The Current Generations: The Baby Boomers, X, Y and Z in the Context of Human Capital Management of the 21st Century in Selected Corporations in the Czech Republic

This paper focuses on the current generations: the Baby Boomers, X, Y and Z in the context of human capital management of the 21st century in selected corporations in the Czech Republic. The turbulent developments as a result of industrialization, modernization and globalization has created differences between generations. The aim of this article is to compare the selected characteristics of each generation of employees in Czech corporate practice and to reflect on whether there are more efficient means for personnel managers to handle them accordingly. This article presents some of the results of quantitative and qualitative research conducted in selected companies in the Czech Republic. The research group that took part in the questionnaire survey included 182 human resources professionals from selected Czech companies with responsibility for 3,182 employees. The research results reflect the differences in the perceptions of HR professionals and the employees themselves with regards to the selected characteristics attributed to each generation. As a result, key motivational factors could be identified and prioritized for each generation. The HR professionals perceived Generation Z to be employees that are not very loyal and lack emotional intelligence. However, they are perceived to possess high levels of Internet literacy and the ability to adapt quickly to new technologies, which enables them to operate more efficiently.