focus on the research study. The researchers applied a stratified sampling method. The sample size was selected Krejcie & Morgan (1970) illustration. The margin of accepted error was taken as 5% at the confidence level of 95%. The results indicated that sample size of at-least 306 would be required. However, the researchers received only 297 responses, thus a response rate of 97%. The sampling technique aided in the collection of data that was free of bias. Pilot survey of 30 respondents were conduct to determine whether questions were clear, understandable and in logical order. The survey was distributed to the participants by sharing the online link of the survey through email. The sample of this study consisted 297 employees of Generation ‘X’ and Generation ‘Y’ who are employed under 7 multinational service sector companies. In the present study, the researchers conducted a cross-sectional study as the collection of data in the research study was limited only on to one particular time period. This was selected as a cross-sectional study as researchers are not aware whether the variables are covary (Spector 2019). According to Mahmoud et al. (2021b) cross-sectional study has a justification to adopt during the crisis time period (Wartime, Covid-19). Therefore, this study was conducted as cross-sectional during the Covid-19 time period.

4.1 Data analysis

The researchers conducted the reliability and validity test at the beginning of their analysis. Later, they followed three methods of analysis in order to achieve the research objective.

The results of the reliability test and validity tests are shown as follows.

The collected quantitative data of the survey study was analyzed using SPSS system. Thereafter, the researchers were able to determine the reliability and validity of research. The reliability was noted to be 0.827 (Cronbach’s alpha). However, the gained co-efficient value indicated that the research study results were relatively reliable. The survey was distributed to 297 respondents who belong to Generation ‘X’ and ‘Y’ of selected service sector companies. The Cronbach's alpha was calculated using these responses. Cronbach's alpha for the dimensions of the present study is shown as 0.827. The researchers used the values of KMO and Bartlett to test the validity of the sample of their research survey study. The values of KMO and Bartlett were noted to be having a value of 0.727.

The main objective of the present research study is to find out which employee will retain or leave the organizations based on the sample of the study. In order to accomplish this objective, the researchers recoded the responses given by the respondents, to incorporate the mean values of the responses pertaining to intention to leave and retention into one scale. Hence, based on these values, the researchers followed three main analysis studies to derive the predictive analysis of the employees.

The first method of analysis was to predict via descriptive statistics. As per the results, it can be noticed that the mean value of Generation ‘X’ employees is 3.5052 while the mean value of Generation ‘Y’ employees is 1.9494. This indicates that most of the respondents of Generation ‘X’ have answered as ‘Disagree’ to the statements pertaining to intention to leave of them. But as far as the Generation ‘Y’ is concerned, it is noted that most of the Generation ‘Y’ respondents responded/answered as ‘Strongly Agree’ or ‘Agree’ pertaining to the intention to leave statements embedded in the survey questionnaire. Hence, it is identified that Generation ‘Y’ employees will leave the organizations than those from the Generation ‘X’.

The results were derived based on sample data gathered by researchers. However, when the population of the research study is concerned, it still states that the Generation ‘X’ respondents Disagree to leave the organizations based on the mean values given for lower bound and upper bound between 3.4171 and 3.5932 respectively. On the other hand, when the Generation ‘Y’ is concerned, these employees still Strongly Agree or Agree to leave the organizations based on the mean values derived for lower bound and upper bound between 1.8364 and 2.0624 respectively.

In addition, the researchers derived the exact count of the employees who will retain, or leave based on their sample and it is shown by Table 3.

Table 3 Predictive analysis of generations X and Y using descriptive analysis
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The researchers marked ‘0’ for the employees who will retain and marked ‘1’ for the employees who will leave to conduct the prediction. Based on this finding, it was found that out of the sample of 297, 149 employees will retain within the same organization while the rest of the sample, i.e.148 employees, will leave the organizations.

4.2 Binary logistic regression

The researchers followed Binary Logistic Regression as well to predict the employee’s retention and intention to leave of the two generations. The Table 4 shows the results.

Table 4 Predictive analysis of generations X and Y using Binary Logistic Regression. (
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Based on the findings of Tables 3 and 4, it can be predicted the number of employees who will retain; i.e. out of the 149 employees who retain, only 57.7% employees will retain within the organizations. On the other hand, it can be predicted the number of employees who will leave: i.e. out of the 148 employees who leave, only 67.6% will leave the organizations. Hence, it is seen that the percentage values of intention to leave is higher than that of the value of retention of the employees at the workplaces.

4.3 Neural network analysis

Nevertheless, it was needed to predict with more accuracy to find who will retain and leave. Hence, the researchers followed neural network analysis to continue the prediction. The Table 5 shows the results derived.

Table 5 Predictive analysis of generations X and Y using neural network analysis. (
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The researchers took 70% of their data set on training and 30% of their data set on testing based on stratified sampling to derive the results. Hence, it is evident that the percentage of incorrect predictions are just noted as 8.4% in training while 8.8% in testing. In other words, the prediction is 91.6% accurate in the training set while it is 91.2% accurate in the testing set. It can be assumed that this analysis method is more accurate than the Binary Logistic Regression. Due to this reason, the researchers continued the prediction of employees and the results are further explained based on the Table 6.

Table 6 Predictive analysis of generations X and Y using neural network analysis. (
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It is seen that 84.8% will retain and 98.1% will leave from the training set whereas 85.7% will retain and 97.4% will leave from the testing set.

Hence, it is seen that through Neural network analysis, researchers were able to predict with high accuracy whether a respective employee from the two Generations ‘X’ and ‘Y’ is leaving or not.

5 Discussion

The main objective of this research is to determine the predictive analysis of Generation ‘X’ and ‘Y’ at workplace. Accordingly, the researchers collected responses from a sample of 297 employees from selected organizations. Therefore, the researchers ensured validity and reliability of their collected data set. In order to fulfill this purpose, the researchers conducted the reliability test and the KMO test using SPSS. It was noted that the overall reliability as 0.827 and the results of the KMO test was 0.727. Based on these values, it was seen that the collected data set is reliable and valid to proceed to further analysis methods, to achieve the research objective.

The researchers conducted three methods of analysis to achieve their research objective. As their first method, they followed descriptive analysis test for the intention to leave of the two Generations ‘X’ and ‘Y’. From the results, it was evident that Generation ‘Y’ have strongly agreed or agreed more to leave but the Generation ‘x’ have disagreed to leave the organizations. Then, the researchers conducted binary logistics regression as their second method of analysis to predict employee retention and intention to leave. The results proved the percentage values related to the employees who will retain or leave their organizations. To ensure a high level of accuracy for prediction, the researchers conducted the neural network analysis as their third method of analysis. This analysis predicted the percentage values of employees who are likely to retain as well as leave the organization more accurately than the second method of analysis, which is based on the number of employees who agreed to retain and/ leave in the two Generations X and Y. These results were taken based on their sample of 297.

Generational differences among personnel must be taken into account as a major concern for the organizations (Mahmoud et al. 2021c).Glass (2007) had found that the most important characteristics of the Generation ‘X’ in the workplace has been the fact that these employees are very result oriented and they focus on the outcome beyond the process of work. Moreover, the Generation ‘X’ employees cannot live within the "me" concept of selfishness. They think and care about others (Johnson 2010). In other words, millennials appreciate both extrinsic regulation–material and identifiable regulation more than previous Generations, whereas extrinsic regulation–social and introjected regulation are regarded less by millennials than previous generations (Mahmoud et al. 2020a, b). In the present study also, the researchers found that the respondents who belong to the Generation ‘X’ and Generation ‘Y’ show main characteristics with related to the nature of working styles, personal values and social values of them at workplace. Based on mean values of the independent variables which are nature of working styles, personal values and social values, the Generation ‘X’ employees show more social values and the Generation ‘Y’ employees show more personal values in the selected service sector companies in the Sri Lankan context.

According to Wiant (1999), the Generation ‘X’ members are more likely to feel that one should work hard even when they are not supervised. Moreover, these employees are working to achieve their own goals as well as to achieve organizational goals. On the other hand, the Generation ‘Y’ values the freedom-related items more than the Generation ‘X’ and the Generation ‘Y’ members seek employment opportunities that provide independent environment. The above-mentioned findings were the same as the present study. In this study, the researchers found out that the nature of the working styles of both the Generations ‘X’ and ‘Y’ greatly influence the workplace behavior in the Sri Lankan context. Moreover, it is seen that the Generation ‘X’ employees are the most affected by a change in the nature of working style.

Weyland (2011) had stated that mentoring helps the Generation ‘Y’ employees to achieve a superior performance at the workplace as it guides, motivates and directs them in the particular path. The Generation ‘X’ believes that working more strongly is an indication of one’s worth. They do not work hard only when their supervisors or team leaders are at the workplace. These employees always try to balance doing good job and maximizing their own individual goals (Wiant 1999). According to the selected service sector companies, the current researchers have found that personal values also influence the workplace behavior of two Generations ‘X’ and ‘Y’. Here, the Generation ‘Y’ employees are affected most by a change in personal values.

According to Ryan (2000) the Generation ‘Y’ is the first generation to be a socially active since the 1960s. Moreover, they help to make/create positive work environments that are generally friendly and possess state of the art and technology. The employees of Generation ‘Y’ respect leaders who are honest, forthright and open (Arora and Dhole, 2019). As far as the Generation ‘X’ is concerned, the present researchers were able to find out different findings of past researchers who had held different opinions about community. Based on these past literary findings, the current researchers were capable of identifying that the Generation ‘Y’ employees are more social than Generation ‘X’ employees. It has also been noted that, Generation ‘X’ employees have affected most by one change in social values based on their sample. In other words, if the social values get increased by one unit, the workplace behavior of Generation ‘X’ employees changes faster than Generation ‘Y’ employees.

The Generation ‘Y’ people try to make changes in their lives and organizations (Ruble 2013). The Generation ‘Y’ has a higher turnover when compared with other Generations in the industry (Twenge 2006; Lancaster and Stillman 2003; Tulgan & Martin, 2001). The reason for this has been the fact that according to Kerslake (2005), the Generation ‘Y’ individuals are often considered for their personal goals. Also, organizations are trying to retain Generation X employees as they have demonstrated loyalty and possess a diverse set of abilities that could be used in various ways. Despite these findings, the current researchers have also found that Generation ‘Y’ employees prefer to leave the companies than Generation ‘X’ employees according to the selected service sector companies.

6 Conclusion and recommendations

The researchers concluded a few findings based on their data analysis and discussion pertaining to the prediction of employees of the two Generations ‘X’ and ‘Y’.

The researchers conducted the descriptive analysis test as their first method of analysis in order to determine the intention to leave of the employees of the two Generations ‘X’ and ‘Y’. According to the findings, the mean value of Generation ‘X’ employees is noted to be 3.5052 and Generation ‘Y’ employees is noted to be 1.9494. This states that most of the respondents of Generation ‘X’ have answered in favor to retain within the organization and when the Generation ‘Y’ is concerned, it is noted that most of the Generation ‘Y’ respondents have answered pertaining to the intention to leave. Hence, it is identified that Generation ‘Y’ employees tend to leave the organizations than those in the Generation ‘X’ in the selected service sector companies in the Sri Lankan context.

However, the researchers followed Binary Logistic Regression as their second method of analysis to predict the employee’s retention and intention to leave of the two generations. Based on the findings, out of the 149 employees who retain, only 57.7% employees are likely to retain within the organizations. On the other hand, out of the 148 employees who will leave, only 67.6% are likely to leave the organizations. Hence, it is clear that the percentage value of intention to leave is higher than that of the value of retention of the employees at the workplaces.

Moreover, the researchers followed Neural Network Analysis as their third method of analysis to continue the prediction with more accuracy to find who will retain and leave. According to the findings, it is noticed that 84.8% will retain and 98.1% will leave from the training set that the researchers took whereas 85.7% will retain and 97.4% will leave from the testing set that the researchers took. Hence, it is seen that the researchers were able to predict with high accuracy by Neural network analysis whether the person is leaving the organization or not from the two Generations ‘X’ and ‘Y’. However, based on these findings, the researchers were able determine that Generation 'Y' employees are leaving more than Generation 'X' employees in the selected private companies which are operating under the service sector in Sri Lankan context.

In this research study, the current researchers did a prediction and a comparison between Generations ‘X’ and ‘Y’ in the private sector companies in Sri Lankan context. Therefore, researchers recommend future researchers to conduct research studies based on future Generations such as Generation ‘Z’ and Generation alpha. The scope of the present research was based only on selected private companies that are classified under the service category although the research problem was identified in both the service and industry sector organizations. Hence, it is recommended to conduct researches on the similar research problem by considering the industry sector including the government sector, by expanding the variables and the sample size in the upcoming researches.

The researchers in this current study recommend that both the employees of Generations ‘X’ and ‘Y’ in these selected service sector companies should be given the opportunity to improve their leadership skills. Those companies should analyze the weaknesses of employees by conducting mentoring sessions so that the personal values can be enhanced in employees of both Generations. Moreover, it is recommended for Generation ‘X’ employees to be updated about new developments affecting workplaces and encourage them to take initiative when performing their job roles. Such approaches help employees to get highlighted/ to perform outstandingly and prove their worth at workplaces. Moreover, if the Generation ‘Y’ employees feel like to leave the organizations, it is recommended for managers to have a better rapport with their team members, Managers can act as the link between employee and organizations to provide better facilitates such as making healthy workplace environments and providing the employees with more attractive salary and perks etc. This is to improve the retention of the employees of Generation ‘Y’. Hence, with this kind of a strategic approach on human resources, the outcome is likely to be more productive for the organizations to achieve their corporate goals.