research paper on gen z

REVIEW article

Generation z within the workforce and in the workplace: a bibliometric analysis.

• 1 Department of Applied Economics (Statistics and Econometrics), Faculty of Economics and Business, University of Malaga, Málaga, Spain
• 2 Department of Business Management, Faculty of Economics and Business, University of Malaga, Málaga, Spain
• 3 Department of Business Management, Faculty of Commerce and Management, University of Malaga, Málaga, Spain

This article aims to improve the knowledge on Generation Z as employees within workforce and in the workplace, as well as on the main thematic trends that drive the research on the topic. To this end, and using bibliometric techniques, a sample of 102 publications on this subject from Web of Science between 2009 and 2020 is analyzed. Research discusses the most published and most cited authors and journals to have a broad view of the context of the subject. Later, through a longitudinal view, the study mainly focuses on analyzing the evolution of thematic clusters, to assess the progress of the themes, as well as the network around the principal motor cluster of each period. The obtained results suggest a hardly developed topic, which started to draw attention in 2018, while still having a wide margin for growth. The core of research on the topic has evolved around “Generation-Z” “generations,” “workplace,” “management” and “attitudes,” “leadership,” “career,” or “learning-teaching-education,” although a low keyword stability among periods was noted. There is a need for further development on a variety of aspects regarding this generation and the labor market, as the study shows a clear orientation toward management and generational diversity within the workplace.

Introduction

A number of recent studies examine the characteristics of Generation Z (Gen Z) individuals (Gen Zers), their values ( Maloni et al., 2019 ; Cresnar and Nedelko, 2020 ), their attitudes toward work and organizations ( Barhate and Dirani, 2021 ), the way they adapt to the workplace ( Chillakuri, 2020 ), and even distinguishing intragenerational variants within this cohort ( Scholz, 2019 ; Leslie et al., 2021 ), as well as its similarities and differences with other generations ( Hernaus and Poloski Vokic, 2014 ; Klopotan et al., 2020 ; Mahmoud et al., 2021 ), but mostly with Generation Y ( Raslie and Ting, 2021 ). Given the need to adapt in the workplace not only for the latest generation, but for the cohesion and cooperation between generations, this adds extra difficulty to the human resources management (HRM), and to an efficient workflow and environment in the workplace.

The purpose of this article is to disclose the thematic research trends on the aforementioned topic, through a review of the existing literature on Gen Z as employees within the workforce and in the workplace. This article delivers a pioneering topic to which no research has specifically focused before. The contribution of this research will allow a further understanding and an increased knowledge on how Gen Z is related to the workforce and in the workplace. In addition, the study will create supporting material for future research, as well as helping the HRM to better address the needs of Gen Zers and bring higher value to the organization. Thus, a bibliometric assessment has been elaborated to highlight the number of publications, the most notorious authors, and the most impactful journals. Additionally, quantitative research was elaborated, a longitudinal analysis was developed, as well as a visualization of the data on the most relevant themes of research is disclosed for the different periods considered.

The contextualization of the study is described consequently, including the characteristics of Gen Z and their general expectations of jobs and employers, and the current trends and adaptation practices of HRM and organizations. The third part will be focused on the methods used for the bibliometric analysis, including the search strategy, sample, and software. Thereafter, the results of the analysis are stated on the activity related to the topic, the evolution of the keywords, a thematic longitudinal analysis, and eventually, a period-by-period strategic map analysis. It will discuss the implications, future research suggestions, and limitations of the paper, and finally, conclusions will be described.

Contextualization of the Study

Generation z.

Generation Z is the generation born from mid-1990s to early 2010s, where the exact dates vary depending on the chosen author, but most commonly is the 1995–2010. Gen Z is known to be the first true “digital native” generation ( Lanier, 2017 ), as they have been born and have been grown in a digital and technological environment, learning how to use technology, and interacting in social networks since the very young age, and even tend to be seen as addicted to technology. The members of this generation have also been called “Gen Zers,” “post-Millennials,” or “iGen” ( Magano et al., 2020 ).

As its main characteristics, Gen Zers are defined as highly ambitious and self-confident ( Pataki-Bittó and Kapusy, 2021 ). At the same time, they are said to be realistic and accept whatever is given ( Scholz, 2019 ). Gen Z is entrepreneurial ( Magano et al., 2020 ), even more than Generation Y ( Lanier, 2017 ). This generation seems to be motivated by finding their dream job and opportunities to expand their skills ( Magano et al., 2020 ), leading to believe they will switch jobs more frequently than other generations before them, and if they do not like something, they are ready to change immediately ( Csiszárik-Kocsír and Garia-Fodor, 2018 ). Other motivation drivers for this cohort are roots on advancement opportunities, increased salary, a meaningful work, and a good team ( PR Newswire, 2014 ; Csiszárik-Kocsír and Garia-Fodor, 2018 ).

When looking at how Gen Z is said to think and act, it is highlighted that they are not only more aware and informed about what is going on in the world than previous generations, but they have shown to be financially conscious ( Sladek and Grabinger, 2014 ). Moreover, their consumption is more ethical, and they have “greater freedom of expression and greater openness to understanding different kinds of people” ( Francis and Hoefel, 2018 , p. 2), having shown to be oriented to others ( Magano et al., 2020 ). This broad view of life gives Gen Z a unique perspective on understanding others, while trying to stay true to themselves, their values, and their goals.

While there is a prototype of this generation with mostly common characteristics and attitudes, among approximately 15 different age groups, it is evident that “one size does not fit all.” Moreover, the earliest works on Gen Z had been conducted almost only in the United States, leading to a biased perception of this generation ( Scholz, 2019 ). There exist supporting studies on intragenerational differences. These revealed how the visions, preferences, and features of Gen Zers vary by regions ( Scholz, 2019 ), or even by their workplace perceptions ( Leslie et al., 2021 ), depending on external situational factors such as events, crises, technology, or trends of their youth.

This generation cohort has been surrounded by a global financial crisis, times of terrorism, political uncertainty, and an almost irreversible climate crisis. At the same time, Gen Z has lived in an increasingly globalized world, with the ease of a same currency around the EU and free mobility through its member states in the case of Europe. All these factors have influenced how Gen Z has forged their personality, their vision, and has made them highly adaptable to the global world ( Magano et al., 2020 ).

It must be taken into account that part of Gen Z is already working, some are currently entering the workforce—more than what is expected because of the pandemic—and others are still on formation. Mainly, Gen Zers have started entering the labor market in the last years. Their introduction to the workforce has been challenging, being disturbed by a pandemic, its economic downturn, and its social and labor implications. There are only a couple of studies that address the impacts of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) on Gen Z in the labor market ( Sakdiyakorn et al., 2021 ), but the number of articles relating the pandemic and Gen Z is expected to increase when the real effects are known after the return of most of the employees to the workplace and once the pandemic has ended. These downturns have not prevented the cohort of having high expectations about their work ( Snieska et al., 2020 ), as well as having a well-defined career development plans ( Barhate and Dirani, 2021 ).

According to a Deloitte report ( O’Boyle et al., 2017 , p. 10), Gen Z, with eyes on the workplace, is expected to introduce high technology skills, while some researchers are not completely sure about their interpersonal communication and relationship skills. These researchers also found out that the majority of “Gen Z professionals prefer a multidisciplinary and global focus to their work.” Additionally, it is said that Gen Zers are affected by the belief that companies usually use and care about employees only when they are needed ( Scholz, 2019 ).

Generation Z is said to change jobs more frequently; thus, HR does not only have to worry about how to attract the new generation, but how to focus their efforts on giving Gen Zers what they need to stay in the company. Considering the scant research done in terms of what attracts Gen Zers toward companies, it is said that Gen Z is enticed by the work flexibility and a balance with their life outside the workplace. They seek direct contribution to the company, they desire to have an impact on the outcomes, they are driven by an entrepreneurial mindset, and an already established and known company is a plus ( Randstad Canada, 2014 ).

Furthermore, in terms of employee retention, there are some common aspects to this generation ( PR Newswire, 2014 ; Randstad Canada, 2014 ): they value honesty over anything else in their leaders, they prefer face-to-face communication with their superiors, they enjoy open dialog, as well as they have a strong desire to be listened to their ideas and to be valued for their opinions by their managers, and additionally, they expect social responsibility. Now the question is, are companies delivering these qualities to their employees? If not, why is it taking so long to adapt to the newest generation? Are firms considering organizational change to address the desires of the Gen Z?

Generation Z Within the Workforce and the Workplace

Throughout the years, the workforce has been evolving, and has been affected by multiple events, such as the Great Recession and more recently, the COVID-19 pandemic. Similarly, the workplace has developed new dynamics, from separated spaces according to the department, to current open spaces where different departments share resources and knowledge in a faster and more efficient way, or even the co-working spaces shared with other companies or independent professionals. The driving force that selects the employees of a firm and manages most workplace initiatives, procedures, and even the culture of the firm is the HRM. This specific part of the firm creates the essence of the company, attracts new talent for the firm, implements training, and intends to assure the most effective and efficient working environment to achieve the goals of the organization, among other functions.

To address the current situation on HR practices, Table 1 showcases Forbes’ annual Top 10 HR trends for 2020 ( Meister, 2020 ). In the year 2020, most trends move toward a better working environment, work-life balance, and skills. More and more firms are comprising resources to take care and to motivate their internal clients, their employees.

Table 1. Top HR talent attraction and retention trends 2020.

As the new generation enters the labor market, HRM needs to take into consideration, and adapt to the previously mentioned characteristics of this cohort. This does not only mean attracting the Gen Z employees in a different way and offer them a variety of work-related benefits to draw them to and keep them in the organization, but also to redefine entry-level jobs ( O’Boyle et al., 2017 ). There are only few research papers on how the labor market adapts to the needs and expectations of the Gen Z cohort, existing the need of further research. This may be because the majority of Gen Z individuals have been studying until lately and is only now starting to enter into the labor market.

Some articles studied the relationship between of employees, and companies or positions. The first one would be a person-organization fit model, so that the characteristics of the companies are congruent with the needs and wants of their employees ( Graczyk-Kucharska and Erickson, 2020 ). The second would be an employee-job fit, with the aim of attaining a job satisfaction, as well as the work engagement and performance ( Truxillo et al., 2012 ).

According to Bielen and Kubiczek (2020) , the most common way the businesses respond to the demands of Gen Zers are friendly working atmosphere, keeping up with the latest technologies, ambassador programs, internships, benefits, and corporate social responsibility activities. Similar ideas are reported by Randstad Canada (2014). However, to be able to do so, organizations need to have the courage to break traditional approaches by using the existing tools in different ways, accepting that even individuals from the same generation and their needs may differ from their cohort prototype ( O’Boyle et al., 2017 ), like what many firms have done with the on-line recruitment as their initial step ( Tato-Jimenez et al., 2019 ). Additionally, HR departments should be preparing to introduce or to change workplace values and culture among other aspects ( Graczyk-Kucharska and Erickson, 2020 ), rather than expecting Gen Z to adapt to the company.

Now that Gen Zers enter into the workforce, some organizations will have four or even five different generations working together. As Urick (2019 , p. 78) states, generational differences in the workplace can lead to “intergenerational biases, stereotypes, and misperceptions,” and create conflict situations. This said, it is safe to assure that different generational cohorts with their own work preferences should have distinguishing job characteristics ( Hernaus and Poloski Vokic, 2014 ). As previously done with Generation Y, companies need to modify their dynamics in order to manage the intergenerational diversity faced. To tackle these challenges, HRM has to explore new ways of satisfying the newcomers at the same time as trying not to neglect the employees of older generations, and learning how to manage multigenerational teams.

This article pretends to bring to light the research trends involving Gen Z, the workplace, and the professional relations of this generation. For this purpose, a bibliometric review has been elaborated by collecting data from the Clarivate Analytics Web of Science (WoS), which has later been analyzed using the SciMAT open-source science mapping software tool.

Search Strategy

The documents collected for this review have been retrieved from the WoS database as of October 14, 2021. When conducting the search for the three variants of Gen Z keywords, as well as “workplace,” “workforce,” and “employee” were used within the topic field, creating the advanced search algorithm in WoS: TS = (“Generation Z” OR “Gen Z” OR “Z Generation”) AND TS = (“workforce*” OR “workplace*” OR “employee*”).

To obtain the widest range of results due to the early stages of research on Gen Z, all the years (1900–2020) and the languages were accounted for, and the document type was not limited, thus, including reviews and conference proceeding papers among others. Additionally, the citation indexes selected were as follows: Science Citation Index Expanded (SCI-EXPANDED), Social Sciences Citation Index (SSCI), Arts & Humanities Citation Index (A&HCI), Conference Proceedings Citation Index- Science (CPCI-S), Conference Proceedings Citation Index- Social Science & Humanities (CPCI-SSH), Book Citation Index– Science (BKCI-S), Book Citation Index– Social Sciences & Humanities (BKCI-SSH), and Emerging Sources Citation Index (ESCI).

The search completed on WoS obtained a total of 102 results. The analysis covers a 12-year time period from 2009 to 2020, and even if the WoS search was conducted from 1900, Gen Z is a much more recent term. Hence, to develop a longitudinal analysis, the literature has been divided into three periods. The expanse of these periods and their segmentation has been defined following a quantitative criterion of the number of the documents published, trying to find the most homogeneous stages possible ( Table 2 ).

Table 2. Periods and documents per period.

The first stage covers documents from 2009 to 2017, the second corresponds with 2018, the third refers to 2019, and the last and fourth is 2020. Thus, considering the scant research until 2017 included, the first period has less manuscripts than the latter three, including only 19 publications in WoS from 2009 to 2017, from which five correspond to the last year of the stage. On the other hand, the 2018 period englobes a total of 22 papers, the third period, 2019, includes 32 articles, and, finally, 2020 addresses 29 registered documents in the database.

To be able to elaborate and to detangle the bibliometric analysis, SciMAT, an open-source science mapping software tool has been utilized. The reasons behind the decision to use this tool lie in the benefits it supplies the researcher. The SciMAT, created by Cobo et al. (2012) , offers methods, measures, and algorithms for the whole general science mapping workflow, for which researchers usually need to apply various software tools. On this note, the SciMAT software allows the pre-processing of the data retrieved from WoS, Scopus, PubMed, or similar, for a posterior network extraction, the application of different normalization measures, mapping, and analysis, and the graphical visualization of the results ( Cobo et al., 2012 ). The wizard analysis of the software allows to see a longitudinal map, which is one of the principal objectives of this article, as well as strategic maps and thematic networks.

Within the longitudinal view, the evolution map ( Figure 1A , left) shows on columns the different periods of the sample, showing the most relevant in clusters. These clusters are connected throughout the periods by lines, which represent the timely evolution of the themes. If two clusters are linked by a continuous line, these share the main item; but, if between two clusters, there is a discontinuous link meaning that they share elements but not the main item. Some may not be connected by lines, and in that case and if not appearing in the next period, the cluster has disappeared; if it suddenly appeared in a later period, the cluster is considered a new one. The size of each cluster depends on the selected performance measures. In the case of our study, we are considering the number of documents, the number of citations and the average citations, as well as the h-index, all with respect to the period and cluster chosen.

Figure 1. Evolution view and period view. Source: Cobo et al. (2012) .

Additionally, an overlapping map ( Figure 1B , right) represents the periods, and the number of keywords, in our case, each period is associated to. The upper outgoing arrow represents the keywords that have disappeared from one period to the next one, and the upper incoming arrows indicate the keywords added to the new period. The arrows connecting the periods offer the number of keywords shared among them, including the Stability Index between them.

The period view allows the user to decide which period is shown in the strategic diagram, and to choose the theme displayed in the cluster’s network. The SciMAT software wizard provides by defect the Callon’s density ( Callon et al., 1991 ) and centrality measures. A strategic map ( Figure 1C , left) showcases the most important themes of a given period, distributes in the figure according to their density and centrality ranges. This two-dimensional map divides the clusters into the following: motor clusters, being the ones with highest density and centrality; highly developed and isolated clusters or peripheral themes, with high density but low centrality; basic and transversal clusters when they have a high centrality but a low density; and emerging or declining clusters with both low density and centrality. For each cluster represented in the strategic map, a cluster network ( Figure 1D , right) is provided with the related themes.

The WoS sample was composed by 102 documents published between 2009 and 2020 ( Figure 2 ). It can be noticed that there are two distinct trends according to the rate of annual publications. In the time frame from 2009 to 2017, there is little research on Gen Z per se , and even less on their preparation, perceptions, and implications on the labor market, possibly because Gen Zers were mostly 22 years old and only a minority was working, while most of them were studying and other were just being born in 2009 and 2010. A second trend can be appreciated since 2018, from which Gen Z has been gaining relevance in research, as not only this generation starts working, but begins to have a perfect age for investigators to get an insight about their characteristics, preferences, values, and attitudes.

Figure 2. Number of publication per year. Source: Own elaboration from SciMAT data.

The 102 documents forming the analysis sample were written by a total of 234 published authors. From these authors, only Goh stands out from the rest, having written four articles. The low number of works on the topic is accompanied by the scarce research on Gen Z and the workforce, as well as the workplace of each author.

The most cited article is the work of Goh. It focuses on the hospitality sector and on Gen Z based on the theory of the planned behavior ( Goh and Kong, 2018 ; Goh and Lee, 2018 ). Besides, the Gen Z motivations of the employees in the hospitality industry toward the food waste ( Goh and Jie, 2019 ), the talent management and the recruitment strategies ( Goh and Okumus, 2020 ) are the next more cited articles. The rest of authors have been involved in 1 or 2 papers each, suggesting that this topic is not their main line of research. We can also highlight the citations received in WoS by each analyzed author. Displayed in Table 3 are the authors with more than 20 citations.

Table 3. Authors with more than 20 citations ordered by authors.

It can be seen how Goh has paved the way again with 92 citations from his three articles, each with the collaboration of one other author: Lee, Okumus, and Kong, were all included in Table 3 . Within the publications of Goh, A workforce to be reckoned with: The emerging pivotal Generation Z hospitality workforce ( Goh and Lee, 2018 ) is worth mentioning, as the article has received a significant number of citations within WoS, making Lee the second most cited author. Additionally, Bejtkovsky (2013 , 2016) has contributed on two documents, dated in 2013 and 2016. However, 17 received citations corresponds only to one of his articles, The Employees of Baby Boomers Generation, Generation X, Generation Y, and Generation Z in Selected Czech Corporations as Conceivers of Development and Competitiveness in their Corporation ( Bejtkovsky, 2016 ), which was dedicated to multiple generations within the workplace, generation gaps, and human resources.

The rest of the authors on the list have only one paper each, but as observed, have higher citations (more than 20 citations) than most top writers on our sample Table 3 . Both Ozkan and Solmaz (2015) have received the third best citation number on their participation in the 4th World Conference On Business, Economics, And Management with The Changing Face of the Employees— Generation Z and Their Perceptions of Work (A Study Applied to University Students) . Apart from the abovementioned authors, Schroth wrote about the readiness of the workplace to receive Gen Z ( Schroth, 2019 ), while both Lazanyi and Bilan (2017) collaborated to create an article on the trust of Gen Zers toward others within the workplace.

Additionally, the whole 102 document sample is associated with 91 journals. Table 4 shows the most influential journals according to the 2020 journal impact factor (JIF) provided in WoS, the corresponding quartile on the Journal Citation Report (JCR), the number of documents published on the topic, and the number of citations. Table 4 only includes those journals with more than 20 citations. The JIF is the ratio obtained by dividing the number of citations of a journal on the previous two years by the number of articles published by the journal over the same time period. In the case of this study, the 2019 JIF has been used, being the number of citations of the specific journal in 2018 and 2017 divided by the total of the published documents in it.

Table 4. Journals with most impact.

Concerning the WoS categories, the three most frequent category is Management ; followed by Hospitality and Tourism, Business , and Economics . During the analyzed period (2009–2020) there are 15 different management journals, five hospitality and tourism journals, and four business and economics. The journals with major impact—considering the articles with more than 20 citations—are the International Journal of Hospitality Management , the California Management Review , the Journal of Competitiveness , and the Tourism and Management Perspectives . Only the former journal is in the first quartile and has a JIF that is remarkably higher than the rest.

However, in general terms, the highest number of articles concerning this theme (5) have been published by the journal Sustainability in the years 2018 (JIF 2.592), 2019 (JIF 2.576), and 2020 (JIF 3.251). This was followed by the Journal of Competitiveness in the year 2016 (JIF 3.649), and International Journal of Hospitality Management (2) in the years 2018 (4.465) and 2019 (JIF 6.701).

Evolution of Keywords

Now, the evolution of the keywords along the different periods will be addressed ( Figure 3 ). The first period (2009–2017), although aggregating an eight-year time period, is characterized by a lower number of keywords than the rest of periods, which actually have a very similar amount. In the first period, there were 33 keywords, from which, nine were no longer used in the following ones. More than half of the words used (0.5) in this period were also transferred to the second one. For the second period, 15 additional words were introduced, summing up to 39 total keywords. Again, eight keywords disappeared and 31 transitioned to the next period, representing almost three fourths (0.61) of the total word count in 2019, being higher than the common keyword proportion of the change from period 1 to period 2. In the third period, 12 keywords were included in the topic research, adding up to 43 total keywords. Then, 32 keywords were included in the last period and 11 keywords were lost and will not be used in the following period. In the last period 13 words were included in the research of the topic, totaling of 45 keywords. The difference between the number of keywords between the first and the last periods is relatively low but can be justified by the scarce research on the topic. These results suggest that there is a wide development margin in the literature relating to Gen Z within the workforce and the workplace.

Figure 3. Keywords between periods. Source: Own elaboration with SciMAT.

Longitudinal Analysis

By means of the longitudinal diagram ( Figure 4 ) provided by SciMAT, the current evolution of the research related to the topic of this article will be analyzed. Some clusters have been maintained during two periods or have disappeared and then reappeared in a later period. It should be reminded, that each cluster was selected to have a maximum of 10 items and a minimum of 2.

Figure 4. Theme evolution of primary documents. Source: Elaborated with SciMAT.

With eyes on the first period, from 2009 to 2017, it can be seen how there are only four clusters: “Generation-Z,” “management,” “attitudes,” and “leadership.” The reason for the scarce number of clusters in this period is due to two facts: the keywords of the sample are focused on those concrete clusters—there is a larger number of keywords, but were not grouped in clusters due to the minimum requisite of two items and there is a small number of publications. For our study, clustering through an algorithm of the simple center with a minimum network size of 2 is important, because otherwise there would be an excessively large number of clusters. This is due to the high number of keywords of different thematic, as the research on this area was not developed enough during this period.

For the second period, year 2018, there are six clusters: “Generation-Z,” “Generation-Y,” “career,” “consumers,” “teams,” and “organizational.” The “Generation-Z” cluster is the only one maintained from the 2009–2017 period, gaining relevance within the research made during 2018 because it is placed in a better location in the strategic diagram, with higher centrality and density values, being the motor theme of this period. This was materialized in articles such as “ A workforce to be reckoned with: The emerging pivotal Generation Z hospitality workforce ” ( Goh and Lee, 2018 ), or “ Generation Z’s Sustainable Volunteering: Motivations, Attitudes and Job Performance ” ( Cho et al., 2018 ). The “Generation-Y” cluster has a linkage with the previous “management” and “leadership” clusters. Additionally, the leadership cluster (2018) has also a strong and direct relationship with the cluster “teams” from the first period. The “career” cluster is the most relevant by grouping documents based on the number of citations. However, since the density and the centrality of the career do not have a defined role in this theme yet, its evolution in the following periods remains uncertain.

In the 2019 period all the clusters are new. Outstanding for the number of citations are “outcomes,” followed by “Theory of planned behavior,” which is connected to the previous period through “career.” Likewise, “generations” is directly related to the “Generation-Z” cluster. An example of how the intergenerational view gains strength is the article Critical elements for multigenerational teams: a systematic review ( Burton et al., 2019 ). Other clusters in this period are “learning-teaching-education” and “personality” which has a linkage with the second period cluster “career.”

In the 2020 period, various clusters from the previous period are consolidated. The case of “generations,” “learning-peaching-education” or “outcomes” have a very strong linkage with the same clusters of the previous period. “Organizational change” is the weakest cluster. While “workplace” appears strongly as it is placed as the driving theme of the last period and has a direct linkage with the most important clusters of the rest of the periods. The article entitled Understanding Future Leaders: How Are Personal Values of Generations Y and Z Tailored to Leadership in Industry 4.0? ( Cresnar and Nedelko, 2020 ) is an example.

Following the analysis of the longitudinal diagram and considering the aforementioned remarks on the evolution of the words, a quantitative comparison has been elaborated from the data provided by SciMAT. Table 5 shows the clusters of each period of the sample, the centrality and density of each, as well as the number of documents, the number of citations, and the average citations within the theme, ending with the h-index provided by SciMAT. Within the first period (2009–2017), the cluster “Generation-Z” needs to be highlighted due to its high impact in terms of number of citations (171 citations), as well as the documents published (13 documents). Accordingly, “attitudes” stands out as the cluster with the highest average number of citations (15 citations) achieved with a single document. Also, “management” is one of the clusters with less centrality than “Generation-Z” but has a higher density, and, therefore, has a prominent position among the driving themes of this period ( Table 5 ).

Table 5. Quantitative factors of the themes and their evolution.

When considering the second period (2018), “career” is the highlighted cluster of the year. Similarly, to “Generation-Z” in the first period, this cluster manages to draw the attention for the highest number of citations (105 citations), being the higher on average citations (26.25 cites). The second with most cited in this period is “Generation-Z” with 73 citations. Also, “Generation-y” has 23 citations and an average citation of 3.29 per article. The cluster “teams” with only one published article involves a relevant impact as it reaches 14 citations in comparison with clusters of “innovations” and “consumers” with two and cero citations, respectively.

The third period (2019) concentrates the clusters of current trends. Nowadays, the most researched themes are, in descending order of citations: “outcomes” with 43 citations, “theory of planned behavior” with 38 citations, “generations” with 33 citations, “learning-teaching-education” with 15 citations, and “personality” cluster has no citation.

The fourth and last period (2020) is a continuation of the previous period in terms of clusters highlighted by number of citations. “Generations” and “learning-teaching-education” stood out by the cited papers, with 38 and 22 citations, respectively, followed by “workplace” with eight citations. Although this last cluster has a lower number of citations, it should be noted that only four articles have been cited, so the average number of citations is very close to the first two clusters.

From a general perspective, there are some observations to consider. (a) The clusters created in the first period (“Generation-Z,” “management,” “attitudes,” and “leadership”) have served as a base for the research of the forthcoming years, have been a major impact, particularly “Generation-Z” as they have transitioned to another period. (b) The number of total documents of the clusters seem to increase with time. (c) Notably, the clusters with most impact during the whole timeframe of the analysis, which are from higher to lower number of citations, are as follows: “Generation-Z” (171 citations), “career” (105 citations), “outcomes” (43 citations), and “generations” (38 citations).

Period-by-Period Strategy Map Analysis

Once the longitudinal map has been explained, and the evolution of the clusters is known, the paper will proceed analyzing the importance of each cluster in terms of Callon’s density and centrality measures through a strategic map, which values are represented and already mentioned in Table 5 . Centrality measure of Callon represents the interaction among networks, whereas the density measure indicates the internal strength of the network. After the analysis of a strategic diagram of the period, the main cluster in the motor themes is addressed, meaning, the theme that has the highest combination of density and centrality is the one cluster that is in the most upper-right position in the map. The analysis of the network surrounding the motor theme of each period is then explained.

First Period 2009–2017

The strategic map ( Figure 5 ) visually shows how the clusters of the 2009–2017 period are scattered according to their density and centrality measures (previous Table 5 ). The cluster “Generation-Z” is a relevant cluster which, although has the higher number of articles, the early stages of the topic in this period makes its average citation lower than would be expected. “Generation-Z” stands with a centrality of 103.69 and a density of 52.48. On this note, “Generation-Z” is an important topic in the research, but this needs additional development. The “management” cluster is a driving theme due to its measures on centrality (55.9) and density (87.5). Thus, the “management” network has high interaction and internal strength and was at the center of the research in this period.

Figure 5. Period 2009–2017 strategic diagram (A) and the motor cluster’s network (B) . Source: Elaborated with SciMAT.

On the other hand, we have “leadership,” which is between an emergent or a decadent theme and a motor theme, with 15.85 and 50 centrality and density values, respectively. As the topic of this study is quite recent and does not amount to excessive research, a focus on the “leadership” in so early stages makes it highly interesting as the same time than the specialized theme. Changing quadrant, the cluster “attitudes” is clearly peripheral theme, with a centrality of 0 and a density of 0.25. This last cluster will disappear on the rest of periods (2018, 2019, and 2020).

Now, the thematic network of the motor theme ( Figure 5 , right) of the period will be analyzed, driving the internal analysis of the “management” cluster. In order to disclose insights on the most relevant links, the weight of the internal links is displayed in Table 6 .

Table 6. “Generation-Z” and Management cluster network 2009–2017.

The network around the main themes of the period is composed by the following internal links: (a) “experiences” is linked with “competence,” and (b) “conflict” with “personality.” To a lesser extent, latter clusters are also connected with “Generation-Y” and “Generation-X,” the “experiences” cluster with “labor market,” and the latter with “Competence.” The different models to be adopted in terms of conflict and the personality of workers are also part of the network of this main theme.

Second Period 2018

Likewise, strategic map of the 2018 period ( Figure 6 , left) visually shows how the clusters of the period are distributed according to density and centrality measures ( Table 5 ), increasing the number of clusters by one with respect to the previous period.

Figure 6. Period 2018 strategic diagram (A) and motor cluster’s network (B) . Source: Elaborated with SciMAT.

In this case, there are two motor clusters that define the thematic of the period, “Generation-Z” and “Generation-Y.” Both clusters attract publications and have high average citations. The “Generation-Z” cluster is characterized by a high interaction (145.61) and by internal strength (54.06). In the Figure 6 , it is closer to the top right corner of the strategic diagram, meaning, it is the most influential thematic in the period. The “Generation-Y” cluster is also a motor theme but to a lesser extent, with centrality of 51.85 and a density of 51.94.

There are two groups of clusters on the border of the basic topics-emergent and decadent themes and on the border of basic topics-motor themes. On the one hand, “career” is the cluster that receives the highest number of citations, but due to its density, it is on the borderline between the emerging or decadent themes and the basic themes. In turn, the “organizational” cluster, due to its centrality, is on the borderline between basic and driving themes. We will have to check their evolution to see if they will finally fall into one of the surrounding quadrants.

Within the peripheral themes, “consumers” is a new cluster. Finally, the “teams” cluster can classify as an emergent or decadent theme, not very developed, with a centrality of 11.75, and the lowest density within the sample (50).

Regarding the internal thematic analysis of the main motor theme network ( Figure 6 , right and Table 7 ), “Generation-Z” maintains the most important links as follows: “Baby-boomers” with “Generation-X”; “models” with “behavior”; and “organizational commitment” with “Entrepreneurship.” Moreover, to a lesser extent, “culture and values” with “Generation-X,” “behavior,” “models,” and “baby-boomers.”

Table 7. “Generation-Z” Cluster Network 2018.

Third Period 2019

The strategic map in Figure 7 (left) shows how the cluster of 2019 period stands according to density and centrality measures of Callon (previous Table 5 ). There are two driving themes that define the thematic of the period and attract publications, “outcomes” and “Generation-Z,” which define the current tendency of the published articles. Both are characterized by the highest internal strength of their networks, being 82.90 and 81.21, respectively. One of the main differences between these two motor themes is that “Generation-Z” has attracted far more publications (22) and citations (46 cites) than “impact” (numbers 6 and 7). The “Generation-Z” cluster appeared in the first period (2009–2017), losing importance in the second (2019) as it did not even appear in the longitudinal map, and reappearing even more strongly in the last one (2020–2021). In this new appearance of “Generation-Z”, its centrality increased at over 50% and its density at over 60%.

Figure 7. Period 2019 strategic diagram (A) and motor cluster’s network (B) . Source: elaborated with SciMAT.

The cluster “personality” enters into play as an emergent theme due to a low centrality and “learning-teaching-education” as a basic theme with a higher centrality being its internal consistency more important in comparison to “personality” ( Figure 7 , left).

Additionally, there is one peripheral theme, “theory of planned behaviour” which has evolved from the second period (2018) from the cluster’s “career” and “consumers.”

With regards to the internal thematic analysis of “generations” as the main driving theme network of the period ( Figure 7 , right), the internal links are shown in Table 8 . In this specific period, the relations with the highest density are: “workplace” with “Generation-Z”; and “baby-boomers” with “Generation-X.” To a lesser extent is observed the linkage of “Generation-Y” with “Generation-Z,” and “baby-boomers” with “Generation-X.” All clusters share links to other themes with lower weights.

Table 8. “Generations” cluster network 2019.

Fourth Period 2020

In this last period, the “workplace” cluster appears as a driving theme, leading the research in the last year 2020. If we consider the evolution of the themes in the longitudinal analysis ( Figure 8 ), the “workplace” cluster is linked to the “Generation-Z” and “generations” clusters of previous periods. In this last period, it reaches the necessary internal consistency to be the leading researching theme. On the other hand, the “generations” cluster remains as a basic theme without evolving with respect to 2019, although it receives 22 citations in 2020. The peripheral themes are “organizational change” and “outcomes,” losing its relevance from 2019, although it receives 22 citations in 2020. The peripheral themes are “organizational change” and “Outcomes” which in the previous period was a driving theme, and also, they lost their relevance in 2020. There are no emerging or declining themes for this period.

Figure 8. Period 2020 strategic diagram (A) and motor cluster’s network (B) . Source: elaborated with SciMAT.

Regarding the internal analysis of the driving theme “workplace” (the main thematic network driving the period) ( Figure 8 , right), the internal links are shown in Table 9 . The most intense relationships are: “mentor” and “factor analysis” and to a lesser extent “organizations” and “industry 4.0,” “organizations” and “leadership,” “organizations” and “Generation-Y,” and “factor analysis” and “organizational.” Finally, from a cross-period approach, it is evident that the main driving theme is “Generation-Z” but obviously the keyword filter included in the search is the main reason.

Table 9. “Workplace” cluster network 2020.

Implications

The aim of this work has been to disclose the thematic research trends and their evolution on the Gen Z as employees within the workforce and in the workplace. Additionally, the authors wanted to shed light to the themes that have not been sufficiently developed yet. The idea is that this research should not fully dive into the content, which was used for the research, but rather to see a full context on the matter. This is to serve as a support for further research. The effectiveness, as well as the relevance of the methodology, used is proven, and the data collected has been properly uncovered through a series of step, which pretended to go from the general study fields as the authors or journal, to more concrete aspects of the topic, such as the network of the most influential thematic clusters of each period.

Additionally, 13 authors stood out from the rest, having written more than one article, while 33 have received more than 20 citations. From these, one author is worth mentioning, Goh, who not only has written three articles while the rest have written two or less, but he has also received the maximum number of citations (92) for its research on the topic related with the hospitality sector, the theory of planned behavior, talent management, and recruitment strategies ( Goh and Kong, 2018 ; Goh and Lee, 2018 ; Goh and Okumus, 2020 ). The most relevant journals with respect to the JIF are the International Journal of Hospitality Management , the California Management Review , the Journal of Competitiveness , the Tourism and Management Perspectives , and the Sustainability , from which all are above 3.500 JIF index. An expected result from the journal analysis is the focus on management in the most impactful journals. Another interesting finding from the research is the orientation on hospitality and tourism, psychology, and nursing as related areas of the study joining the main topic of this research. But there is a lack of studies related with other sectors as basic, at the same time than complex, as financial sectors, or customer service other than from the hospitality and tourism industry.

Mostly from the tendency change in 2018, the number of publications on the topic have increased, but still are relatively low. The results demonstrate an increasingly meaningful line of research on Gen Z within the workforce and the workplace, since 2018. These research results are mainly from the management field, remarking the importance, and impact this generation has on companies and their dynamics. The highest number of works were published in 2019, after which a small decrease in the number of documents occurred in 2020.

The evolution of the keywords between the periods had the following effects: (a) there has only been an increase of 12 words within the whole length of the periods studied; (b) throughout this complete time frame, 28 keywords were discarded; (c) whereas 40 were included. Furthermore, the longitudinal analysis has allowed to discover that the four clusters of the first period (“generation Z,” “management,” “attitudes,” and “leadership”) have been the basis for the evolution of the theme.

The “generation Z” cluster stands out in the first and the second period. This cluster evolves into the “generations” cluster in the third period, and into the “workplace” cluster in the last period. We believe that this fact indicates the interest of considering workplace as an ecosystem in which Gen Z must interact with other previous generations. The size of the “workplace” cluster indicates that this line of research may potentially expand in the near future.

Limitations

This article is admitted being subject to certain limitations. Firstly, the sample used for the research is small and was only exclusively obtained from the Web of Science database. In this case, the study could be compared with similar bibliometric analyses on the matter involving different databases, e.g., Scopus. Secondly, the elimination of documents not directly related to the topic and the subjective clustering of words into word groups may offer slightly different results if another person replicates the review.

The special characteristics and behaviors of the newest generation to enter the labor market make the management of Gen Z within the workplace and in the workforce a real challenge. It is not only necessary to acknowledge that changes are coming, but also imperative to start adapting now if it has not started yet. When a new age cohort enters the workforce, firms and employees face a modification of the work dynamic and company culture. Therefore, the role of human resources management is crucial for an effective onboarding and for the correct adaptation to the new normal workplace. The addition of another generation to the work environment will affect both the professional and the social context in which the employees develop their careers. No misunderstanding or wrongful generalization of methods and techniques should be done, as the strategic goals of a firm are individual, and the formal and cultural structures of the company need to be aligned with it for correct decision-making.

As for the results of this research, they allow a better understanding of thematic field of the Gen Z related to the workforce and in the workplace. The analysis revealed the development of the study on Gen Z, the workforce, and the workplace in a time frame of 11 years. From 2009 to 2017, the number of publications is relatively low, and it is from 2018 when the topic starts attracting higher attention. Most authors have only written one document, whereas a few have written two, and only one stood out for the number of publications and citations, Goh, who has written four articles and received 168 citations among all his works. In addition, the journals with most impact are the International Journal of Hospitality Management , the California Management Review , the Journal of Competitiveness , and the Sustainability.

There is a slow but sustained growth of research on the topic, together with a relatively small rate of keywords incorporated and a low stability among periods. This suggests a weakly increasing interest of researchers in the field, and a broad margin for future development. Moving on to the analysis of the thematic cluster evolution, the distribution of themes has been discussed, and the driving theme network of each period has been displayed. The main core of the research on Gen Z within the workforce and in the workplace has been redundantly developing around “Generation-Z, “workplace,” “generations,” “learning-teaching-education,” and “career.” With the volatile progress of the key clusters on the topic through the periods, it is not safe to say which themes will be surely included in the next years, but it seems that Gen Z will keep a strong importance, as well as the current basic clusters, which are related to performance and the workforce.

There are some suggestions in relation to areas with the need of future research due to the absence or to insufficient publications developed. On one hand, a technological aspect on the workplace could be addressed to shed some light on how companies need to prepare or are presently preparing for a digital evolution in the workplace motivated by the tech-savvy Gen Z. On the other hand, it would be interesting to study the knowledge and skills of generation Z as leaders and how they are transferred to future generations.

Author Contributions

ES-T, EN-R, GB-G, and MB-M designed, performed, analyzed the research, wrote the manuscript, searched literature, analyzed, and verified the data of this article. All authors contributed to the article and approved the submitted version.

Conflict of Interest

The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest.

Publisher’s Note

All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article, or claim that may be made by its manufacturer, is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.

Supplementary Material

The Supplementary Material for this article can be found online at: https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fpsyg.2021.736820/full#supplementary-material

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Keywords : Generation Z, workplace, workforce, bibliometric review, SciMAT, thematic cluster

Citation: Benítez-Márquez MD, Sánchez-Teba EM, Bermúdez-González G and Núñez-Rydman ES (2022) Generation Z Within the Workforce and in the Workplace: A Bibliometric Analysis. Front. Psychol. 12:736820. doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2021.736820

Received: 05 July 2021; Accepted: 16 December 2021; Published: 01 February 2022.

Reviewed by:

Copyright © 2022 Benítez-Márquez, Sánchez-Teba, Bermúdez-González and Núñez-Rydman. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY) . The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) and the copyright owner(s) are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

*Correspondence: María Dolores Benítez-Márquez, [email protected]

Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.

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Abstract Background A new generation of medical students, Generation Z (Gen Z), is becoming the predominant population in medical schools and will join the workforce in a few years’ time. Medicine has undergone serious changes in high-income countries recently. Therefore, it is unclear how attractive the medical profession still is for high school students of Gen Z. The aim of this study was to investigate what motivation leads Gen Z students in their choice to study human medicine, and how they see their professional future. Our study was guided by motivation theory and the influence of personality traits and other personal factors on students’ choice of university major. Methods In a cross-sectional online survey, we included third- and fourth-year high school students in Northern Switzerland. We examined the importance of criteria when choosing a university major: personality traits, career motivation, life goals, and other considerations influencing the choice of human medicine versus other fields of study. Results Of 1790 high school students, 456 (25.5%) participated in the survey (72.6% women, mean age 18.4 years); 32.7% of the respondents aspired to major in medicine at university. For all respondents, the foremost criterion for selecting a field of study was ‘interest in the field,’ followed by ‘income’ and ‘job security.’ High school students aiming to study human medicine attached high importance to ‘meaningful work’ as a criterion; supported by 36.2% of those students answering that helping and healing people was a core motivation to them. They also scored high on altruism (p < 0.001 against all groups compared) and intrinsic motivation (p < 0.001) and were highly performance- (p < 0.001) and career-minded (p < 0.001). In contrast, all the other groups except the law/economics group had higher scores on extraprofessional concerns. Conclusions Swiss Gen Z students aspiring to study human medicine show high intrinsic motivation, altruism, and willingness to perform, sharing many values with previous generations. Adequate work-life balance and job security are important issues for Gen Z. Regarding the current working conditions, the ongoing shortage of physicians, and recent findings on physicians’ well-being, the potential for improvement and optimization is high.

Examination of motivations of Generation Z and Millennial consumers with regards to alternative payment options in terms of user experience and product offerings. Literature Review.

Abstract With the acceleration of fintech innovations, the use of alternative payment methods has continued to increase globally. Generation Z and Y consumers are the highest adopters of these alternative payment methods, yet despite this, there is limited research examining their motivations and intentions for using alternative payment methods. This literature review aimed to address this gap through the evaluation of relevant quantitative empirical research by utilizing The Unified Theory of Technology Acceptance and Use of Technology (UTAUT) for its theoretical. The findings indicated that generation z and Y consumers adoption of alternative payment methods are driven largely by behavioural intention, wherein using the UTAUT model, finds a common positive effect across all five variables. Nevertheless, current literature fails to address how Covid-19 restrictions influenced this adoption and as such further primary research post-lockdown is recommended.

DIGITAL LITERATURE FROM THE PERSPECTIVE OF GENERATION Z

The mass media entered a new era where all media is digital, including literary works. The results of this study are expected to show the views and impressions of Generation-Z on digital literary works and help bring insights to the general public regarding Gen z's response to digital literature through the Booktok trend. This research aims to gain knowledge over generation z's perspective on developments on digital literature works media and how they see those changes through the BookTok trend in TikTok by using descriptive qualitative method, using interviews and data from books, journal articles, and videos with a span of 2019-2021. This research focused on the response of Generation Z to changes in the media of literary works and the images of literary works through the BookTok trend in the Tiktok social media community.

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Generation Z undergraduate students’ resilience during the COVID-19 pandemic: a qualitative study

Wei how darryl ang, shefaly shorey, violeta lopez, han shi jocelyn chew.

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Accepted 2021 May 5; Issue date 2022.

This article is made available via the PMC Open Access Subset for unrestricted research re-use and secondary analysis in any form or by any means with acknowledgement of the original source. These permissions are granted for the duration of the World Health Organization (WHO) declaration of COVID-19 as a global pandemic.

Resilience has been documented as an essential component in managing stress. However, understanding how undergraduate students with different sociodemographic characteristics perceive resilience remains understudied. This study aimed to explore how undergraduate students in one university define and build resilience during the COVID-19 pandemic. Students’ perception and preferences for receiving resilience training were additionally solicited. A descriptive qualitative cross-sectional study was conducted. Twenty-seven students were interviewed using a semi-structured interview guide via Skype instant messaging. The thematic analysis generated five themes: resilience as enduring and withstanding; the building blocks of resilience; resilience: learning or earning; pedagogical considerations for resilience training; and a blended platform for resilience training. Participants described resilience as an enduring and withstanding trait essential for university students. Resilience can be built from intrinsic and extrinsic factors. Intrinsic factors that enhanced resilience included desire to succeed and motivation. Extrinsic factors were relational in nature, and friends, family, teachers, and religion were found to boost resilience. Students had several recommendations in designing resilience training, and they recommended the use of a blended platform. Further, students suggested the use of videos, narratives from resilient individuals, and using reflective practice as a pedagogy in resilience training. Future resilience training should consist of personal and interpersonal factors and should be introduced early during the academic term of students’ university life. As the COVID-19 pandemic compounds an already challenging academic climate, this study lends it findings to expand the resilience literature and develop future resilience training.

Keywords: COVID-19, Qualitative, Resilience, Resilience training, Undergraduate students

Introduction

Academic adversities and challenges ranging from school, financial, to relational issues are common among undergraduate students (Cameron & Rideout, 2020 ; Mall et al., 2018 ; Ramachandiran & Dhanapal, 2018 ). Moreover, stress among undergraduate students is experienced in two simultaneous life transitions as an emerging adult (Arnett, 2000 ) and adjusting to college life (Bland et al., 2012 ), which may lead to deleterious effects on their academic performance and mental health (Leppink et al., 2016 ).

Importance of Resilience among Undergraduate Students

Academic resilience refers to a student’s ability to overcome academic adversities that can influence students’ educational development (Cassidy, 2016 ; Martin, 2013 ). With reference to resilience theory (Van Breda, 2018 ), appreciating how resilience takes shape involves three connected components, namely, (1) adversity, (2) mediating process, and (3) outcome. Understanding adversity is critical in appreciating how resilience plays out, given that resilience is described as an ability to either bounce back from adversity or how one copes in the face of adversity (Bonanno & Diminich, 2013 ; Van Breda, 2018 ). In relation to coping abilities, resilience theory describes individual (problem-solving skills, emotions, motivation), social (interpersonal relationships), or environmental (infrastructure or school facilities) factors that augment or mediate an individual’s resilience (Hartling, 2008 ; Masten, 2015 ; Van Breda, 2018 ). As one encounters adversity and following interactions and support from either individual, social, or environmental resources, he/she may then become resilient (Van Breda, 2018 ). Resilient students are characterized by their ability to utilize resources or seek help to mitigate the challenges and excel in their academic pursuits (Ainscough et al., 2018 ; Lessard et al., 2014 ). Intrinsic values, such as strength, determination, future orientation, coupled with the development of a sense of belonging and social support, were found to be the qualities of resilient students (Azmitia et al., 2018 ; Bailey, 2020 ).

Undergraduate students are increasingly made up of Generation Z, which is defined as individuals born between 1995 and 2010 (Seemiller & Grace, 2017 ) who present different attitudes, expectations, strengths, and weaknesses from previous generations (Seemiller & Grace, 2016 ; Shatto & Erwin, 2016 ). Generation Z students have fixed ideation of their self-worth influenced by the self-esteem movement (Dweck, 2015 ). In addition, Generation Z students are associated with higher narcissism, over-confidence, aversion to negative events, and a focus on praises and high grades (Twenge, 2013 ). These students are thought to be “bubble-wrapped” due to helicopter parenting (Talmon, 2019 ), which may lead to poor academic or career outcome (Bradley-Geist & Olson-Buchanan, 2014 ). Given that resilience is proposed to be developed through exposure to adversity (Luecken & Gress, 2009 ), Generation Z students have potentially lesser resilience owing to the lack of exposure to adversity due to helicopter parenting and their general aversion to risk and negative events. Hence, exploring the concept of resilience among these group of students from different university faculties is essential.

Impact of COVID-19 Pandemic on Students and Educational Institutions

The COVID-19 pandemic led to lockdowns and containment measures across the globe (Alvarez et al., 2020 ; Ilesanmi & Afolabi, 2020 ; Lee et al., 2020 ). Given the profound changes in all aspects of everyday life and its deleterious impact on students’ academic and mental health, the COVID-19 pandemic may present as a significant adversity for students (Okunlola et al., 2020 ). Consequently, due to these changes in their everyday lives, students have experienced greater frequency and severity of psychological distress, such as increased anxiety and depressive symptoms, adaptation of maladaptive behaviors, and poor sleep quality (Charles et al., 2021 ; Marelli et al., 2021 ; Tang et al., 2020 ). Collectively, these changes led to students experiencing post-traumatic disorders, suggesting that COVID-19 measures have led to trauma among students (Tang et al., 2020 ).

With regard to the impacts on educational institutions, the need for strict social distancing and quarantine measures have highlighted that the traditional mode of delivering knowledge is no longer feasible (Alvarez et al., 2020 ; Bouali et al., 2020 ). Schools around the world were presented with logistical and practical challenges as students transition to online learning platforms (Bouali et al., 2020 ). COVID-19 measures were enforced during the academic term in most universities and caused compounding disruptions in students’ traditional learning modes (face-to-face and group discussions) (Rose, 2020 ; Shenoy et al., 2020 ).

The COVID-19 pandemic has pressured educational institutions at an unprecedented pace to adopt and enhance digital readiness (Zalite & Zvirbule, 2020 ; Antonopoulou et al., 2021 ). Traditional face-to-face learning has been replaced by online platforms, and exploring alternative methods of delivering knowledge has become an urgent matter. As technologically savvy students prefer learning via digital platforms (Zalite & Zvirbule, 2020 ), how students utilize such platforms on their own initiatives for learning needs to be understood (Deng & Tavares, 2015 ). As online platforms may be delivered in different formats, features, time point, course duration, start date, and type of interactivity, sustaining interest and completing assigned tasks have become a challenge to students (Jordan, 2015 ). In addition, the completion of online courses requires varied levels of participation and motivation (Bliuc et al., 2010 ; Castle & McGuire, 2010 ). Individuals who are motivated and equipped with good self-regulation skills perform better over online platforms (Salmon et al., 2017 ; Swan, 2005 ). Hence, designing online platforms requires a user-centered approach by drawing attention to students’ learning preferences; this approach can aid in optimizing features and components while aligning with participants’ expectations and motivations, as well as improve students’ completion and learning (Salmon et al., 2017 ).

Learning Preferences in Designing Resilience Training

Learning preferences refer to the methods used in the process of learning, and these methods include the way students concentrate, process, and obtain information, knowledge, or experience (Othman & Amiruddin, 2010 ). Understanding learning preferences can be a potential strategy to design resilience surrounding students’ needs, as this approach acknowledges that students are inherently different and have unique learning preferences. The Visual, Aural, Read/write, and Kinesthetic (VARK) model provides a framework to classify students into four different learning modes (Fleming, 2006 ). These modes, namely, visual, aural, read, and kinesthetic, are based on an individual’s preferred senses in gathering information (Fleming, 2006 ; Othman & Amiruddin, 2010 ). Visual students learn by interpreting charts, graphs, pictures, and descriptions. In the aural mode, students learn by listening to teachers, discussing, and learning from others. Individuals who learn best by interpreting textual information and taking notes belong to the reading mode. Kinesthetic learners use senses, such as touching, seeing, and listening, and they prefer experiential learning modes (Fleming, 2006 ). These learning modes highlight the various learning processes that students adopt to learn. In addition, teaching materials should be developed according to students’ learning preferences to improve learning outcomes (Othman & Amiruddin, 2010 ; Pritchard, 2005 ). Hence, understanding students’ learning preferences of receiving resilience training is essential to design quality interventions.

To the authors’ knowledge, information for developing resilience training from a user-centered design is limited. Given the numerous inconsistencies in the definition of resilience, contents and regime used in existing resilience trainings vary (Brewer et al., 2019 ; Kunzler et al., 2020 ; Sanderson & Brewer, 2017 ); hence, the resilience enhancing strategies from students’ perspectives need to be ascertained. Furthermore, new changes and challenges arising from extenuating circumstances due to COVID-19 suggest a need to review the contents of existing resilience training to ensure that they continue to bring about the positive effects they endeavor. Although existing resilience training programs, which are primarily delivered face-to-face, are effective (Joyce et al., 2018 ; Kunzler et al., 2020 ), their positive effects may now be limited due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Thus, understanding how a shift to other teaching and learning platforms that could yield an equivalent or even a superior outcome is needed.

Moreover, existing resilience training programs are curated differently (Brewer et al., 2019 ; Kunzler et al., 2020 ; Sanderson & Brewer, 2017 ). With limited evidence, discerning which platform (online or face-to-face) leads to a better learning outcome will be challenging. Given that online platforms will likely be universities’ main mode of delivery and they are a new platform for delivering resilience training among students, a co-production between researchers and recipients is necessary to maximize the effectiveness of an intervention (Salmon et al., 2017 ; Wight et al., 2016 ).

For the above reasons, revisiting undergraduate students’ experience during COVID-19 pandemic is timely, as well as their suggested strategies for resilience training and their preferences for learning amid shifts in learning platforms. Existing literature exploring resilience primarily focuses on students in health science disciplines (Brewer et al., 2019 ; Lopez et al., 2018 ; Sanderson & Brewer, 2017 ) among at-risk youths (Hines et al., 2005 ) and among ethnic minorities (Cavazos Jr et al., 2010 ). Given the scant evidence and under-representation of students from diverse backgrounds, a collective understanding from a multi-ethnic, multi-disciplinary, and Generation Z perspective needs to be generated within a technologically enhanced learning climate (Brewer et al., 2019 ). Ultimately, this study will lend its findings to the construct of resilience and how future resilience training programs can be designed. By using thematic analysis, participants’ understanding and strategies to build resilience and their preferences for its training will be elucidated. Based on resilience theory and VARK model, the present study seeks to address the following research questions:

What are undergraduate students’ understanding of resilience?

How do undergraduate students develop resilience?

What are undergraduate students’ perception and preference for receiving resilience training?

Participants

A total of 27 Generation Z undergraduate students participated in this cross-sectional descriptive qualitative study. Participants’ mean age was 23.33 years ( SD  = 3.37). Students who are male (55.6%), ethnic Chinese (77.8%), and Christians (37%) comprised the majority of the population (Table 1 ). Participants were purposively sampled by using maximum variation technique (Speziale et al., 2011 ) according to their ethnicity, faculty, and seniority to ensure that a diverse range of experiences were captured. Table 1 shows the details of participants’ profiles.

Students’ profile and background ( n  = 27)

A semi-structured interview guide was developed with reference to resilience theory, which describes how various processes lead to an individuals’ resilience (Van Breda, 2018 ). Given that students possess diverse learning preferences, the VARK model (Fleming, 2006 ) was additionally used to develop the interview guide. Questions surrounding students’ experiences of adversity, facilitators, perception of resilience, past learning, preferences for learning, and suggestions for resilience training were asked. The initial interview guide was circulated to all members of the research team for approval. The guide was subsequently piloted on two undergraduate students to ensure clarity and flow. Interview questions were rephrased and shortened, and the flow was modified according to the pilot interviewees’ feedback. The final interview guide consisted of four domains, namely, adversity, meaning of resilience, strategies to build resilience, and needs and preferences for receiving training.

Data Collection and Generation

Ethical approval for the study was obtained through the university ethics review committee. Potential participants from various faculties were informed of the study through an email containing a recruitment poster sent by their department administrators. Determination of data saturation was ascertained independently by two authors (DA, JC). Eligible participants were above 18 years old, able to comprehend the English language, and were pursuing a full-time undergraduate program at the university.

The first author first shared the study goals, established rapport, and obtained written informed consent from participants before the interviews. Participants were then asked to complete a socio-demographic sheet to provide information on their age, gender, ethnicity, religion, course, and year of study. The semi-structured individual interviews were conducted in English via the synchronous instant messaging (IM) function of Skype. The IM data collection strategy was selected for multiple reasons. First, this study was conducted during the COVID-19 pandemic, during which government-imposed measures limited physical interactions. Second, IM provides a convenient option for technologically savvy Generation Z students, given their competing priorities, unstable Internet connection, and lack of functional cameras (Fung & Lam, 2020 ). Using IM was a strategy to improve participation rate. Furthermore, using a form of dialogue that is familiar to participants can create a casual and open communication atmosphere no different from verbal interviews (Kaufman et al., 2020 ; Dimond et al., 2012 ). Additionally, written narratives allow students to compose their thoughts and provide meaningful and rich information (Speziale et al., 2011 ) and reduce potential repetitions, which are common in audiotaped interviews (Dimond et al., 2012 ). Finally, using IM can maintain participants’ privacy and confidentiality while achieving depth of inquiry (Pearce et al., 2014 ). Although using an IM platform omits non-verbal cues displayed during traditional verbal face-to-face interviews, participants were encouraged to use emoticons to express themselves for a richer description of their experiences (Opdenakker, 2006 ).

Twenty-seven interviews were conducted from March 2020 to June 2020. IM interviews ranged from 55 min to 87 min. All participants received a remuneration of $10 for their time. The data analyses and data collection were performed simultaneously to ensure all research questions were addressed sufficiently. All interviews were conducted by the first author, who is a male PhD candidate with training and prior experience in conducting qualitative studies to ensure consistency. Data saturation was achieved at the 25th participant, but two more interviews were conducted to ensure no new information emerged (Fusch & Ness, 2015 ).

Data Analysis

The interview transcripts were imported from Skype into Microsoft word by the first author (DA) for data analysis. Another author (JC) verified and checked the completeness of the data transfer. Given that this study sought to identify students’ understanding, strategies, and preferences for resilience and its training, a thematic analysis (Braun & Clarke, 2006 ) approach was chosen. Thematic analysis provides an avenue for researchers to gather insights into a phenomenon from participants’ perspective; hence, it was appropriate to the research questions. Nonetheless, the analysis method was a choice made by the researchers as the construct and constituents of resilience remain debatable, and the goal of the study was to gather participants’ understanding of resilience.

Guided by constructivist approach, thematic analysis was conducted inductively from a data-driven approach and independently by two researchers (DA, JC). The first step of the analysis required researchers to be familiar with the data. Hence, all interview transcripts comprising of texts and emoticons were read and re-read to ensure familiarity. In the second step, an open, iterative semantic coding was carried out, where words or sections of texts relevant to the research questions were manually identified. Next, codes with similar meanings or contradictions were collated into a coherent cluster specific to a particular aspect of the dataset. Both researchers (DA, JC) reviewed both sets of coded data, which consisted of 168 codes, and discussed the similarities and differences. A third author (LY) was brought in to resolve discrepancies. Cohen’s kappa was used to calculate the inter-rater agreement for coding, and good agreement was established ( K  = 0.81). Following consensus on the developed codes, they were then compared with the interview transcripts to ensure accurate interpretation of the data. Patterns were identified where the most significant and frequent codes were organized. The team reduced the data by organizing codes on the basis of overlap and redundancy. A total of 58 codes were used for subsequent analysis. Codes referring to the same domain were further collapsed into 13 subthemes. The subthemes with similar overarching meanings were combined, forming the final five themes. The themes were reviewed by the team (DA, JC, LY) to ensure that a coherent story was presented.

As ongoing findings from the data analysis informed subsequent sampling, data analysis and collection occurred simultaneously. The researchers conducted a preliminary coding for eight participants’ interview transcripts to identify sections where further probing was required. The final themes and subthemes were deliberated between both authors (DA, JC), and the third author (LY) was involved to resolve any discrepancies. Finally, the team selected representative quotations for each theme and subtheme. Figure 1 summarizes the entire research process.

Research methodology

This study established rigor on the basis of four criteria: credibility, transferability, dependability, and confirmability (Krefting, 1991 ). This study was conducted by a doctoral candidate who did not have any dependent relationship with the participants; thus, participants were not under undue influence to provide a socially desirable response (Krefting, 1991 ). Piloting the interview guide, maintaining a reflective journal that details the research process (interview, recruitment), and debriefing sessions were practices done to reduce researcher-induced bias, which can threaten credibility (Mays & Pope, 2000 ). The triangulation of investigators, where two independent researchers conducted data analysis, was another measure to ensure credibility and dependability (Krefting, 1991 ). To prevent misinterpretation due to the nature of IM and to enhance credibility (Opdenakker, 2006 ), participants were asked to review their transcripts, and researchers sought to clarify any clarifications. An audit trail consisting of raw data, data analytics process, coding tree, and pilot interviews was kept, demonstrating confirmability (Krefting, 1991 ).

Five themes describing Generation Z undergraduate students’ perception of resilience and preference for receiving resilience training were elucidated (Fig. 2 ). The themes were: (1) resilience as enduring and withstanding, (2) the building blocks of resilience, (3) resilience: learning or earning, (4) pedagogical considerations for resilience training, (5) and a blended platform for resilience training.

Undergraduate students’ perception of resilience and preferences for receiving its training

Resilience as Enduring and Withstanding

This theme describes students’ interpretation of resilience. All but four students (85.2%) likened resilience to an ability to endure and withstand challenges in life. Although all but one student (96.3%) described their resilience as high, they found their resilience to be influenced by the present situation. Nonetheless, students perceived resilience as an important resource to mitigate the issues arising from the COVID-19 pandemic. Three subthemes described students’ interpretation of resilience: (1) resilience is having the tenacity to push through, (2) resilience is dynamic, (3) and resilience is necessary to survive university.

Resilience Is Having the Tenacity to Push through

Seventeen participants (62.9%) characterized resilience as the perseverance and determination that students must possess to push through challenging situations. A final-year female Indian student majoring in art described: “ Resilience means getting back up from a down point and moving on with more strength and positivity in life. ” Consequently, participants described resilience as an essential trait to manage the rigors of university life, achieve high grades, and maintain good mental health. A male freshman from the arts faculty shared: “ Being resilient helps you achieve the grade that you desire and, more importantly, ensure that you remain sane and that your mental health is in the best shape. ”

Resilience Is Dynamic

All but two students (92.6%) reported high levels of resilience, and they attributed such resilience to their prior life experiences. One first-year male Chinese medical student shared: “ I’m 8/10 resilient because I faced setbacks in school, and I bounced back from them. Now, I feel that I’m on my way to achieving my goals. ” Notwithstanding, the level of resilience was described to be dynamic and fluctuating with time, place, and situation. One fourth-year female arts student said: “I don’t think resilience level is static; it doesn’t drop either, but a higher level of resilience is required and demanded in situations where we face challenges that we have never faced before.” This opinion was echoed by a male freshman in computing: “ During my time in national service [referring to mandatory conscription for all able-bodied male citizens in Singapore] , I felt like my resilience was at a peak. Now, as a civilian again, I feel like my resilience isn’t as high because there isn’t as much physical and mental pressure. ” Surprisingly, participants found themselves more resilient and verbalized greater improvement after imposed COVID-19 measures were eased. This change was seen in a first-year student majoring in arts: “… my resilience score will become higher as the circuit breaker [referring to imposed COVID-19 measures in Singapore] measures ease because it’s like the light at the end of the tunnel. ”

Resilience Is Necessary to Survive University

When asked about resilience and its impact on school, all participants described it as an essential trait to manage the rigor of academics, achieve high grades and maintain good mental health. A second-year dental student shared: “Resilience will enable me to bear with the academic load, while having discipline to stick to a consistent study plan, instead of panicking.” Another arts freshman said : “being resilient helps you achieve the grade that you desire and more importantly, ensure that you remain sane and that your mental health is in the best shape so that your performance during the exam would be optimal.” The importance of being resilient was further highlighted during the COVID-19 pandemic, as students mentioned stress in adapting to new modes of learning. A third-year female Chinese law student shared: “ the transition from face-to-face learning to e-learning is an added stress. ”

The Building Blocks of Resilience

Given that participants described resilience as a necessary trait, understanding how resilience was built has gained interest. All students described various strategies that built their resilience. This theme describes students’ building blocks of resilience and perceived strategies that will be helpful in overcoming their adversities. The building blocks were of intrinsic and extrinsic nature. Intrinsic factors include their determination to succeed in school; whereas friends, teachers, and significant others were external resources used to build students’ resilience. This theme was illustrated in three subthemes: (1) desire and determination build resilience, (2) friends are more than merely transactional benefits; they impact resilience, (3) and resilience is a lesson from significant people.

Desire and Determination Build Resilience

Fourteen students (51.9%) drew on their experiences during their formative years and family background as their sources of determination that build their resilience. A fourth-year male Chinese medical student commented: “ I need to work hard for it myself. I come from a low-income family. ” Participants additionally attributed their resilience to their parents’ Asian parenting style. They described this parenting style, which is prominent in Singapore and colloquially known as “kiasu,” as parents’ general fear of losing out. This parenting style led to participants’ years of coping with multiple enrichment courses, which was described to have inevitably enhanced their resilience from a young age. One second-year female Chinese science student recalled: “ I’ve been trained to be disciplined and resilient because of Asian parenting. I’ve been enrolled in ballet and piano classes at a young age. ”

Friends Are more than Merely Transactional Benefits; they Impact Resilience

All participants believed that individuals within their social circle play a critical role in building their resilience. Friends, in particular, surfaced in 15 narratives (55.6%); they were described as “more than merely transactional benefits” and were valuable sources of emotional, intellectual, and social support. One male senior in a double degree program said: “ Projects, bidding of modules together as friends, pooling together resources … prompted me to want to have more friends. More friends then allowed me to understand that friendships were more than merely transactional benefits but also a great source of emotional support and mental wellbeing.”

Although friends were deemed as essential in building resilience, an element of duality seems to exist because building a social circle was not a mere walk in the park for four participants (14.8%). Participants were concerned about their social competency and felt that they had to “look good” by fitting into an ideal body image to be validated. An ideal body image was important because several students felt that physical appearance and body image played a role in building social connections. The idea of body image was expressed differently among genders. Female students were more concerned with their physical appearance, whereas male students were more concerned with their behaviors. A third-year female Malay arts student commented: “ It didn’t feel like people wanted to connect with a fat girl. ” Students found a need to gain validation among peers, requiring them to behave and dress in a certain manner, which contributed to stress. A male Chinese senior in a double degree program added: “ Gaining validation was super important to me in year 2 to the extent that I felt fake. I had to dress different, act funny, and be loud just to fit in .”

Moreover, six participants (22.2%) described that the competitive atmosphere in university led to individuals putting up numerous facades, which made building meaningful connections difficult. This competitive environment was important in appreciating how students develop resilience considering that social connectedness was verbalized as an essential component. This competitiveness was highlighted in a third-year male Chinese business student’s narrative: “ It [referring to the university] kind of creates a ‘cut-throat’ environment and attitude in everyone. Not everyone can be their true selves in class all the time as there is always some kind of agenda bugging you at the back of your mind.”

Resilience Is a Lesson from Significant People

Eleven students (40.7%) also described how they drew resilience from significant people. For instance, interactions with the less fortunate can be an impactful experience which they draw resilience from. A final-year female Chinese student in nursing shared: “ I’ve volunteered at a girls’ shelter before, and that experience taught me what real resilience is… these people make me see that the problems I have are trivial. ” Faculty support was also pivotal among students in building resilience. A first-year male Javanese double-degree student shared: “ The professor was very patient and nice when we went to see him. ” This openness presented as a form of academic support, which built his ability to cope with academic work. Finally, participants made sense of life circumstances and drew strength from their faith. One fourth-year male Chinese student majoring in a business program said: “ Challenges faced are planned by God, and these are placed by Him for us to develop so that we can serve Him better .”

Resilience: Learning or Earning?

As participants developed resilience through individual and social factors, identifying if these factors could be integrated into a training program was important. Hence, this theme describes students’ needs and perception of receiving resilience training. Some students felt that resilience is malleable and can be learned. Mindset-based training, positivity, reflexivity, and time management were some of the suggested skills. However, other students felt that resilience training was a lesson in life experience that could be learned from others’ experiences. This theme was described in two subthemes: (1) Training as a potential avenue to enhance resilience and (2) resilience is a lesson from life.

Training as a Potential Avenue to Enhance Resilience

Participants viewed resilience as essential to survive the challenges in university. Nineteen students (70.4%) verbalized the need for resilience training by equipping them with certain skills. For example, a third-year female Indian arts student stated: “ I think it [resilience training] is very much needed. I have so many hardships, but I had to dig instinctively into my soul to cope…. I think there are small skills that can be taught that add up to the bigger picture of resilience. ” When students were asked about their needs, the majority of them shared the need to develop positivity and to understand that failure is acceptable. A male Chinese engineering sophomore shared: “ Teaching someone to be positive and not overly negative is important. We should also realize that we are not in a sprint but in a marathon where there will surely be obstacles. We cannot change our predicament, but we can change our response and mindset to it. ” In addition, participants needed time management skills to manage the complexities of academic life. A senior female Chinese nursing student shared: “ I realized that many a times, I want to give up on something because I feel that the time for me to complete the task on time is not enough. ”

Resilience Is a Lesson from Life

Eight participants (29.6%) also felt that resilience is developed as they navigate through life. A second-year male Chinese engineering student stated: “ The majority of people ‘receive’ this form of training in one way or another in their daily life. ” Nevertheless, participants felt that resilience can be earned by interacting with individuals who demonstrate high levels of resilience. One second-year female Chinese arts student quipped: “ …have people who are willing to share their stories and have some challenges of their own. Thus, even if, let’s say, I was born with a silver spoon in my mouth and had zero challenges in my life, I would still be able to learn from these case studies from my peers .”

Pedagogical Considerations for Resilience Training

This theme focuses on appreciating students’ perception of how knowledge acquired from resilience training could be imparted. Participants alluded to the importance of learning from accounts and stories from resilient individuals’ life stories as a potential strategy to impart resilience-enhancing skills. In addition, using reflections as a means to understand oneself was another proposed method for resilience training programs. This theme is described in two subthemes: (1) using contextually relevant scenarios in resilience training and (2) reflective practices shape resilience.

Using Contextually Relevant Scenarios in Resilience Training

Twelve students (44.4%) described learning from narratives, which are true story accounts, as a proposed pedagogy for designing resilience training. As shared by one fourth-year male Chinese medical student: “A good way to design the material can be based on stories or true accounts, which can be quite applicable to students, or can be issues that they might encounter in the future. This brings along the relevance of the topic to their daily life.” The use of these narratives can subsequently form the basis for the development of contextually relevant scenarios, which majority of students preferred.

In 16 students (59.2%), the preference for learning through scenarios was useful to demonstrate how resilience will be practical in their academic lives. Participants felt that resilience can be imparted through experiential learning by allowing them to create their own solutions to the proposed situation. This exercise can enhance their mental capacity when the situation actually occurs. A final-year female Chinese law student shared: “ By allowing participants to figure out a solution to it either individually or in groups, they may be more mentally prepared for such situations in their real lives. ”

Reflective Practices Shape Resilience

Using reflections to internalize resilience-promoting factors was described to be beneficial among 19 students (70.3%). Participants alluded to the importance of reflections as central to resilience training, as it provides an avenue for developing self-awareness. One third-year female Indian medical student remarked: “ Resilience training should involve some kind of reflection or an avenue to better understand yourself and your emotions. I think when you are able to figure out what is important to you, it serves as a motivation for WHY you want to be resilient.”

However, given students’ competing priorities, the effectiveness of reflective practices may be limited. A senior female Malay arts student shared: “ Although it may be useful to reflect on what we have learned, most students would not take such assignments seriously as they are more concerned with their schoolwork. ” Nevertheless, participants found value when such reflections were reviewed and commented by the facilitator. One male Chinese law sophomore said: “ Feedback from the trainers are useful to me. So, it has to be two-way street and not just self-entries in a journal .”

A Blended Platform for Resilience Training

Given that this study took place during a pandemic and participants had first-hand experience of online learning, they found short videos and elements of face-to-face interactions as an effective mode for learning. A blended approach was recommended to deliver resilience training, and this theme is highlighted in three subthemes: (1) a blended approach to impart resilience, (2) essential features for an online-based resilience training, (3) and determining the right time for initiating resilience training.

A Blended Approach to Impart Resilience

All participants described resilience training as a set of soft skills that requires a combination of platforms. A final-year male Chinese business student stated: “ Resilience is based more on soft skills, so I think seminars still work the best as they ensure that everyone’s understanding is correct .” Moreover, 18 participants (66.74%) felt that resilience training should adopt a dialectic approach. A third-year female Indian medical student added: “ The face-to-face aspect functions like a tutorial for people to share their experiences and discuss them, which is a good avenue to also learn from challenges that others face .”

With regard to content delivery, 17 participants (62.9%) indicated that an online lecture is a suitable platform for learning owing to its convenience. One arts male Chinese freshman shared: “ I would prefer a lecture to be webcasted [referring to an online lecture] because it means I can watch at my own convenience and pace and as many times as I want .” However, 18 participants (66.7%) expressed concerns with independent learning through purely online delivery, and they described a need for dedicated face-to-face sessions. One third-year female Chinese arts student stated, “ I don’t learn much from an online course! I get too distracted. Zoom calls would be better if you can get interaction. It’s live so it’s more applicable to the people present. ”

Essential Features for an Online-Based Resilience Training

The majority of participants (62.9%) described several features for an online platform. Students found that start, stop, and fast-forward functions in videos are essential features for online learning. For instance, a male Javanese freshman in a double-degree program highlighted: “ Video format helps me learn best… I like that I can pause it, replay it, or speed it up. If some parts are easy to understand, I can speed it up and save time.” Each video is recommended to be divided into 15–20-min segments to encourage a high level of attentiveness. A male Chinese engineering senior suggested: “ Sessions should be in blocks of 15–20-minute videos with a specific content to be covered, which is similar to YouTube videos. The short attention span of a student might not sustain a full 1-hour webcast lecture .” In addition, participants’ previous learning experiences showed that an informative session should be within two hours as learning would not be optimal beyond that. This finding is illustrated by a final-year female Chinese dental student: “ Anything more than 2 hours has diminishing returns. The human attention span is only so long … I just reach a point wherein I can’t absorb anymore. ”

Determining the Right Time for Initiating Resilience Training

Sixteen participants (59.3%) felt that resilience-enhancing skills should be introduced during the school term particularly before exams and major assignments. This timing provides an opportunity for students to apply their newly acquired skills. This schedule was explained by a female Chinese nursing sophomore: “ I think a suitable timeframe would be between midterms and finals period as during this period, many students experience major mental breakdown due to the excessive amount of projects and lesson materials that need to be completed. With the help of resilience training, I think students will be able to better understand the importance of resilience.”

This study explored Generation Z undergraduate students’ resilience and needs for resilience training amid a global pandemic, which resulted in various changes in students’ academic endeavors. The interviews revealed that undergraduate students described resilience as an enduring and withstanding trait that is essential for navigating through university. Students suggested numerous strategies that can potentially enhance their resilience. Finally, students indicated their preferences for resilience training to be delivered over a blended platform, comprising of short videos with each session kept within two hours.

Students have characterized resilience as enduring and withstanding and as recovery from adversities, which are congruent with known the definitions of resilience (Martin & Marsh, 2009 ; Van Breda, 2018 ). This definition was similarly reported in existing resilience literature among students, where resilience is described as a process of perseverance and overcoming obstacles (Abukari, 2018 ; Cavazos Jr et al., 2010 ; Clohessy, McKellar & Fleet, 2019; Wahab et al., 2017 ). Participants have additionally described a high level of resilience, which fluctuates and changes in response to the situation. The dynamic nature of resilience is not uncommon, given that studies have reported that students have high levels of resilience, which are dynamic in response to the experienced situation (Chung et al., 2017 ; Clohessy et al. 2019). Proposed reasons for high levels of resilience can be attributed to several reasons but not limited to inherent high level of resilience, presence of strong network, vicarious life experiences, and potential social desirability biases associated with questionnaire surveys (Chung et al., 2017 ; Yeager & Dweck, 2012 ).

Nevertheless, all but one participant described a high level of resilience despite reporting numerous challenges, such as radical changes in teaching and learning processes, environment, and imposed movement measures during the COVID-19 pandemic. This high level of resilience could be due to the numerous building blocks described by participants in this study. These building blocks encompassed personal, relational, cultural, and religious factors that enhanced their resilience. These factors have been widely reported and are consistent with resilience enhancing strategies that encompass personal, interpersonal, and environmental factors (Farquhar et al., 2018 ; Leung et al., 2020 ; Sanderson & Brewer, 2017 ; Yeager & Dweck, 2012 ).

The literature has similarly reported that individuals’ personal characteristics, such as intrinsic determination and desire, were building blocks of resilience (Abukari, 2018 ; Borjian, 2018 ; Yeager & Dweck, 2012 ). In addition, individuals from a more socioeconomically disadvantaged household seemed more determined to excel (Çelik, 2017 ; O’Neill & Bowers, 2020 ).

In the relational domain, relationships took the central stage as participants primarily developed resilience through social connections. In spite of the COVID-19 pandemic and its imposed measures, participants in this study did not surface any limitations in maintaining their relationships. There were no limitations because of students’ familiarity with technology and the availability of social networking applications that maintained connections. Relationships with parents, friends, and significant others such as teachers fostered students’ resilience.

Parents played a direct significant role by providing emotional and financial support (Abukari, 2018 ; Borjian, 2018 ). Moreover, this study has found another mechanism, where parents have instead played a huge role in building participants’ resilience from a young age by making them juggle a constant barrage of enrichment programs. Asian parenting styles are influenced by Confucianism and the fear of losing out, which have led to an excessive focus on their children’s education and academic performance (Ellis, 2014 ; Huang & Gove, 2015 ).

Beyond family relationships, friends were described as a source of building resilience. Social support through friends have been documented as one that enhances resilience (Fernández-Martínez et al., 2017 ; Lekan et al., 2018 ). However, students have expressed difficulties in building such connections. Participants felt limited in socializing when issues concerning physical appearance, behavior, and competitiveness surface, which is a new dimension to understanding the impact of friendships on an individual’s resilience. This study found that dissatisfaction with one’s own body image was a barrier to making friends, and participants found themselves behaving in a certain manner to be viewed positively by others (Vorauer et al., 2009 ). Such behavior, in turn, may have influenced their resilience by limiting their ability to make genuine friendships and thus reducing their social network.

A university is a competitive environment and serves to mold collaborative and cooperative learning to emulate future work settings (Attle & Baker, 2007 ; Dimant & Hyndman, 2019 ). However, participants reported the university as a barrier to building social connections, which could be due to numerous reasons. First, the COVID-19 pandemic brought about numerous abrupt changes including school closures and social distancing measures, which limit physical engagement between students. Second, competitiveness brought about by graded class participations (Frymier & Houser, 2016 ; O Connor, 2013 ) may have influenced their behavior to “outperform” their peers, creating that sense of a “cut-throat” environment. Moreover, Hope ( 2016 ) found that 85% of Generation Z students rated themselves as loyal, but only 10% of them felt that their peers were loyal, highlighting their skepticism toward their friends’ loyalty.

Drawing resilience from significant others, such as teachers, is common among students. This finding was similarly reported by Turner and Simmons ( 2019 ); their results showed that academics can often provide support for students. Experiential learning from others is also valued by Generation Z students (Seemiller & Grace, 2016 ); these individuals learn from the life of the less fortunate to develop their resilience. Compared with other generations, Generation Z students have stronger faith and spirituality (Hope, 2016 ); thus, they draw strength from religion in times of adversity.

With regard to their needs for resilience training, participants verbalized that various skills, such as mindset-based training, positivity, reflexivity, and time management, will enhance their resilience. In relation to resilience theory (Van Breda, 2018 ) and the psychosocial building blocks of resilience (Southwick & Charney, 2012 ), positive outlook and finding meaning are known to enhance resilience. University students often juggle numerous competing demands and activities; hence, they consider time management skills useful in enhancing academic outcomes and mitigating stress (Kaushar, 2013 ). On the contrary, existing resilience interventions among students do not incorporate any form of time management skills in their training (Games et al., 2019 ; Steinhardt & Dolbier, 2008 ). Therefore, this new dimension is important and potentially helpful in improving students’ resilience.

Participants in this study drew strength from their vicarious experiences and interaction with other resilient individuals who have taught them to appreciate resiliency. Moreover, Generation Z students prefer learning through experience (Seemiller & Grace, 2017 ). Given that participants valued experiences from other resilient people or through their personal experiences, this finding supports the use of contextually relevant scenarios to design resilience training. The application of case scenarios (Peng et al., 2014 ), problem-based learning (Jabarullah & Hussain, 2019 ), and reflective practice (Crane et al., 2019 ) have been effective in building resilience skills (Aiello et al., 2011 ).

In relation to students’ preference for resilience training and reference to the VARK model, the findings of this study suggest that learning is not limited to a particular method but requires a multimodal approach in delivering resilience training (Khongpit et al., 2018 ; Prithishkumar & Michael, 2014 ). Given that a multimodal approach using a variety of learning modes complements students, participants have verbalized a preference for a blended approach in delivering resilience training. This finding is expected given that the current generation of students prefer interactive learning platforms (Twenge, 2013 ). Students have suggested that content-heavy materials should be taught over online platforms in the form of videos. Start, stop, fast-forward, and slow-down functions should be available in these videos to allow individuals to learn at their desired pace. The use of video-based lectures in online learning can facilitate learning for individuals with preferences for visual and reading learning preferences (Khongpit et al., 2018 ). Notwithstanding, students have suggested the use of face-to-face sessions, which provide opportunities for discussion and clarification; such approach has been described as most useful for those with preference for auditory learning preferences (Amaniyan et al., 2020 ; Fleming, 2006 ). Our findings were similarly found in studies among university students who viewed blended learning positively, as it was convenient and enabled them to learn at their own pace (Akbarov et al., 2018 ; Ilic et al., 2015 ). A small number of individuals described group discussions to be effective, as it facilitates communication, information dissemination, and mutual support (Ginns & Ellis, 2007 ; Ilic et al., 2015 ). As the proposed resilience training program potentially requires interaction between students in an online synchronous platform, a small class size can encourage fruitful discussions (Chen et al., 2017 ).

The right time to deliver resilience training was determined in two directions, an appropriate time to deliver and an acceptable amount of time. Numerous resilience training programs for students did not provide a specific time to deliver intervention (Peng et al., 2014 ; Steinhardt & Dolbier, 2008 ); hence, our study provided new insights by identifying a suitable time frame. Future resilience training could be initiated at the beginning of the semester so that participants can apply the acquired skills when they encounter subsequent challenges. As students may often have competing priorities, the duration and time required for the training should be balanced. Nevertheless, students alluded to the importance of lengthy trainings to highlight the importance of resilience training. Participants in our study recommended that sessions under two hours, consisting of online videos lasting 15 min, are ideal for attention retention and optimal learning. Studies have increasingly shown that individuals have an attention span of up to 15 min, and shorter videos achieve higher levels of completion (Bradbury, 2016 ).

Conclusions

This study elucidated undergraduate students’ perception of resilience and their preferences for receiving resilience training. Given the scant literature exploring undergraduate students’ perception of resilience across a broad group of students from diverse demographic backgrounds, the findings contributed to the wide literature on resilience. In particular, the study highlighted how Generation Z students perceive and build resilience during the COVID-19 pandemic.

The findings of this study have built the basis for further research and educational practice. Given that students have highlighted the importance of being resilient, educators must incorporate a form of resilience-enhancing training within formal university curriculum. Students’ narratives revealed that resilience can be influenced by a myriad of personal, relational, and environmental factors. This study can lend its findings to future research in designing and evaluating resilience training programs. First, future training programs should consider a socio-ecological approach while designing its contents. Second, building on an individual’s personal strength such as positivity, finding meaning and coping abilities should be imparted. Further, a focus on developing participants’ social capital and perception of their body image is now important as it builds social networks which can additionally enhance resilience. Healthcare providers, educators, and school administrators can organize self-help workshops and utilize these resilience-enhancing factors to aid in their medical or pastoral care.

Students have additionally suggested that resilience training be conducted using a blended approach, using videos, sessions within two hours, and held prior to major assessments and during the academic term. Training contents can be developed using narratives drawn from others’ life experiences, which have been described as an effective manner for Generation Z students to become resilient. In light of these new findings, this study recommends that these factors be considered in the design of future resilience training programs. Given that resilience was verbalized to be an essential trait to mitigate academic challenges, the findings of this study suggest that building undergraduates’ resilience should be incorporated early in their journey during the academic term.

However, the findings from this study has to be interpreted with respect to limitations. First, this study was limited to one university in Singapore, and additional work is needed to understand undergraduates’ experience of resilience that resonates among an Asian population. Nevertheless, this study adopted a purposive sampling method combined with a multi-ethnic and multi-faculty approach to increase demographic representativeness. In addition, the use of IM as a data collection strategy can potentially limit verbal and non-verbal cues and data. Nonetheless, technologically savvy Generation Z students used emoticons to express their emotions. The cross-sectional design potentially limited the exploration of changes in resilience over time. Thus, adopting a longitudinal design to observe changes in resilience would be needed to gather deeper insights into the phenomenon.

Acknowledgements

The authors would like to thank all participants for their generous insight.

Author Contributions

Ang Wei How Darryl, Conceptualization, data curation, formal analysis, investigation, resources, visualization, writing – original draft, writing – review and editing.

Shefaly Shorey, Methodology, visualization, writing – original draft, writing – review and editing, supervision.

Violeta Lopez, Methodology, visualization, writing – original draft, writing – review and editing.

Chew Han Shi Jocelyn, Duration curation, formal analysis, writing – original draft, writing – review and editing.

Lau Ying, Conceptualization, data curation, formal analysis, investigation, methodology, project administration resources, software, supervision, visualization, writing – original draft, writing – review and editing.

This work was supported by the NUS Alice Lee Centre for Nursing Studies Doctoral Student Research Fund.

Data Availability

The data that support the findings of this study are available from the corresponding author, [SS], upon reasonable request.

Declarations

Ethics approval.

Ethics approval (DERC19018) was obtained from the National University of Singapore’s Department Ethics Review Committee.

Statement of Human Rights

All procedures performed in studies involving human participants were in accordance with the ethical standards of the institutional and/or national research committee and with the 1964 Helskinki declaration and its later amendments or comparable ethical standards.

Informed Consent

Informed consent was obtained from all individual participants included in the study.

Conflict of Interest

The authors do not have any conflict of interest to declare.

Publisher’s Note

Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.

Contributor Information

Wei How Darryl Ang, Email: [email protected].

Shefaly Shorey, Email: [email protected].

Violeta Lopez, Email: [email protected].

Han Shi Jocelyn Chew, Email: [email protected].

Ying Lau, Email: [email protected].

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