23.01.2025
Business Meets Ethics – The Podcast: The Values of the Younger Generation – A Shift in Values or Market Power?
Michael Schellberg talks to Dr Alexander Insam, a partner at the Frankfurt-based Wirtschaftskanzlei Görg, about why companies should systematically identify and assess the values of the younger generation in order to achieve sustainable business success.
In 2023, the Dr Jürgen Meyer Stiftung and the Hamburger Stiftung für Wirtschaftsethik published the study ‘Middle Management – Leadership in Times of Massive Upheaval’. One finding stood out in particular and called for closer analysis: does the younger generation really place less value on economic criteria than their elders?
To find out, we conducted 22 one-hour interviews with professionals from various sectors, company sizes and functional areas. They all had one thing in common: extensive experience of working with Generation Z.
The result was clear. To paraphrase campaign adviser James Carville’s famous catchphrase, “It’s the economy, stupid!”, Gen Z’s values regarding lifestyle, work, collaboration, and the sustainability and reputation of their employer reflect not so much a shift in values as the strength of their negotiating position. Or as one interviewee aptly put it: “We’re the ones applying to the candidates.”
Michael Schellberg from the Hamburger Stiftung für Wirtschaftsethik discussed the further insights provided by our latest study, ‘The Values of the Younger Generation – A Shift in Values or Market Power?’, and the resulting opportunities and risks for companies, in a podcast with Dr Alexander Insam, a partner at the Wirtschaftskanzlei Görg in Frankfurt. I would like to take this opportunity to express my sincere thanks to him.
A conversation about the value of diversity, the need for tolerance of ambiguity, the rise in interpersonal communication and AI assistance, intergenerational consensus and dissent, looming ‘lose-lose’ scenarios, the emotional pitfalls of the political fringes, and the value of companies as spaces that promote democracy through social and emotional regulation.
Our thanks go to Dr Alexander Insam as an inspiring discussion partner and to Michael Scheibenreiter for the production.
PODCAST: The Values of the Younger Generation – A Shift in Values or Market Power?