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THE INFLUENCE OF ESG ON GENERATION Z:

A REVIEW OF PREFERENCE FOR WORKPLACE

BY

MR. YUTO TAKIMOTO

AN INDEPENDENT STUDY SUBMITTED IN PARTIAL


FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE
OF MASTER OF BUSINESS ADMINISTRATION IN
GLOBAL BUSINESS MANAGEMENT
(INTERNATIONAL PROGRAM)
FACULTY OF COMMERCE AND ACCOUNTANCY
THAMMASAT UNIVERSITY
ACADEMIC YEAR 2021
COPYRIGHT OF THAMMASAT UNIVERSITY

Ref. code: 25646302043143LWM


THE INFLUENCE OF ESG ON GENERATION Z:
A REVIEW OF PREFERENCE FOR WORKPLACE

BY

MR. YUTO TAKIMOTO

AN INDEPENDENT STUDY SUBMITTED IN PARTIAL


FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE
OF MASTER OF BUSINESS ADMINISTRATION IN
GLOBAL BUSINESS MANAGEMENT
(INTERNATIONAL PROGRAM)
FACULTY OF COMMERCE AND ACCOUNTANCY
THAMMASAT UNIVERSITY
ACADEMIC YEAR 2021
COPYRIGHT OF THAMMASAT UNIVERSITY

Ref. code: 25646302043143LWM


THAMMASAT UNIVERSITY
FACULTY OF COMMERCE AND ACCOUNTANCY

INDEPENDENT STUDY

BY

MR. YUTO TAKIMOTO

ENTITLED

THE INFLUENCE OF ESG ON GENERATION Z:


A REVIEW OF PREFERENCE FOR WORKPLACE

was approved as partial fulfillment of the requirements for


the degree of Master of Business Administration Program in Global Business
Management (International Program)

on December 26, 2021

Chairman ____________________________________________
(Associate Professor Fredric William Swierczek, Ph.D.)

Member and Advisor ____________________________________________


(Associate Professor Patnaree Srisuphaolarn, Ph.D.)

Dean ____________________________________________
(Professor Ruth Banomyong, Ph.D.)
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Independent Study Title THE INFLUENCE OF ESG ON GENERATION


Z :A REVIEW OF PREFERENCEFOR
WORKPLACE
Author Mr. Yuto Takimoto
Degree Master of Business Administration in Global
Business Management (International Program)
Major Field/Faculty/University Faculty of Commerce and Accountancy
Thammasat University
Independent Study Advisor Associate Professor Patnaree Srisuphaolarn, Ph.D.
Academic Year 2021

ABSTRACT

As new generations are entering the labor market, the author has
experienced generational differences in thinking and attitude within the workplace.
Without understanding these differences, it sometimes impacts on its turnover or be a
barrier for attracting new employees. Apart from looking into own workplace, when
the author sees business environment in the world, it currently requires more attention
to climate change and corporate social responsibility in business. These experiences
triggered to do further study about generation and such trendy topic.
By looking at past studies about generations and current corporate activity
toward environmental or social issues, the author found that different generations have
different views on work values. In addition, it is also clear that Generation Z will largely
dominate the labor market in the next years. As not only the actions by companies but
also the governments around the world are being urged to be more environmentally
conscious and more socially aware at the moment, companies have been started to be
evaluated from the perspective of ESG that contains environmental, social and
governance. Since ESG is generally used by investors to evaluate corporate behavior
and determine the future financial performance, ESG is not generally used for job
seekers. However, this study aims to clarify how important ESG factors that are
currently required by the company will affect the future workforce, especially
Generation Z.

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This study applied both an online questionnaire and semi-structured


interviews to study what Generation Z in Thailand considers when choosing a
workplace, and what their impressions on ESG are. The results of the online
questionnaire revealed that their top priorities were “Good salary”, “Support from
colleagues”, and “Job security”. Regarding ESG, the author also found that “Social”
was the most important to them, “Governance” was the second most important, and
“Environmental” was the third most important. Through the interviews, the author tried
to find out what kind of past experiences led Generation Z to come up with the ideas
expressed in the questionnaire results, and what exactly they value in terms of ESG and
what they value in terms of choosing a workplace. As a result of the interviews, it turned
out that the experiences of themselves and persons close to them, especially negative
experience influenced their thinking. Furthermore, the author found that among the
ESG factors, “Freedom of thinking”, “Equal opportunities”, and “Transparency” are
the most important. On the other hand, it is clear from both the online questionnaire and
the interviews that environment is still important to Generation Z, however they are less
concerned about the environment when selecting a place to work for.
In the last chapter, based on the results of this study, the author described
specific ideas on what companies should start their ESG related approach with
examples of corporate activities from high ESG performance companies. The
companies used as examples in this study included the case of Thailand which is the
target country of this study, world leading companies, and the case of Japan which is
the author's home country.
Not only the results of this study demonstrate the importance of approach
for ESG, but also it helps us better understand the differences that in attitudes between
generations. The findings may be accepted as one of the ideas to create a better
workplace for future workforce.

Keywords: Generation Z, ESG, Workplace Preference, Workplace Selection,


Qualitative Research

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ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

I would like to express my gratitude to my advisor, Dr. Patnaree


Srisuphaolarn for all of her continuous support and helpful advice. Without her support
and advice, I have never been possible to complete this independent study. I would also
like to share my sincere thanks to Dr. Fedric William Swierczek for constructive
suggestions.
The experience and knowledge I have gained through GEMBA would be
invaluable in my future career. Completing the independent study was particularly
challenging for me, but at the same time it was a valuable learning experience.
Lastly, I would like to thank my classmates for their support, the lecturers
for their valuable lecturers and all of the staffs and teacher assistants for their assistance.

Mr. Yuto Takimoto

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TABLE OF CONTENTS

Page
ABSTRACT (1)

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS )3(

LIST OF TABLES )7(

LIST OF FIGURES )8(

LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS )9(

CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION 1

1.1 Background of the study 1


1.1.1 Necessity of collaboration 1
1.1.2 Sustainability 2
1.1.2.1 Corporate Responsibility 2
1.1.2.2 ESG investment 4
1.2 Objective of the study 5

CHAPTER 2 REVIEW OF LITERATURE 7

2.1 Generations 7
2.1.1 Characteristics 7
2.1.1.1 Baby Boomers 8
2.1.1.2 Generation X 8
2.1.1.3 Generation Y (Millennials) 8
2.1.1.4 Generation Z 9

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2.1.2 Generation in the future workforce 10


2.2 Workplace Preference 10
2.3 Outcomes of Engagement and Commitment 12
2.3.1 Workforce Engagement 13
2.3.2 Organizational Commitment 13
2.4 ESG 14
2.4.1 What ESG is 14
2.4.2 Example of company's approach for ESG 17
2.5 Further research on Generation and ESG 17

CHAPTER 3 RESEARCH METHODOLOGY 19

3.1 Research Design 19


3.2 Research Questions 19
3.3 Research Methodology 20
3.4 Data Collection 20
3.4.1 Online Questionnaire 21
3.4.2 Semi-structured Interview 23
3.5 Data Analysis 23

CHAPTER 4 RESULTS AND DISCUSSION 25

4.1 The result of Online Questionnaire 25


4.1.1 Preference for a Workplace (Online questionnaire) 25
4.1.2 Impression of ESG 27
4.2 The result of Semi-structured Interview 30
4.2.1 Preference for a workplace (Semi-structured Interview) 31
4.2.2 Influence of ESG on Selecting a Workplace 35

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CHAPTER 5 CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS 42

5.1 Conclusion 42
5.2 Recommendation 45
5.3 Limitation 47

REFERENCES 48

APPENDICES 55

APPENDIX A 56

BIOGRAPHY 57

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LIST OF TABLES

Tables Page
2.1 Comparison of Generation & Work 10
2.2 DJSI - The number of Companies 16
3.1 Online questionnaire – Preference for a workplace 21
3.2 Online questionnaire – ESG 22
4.1 The results of preference for a workplace 27
4.2 The results of impression of ESG 29
4.3 List of Participants 31
5.1 The difference between this study and other studies 44

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LIST OF FIGURES

Figures Page
1.1 Changes in CSR and Corporate Sustainability in Japan 5
2.2 Elements of ESG 15
4.1 Interview concept 30
5.1 Overview of the results of this study 42

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LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS

Symbols/Abbreviations Terms

UN The United Nations


SDGs The Sustainable Development Goals
EU European Union
EEA European Economic Area
GDPR General Data Protection Regulation
ESG Environmental, Social and Corporate
Governance
CSR Corporate Social Responsiblity
PRI Principles for Responsible Investment
ROA Return on Assets
DJSI The Dow Jones Sustainability Indeces
COREQ Consolidated criteria for reporting
qualitative research

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CHAPTER 1
INTRODUCTION

1.1 Background of the study

1.1.1 Necessity of collaboration


The time has been passed since my first day as a full-time employee,
and the author sees many new employees were joining after me. Some people get new
jobs, some people get promoted, and they work on new roles and with new colleagues.
Time passing, it can be said that a new generation is entering the labor market. In fact,
the atmosphere of the workplace is changing by new joining of new generation’s
members to the workplace. Joining of new generation in the workplace often gives the
opportunity to come up with new ideas, discover something that was previously
unnoticed, and have a positive impact on the company. On the other hand, thorough my
own experience, the author has also seen differences in opinions and ways of thinking
between generations. The differences the author mentioned here are diverse, including,
but not limited to, their work style, their work value, how they value a good company
is, and so on.
In the environment where different generations work in one
workplace, understanding these differences with each other will enable employees
collaborate more effectively, and managers to manage their teams more efficiently. In
other words, working together without understanding between generations may lead to
miscommunication and conflicts among employees. For instance, depending on the size
of the company and the business, the workplace now in 2021 could have employees of
18 to 60 years old so that it means that there are 4 generations in one workplace in
general. Though the detail of each generation is explained in chapter 2, the generations
here include Baby Boomers, Generation X, Generation Y, and Generation Z. When
such different generations work together in one workplace, there must be difference in
the sense of values between generations. It is no wonder if there are big differences,
especially between Baby Boomers and Generation Z because its age gap. In brief, we
have to understand the differences of generations, and especially new joiner, Generation
Z will be the generation that we’re required to know more at this moment or in next

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years. This is because we will face the situation that we have to collaborate with this
generation more and more.
1.1.2 Sustainability
1.1.2.1 Corporate Responsibility
Apart from generations, the people in the business field is
required to see the future for longer term to build sustainable business. According to
the report of Business for Social Responsibility (2017) which is an organization of
sustainable business experts, the business environment has been changing because of
three elements which are climate change, technology and ethic, and structural economic
change.
Climate change which is first element, due to the climate
change, companies are facing to the situation to reconsider their management,
infrastructure, supply chain and community. The background of this movement has
been supported by international level. The Paris Agreement has set the agenda for
national emissions reductions for the foreseeable future, for instance. By working on
these issues as corporate level, companies are able to reduce the risk and ensure
business sustainability. In Thailand, Thai Union Group, one of leading food
manufacturers, announced in 2020 that Thai Union Group has become the first food
manufacturer and Thailand-listed company to join EP 100. EP 100 is a Climate Group
that encourages the improvement of energy productivity by implementing efficiency
measures and accelerating the uptake of more efficient technologies and practices. Thai
Union Group is managing the impact of its operation by adopting an indicator of The
Paris Agreement on climate change. The initiatives are that water reduction, waste to
landfill reduction, reducing greenhouse gas emission. The action toward greenhouse
gas reduction includes the investment in more energy efficient equipment, the
development and deployment of new technology, and the promotion of renewable
energy. Another action toward reducing the environmental impact of producing and
disposing of the packaging, the company is developing a plan to integrate new materials
and process innovations. Those actions made toward climate change by Thai Union
Group have been assessed the contribution to UN’s SDGs. Of course, these corporate
actions enable to obtain the skill and knowledge in climate change as well.

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Second element is about technology and ethic. New


technologies allow us to improve integrity, connectability, efficiency, productivity and
transparency. Some of traditional processes is automated, some of research are
conducted based on a huge number of personal data. The transformation by new
technologies make things around us more efficient and faster. While we receive the
benefit from new technologies, it poses us fundamental issues related to identity,
privacy and security. When we see Facebook, it is said that the company gains more
than USD 40 billion by online advertisement by utilizing the personal data. Furthermore,
the transaction within region such as EU is also using the personal data for corporate
activity or personal purchase. To respond to the trend, EU and EEA enforced GDPR
which is the regulation to address the transfer of personal data outside the region, and
aim to authorize themselves the control over how their own personal data will be used.
Since GDPR became enforceable in 2018, many of companies have changed their
policy regarding personal data that is used for the business to obey the regulation.
However, GDPR is a just case of new regulations. New technologies may bring about
more and newer regulations in the future. Therefore, companies are recently required
to adopt important policy and procedure which answer for ethical issues caused by new
technologies.
Lastly, a digital, connected economy is emerging and changing
business today. We are experiencing its transition in daily life, the nature of work and
the business landscape. This economic shift causes employment changes, social
changes, economic model changes, and so on. These changes help to reduce absolute
poverty, improve women’s health outcomes, and expand LGBTQ rights. To respond to
these movement, business leaders now are working on diversity and inclusion as
sustainability, one of business strategy. According the report of KPMG (2021), Nomura
Holdings which is one of the biggest Japanese financial company is proceeding the
reform the corporate culture and strengthening of its governance by implementing the
strategy of diversity and inclusion. By assigning female board members and hiring
multinational members, the company could provide better workplace for the employees
and gain the trust from the stakeholders more.

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1.1.2.2 ESG Investment


While corporate activities toward sustainability are becoming
a trend as the author mentioned earlier, the report about ESG (Tahara, 2020)
summarized that the non-financial report has been developed from CSR to sustainable
report, and the number of companies that issues sustainable report has been increased.
The example of changes in Japan, in the past till around 1980, each of environment,
social system, and corporate activity was independent, and environment and social
system were still necessary for the company to care, however they were costs for
corporate activity. In 1990 to 2000, while all of environment, social system and
corporate activity still kept its independency, it was believed that they interacted each
other. Since 2020 to now, environment and social system are the presupposition for
considering corporate sustainability. Thus, the company has to adapt to changes in
environment and social system to reduce risks and utilize opportunities (Figure 1.1).
There is the implementation of UN PRI in 2006 as a background of this. PRI is to
encourage the financial sector, especially the institutional investor to invest from the
perspective of ESG. It states that the investors are responsible for the influence of ESG
factors on investment portfolio in order to maximize profits for long term. In addition
to PRI, the adoption of SDGs in 2015 has even increased ESG investment. With the
trend of ESG in recent years, ESG information disclosure using major frameworks of
the standard of Global Reporting Initiative, and Sustainability Accounting Standards
Board has been carried out mainly by large companies. These frameworks are useful
for us to evaluate the achievement of activities toward ESG related issues.

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Figure 1.1 Changes in CSR and Corporate Sustainability in Japan

1.2 Objective of the study

As the author mentioned in the previous section, it is necessary to


understand generations for corporate management and efficient collaboration within the
workplace. There are several generations, however this time the author focused on
Generation Z, which will become the main workforce in the labor market in the near
future. Furthermore, ESG which is an important factor for sustainable business in recent
years will be discussed in this study. The author will look into the influence of ESG on
Generation Z, and discover the association to specific indicators in next chapters.
This research is not to look into the relationship between ESG and corporate
performance or investment as prior research found. The importance of this study is to
focus on ESG and employees. It is good to see the trend that investors pay more
attention to ESG, and decide to invest in the companies working on environment,
society and governance issues. However, it is also worth considering the impact of ESG
on employees. While the sustainable business is more important in recent years, the
impact on employees can be considered as one of the factors when companies consider
their strategies, especially sustainable business strategy as well as corporate decision.
In addition, since this research focuses on specific generation, Generations Z, it is
possible to deepen the understanding of Generation Z, although it is limited to the
research the influence caused by the elements of ESG. In other words, prior research of

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generations has widely conducted in general, however, this research discovers deeply
in the specific area. By understanding Generation Z deeper through the results of this
study, it is benefit for current and future management teams to utilize the results for
employer branding, hiring process, human resource management and team building in
the workplace.

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CHAPTER 2
REVIEW OF LITERATURE

The author mentions to relevant literatures with this research in this chapter.
This chapter contains key concepts, ideas and definition that are necessary to develop
research concept and question. In particular, ESG, which has been attracting attention
more in recent years, and generations that are often paid attention when people think of
management and behavioral characteristics in business scene. Based on the results of
previous research in this chapter, this research will explore the impact of ESG on
specific generation in depth in the next chapters.

2.1 Generations

A generation is defined by Johnson & Johnson (2010) that is a group of


individuals born and living contemporaneously who have common knowledge and
experiences that affect their thoughts, attitudes, values, beliefs, and behaviors. Johnson
& Johnson defined 3 generations by birth years, Baby Boomers is the generation born
between 1946 and 1964, Generation X is the generation born between 1965 and 1980,
and Generation Y is the Generation Y is the generation born between 1981 and 1995.
According to Janson (2020), Generation Z is defined as people born between 1995 and
2012. However, different study (Dimock, 2019) explains that Generation Z is started
from 1997. Dimock (2019) also says that there is no chronological endpoint has been
set, there are no clear periods when each generation begins and ends. Each of generation
experienced same influential historical and social events (Clark, 2017). For example,
Baby Boomers experienced civil rights movement, Vietnam war, cold war. Generation
X experienced Women’s liberation movement, first personal computers. Generation Y
experienced internet, instant messaging, wireless technology, September 11 events.

2.1.1 Characteristics
Although there are similarities across all generations that are “All
people want to learn”, “All people want to be valued and feel significant”, “Everyone
wants respect”, and “Trust is important” (Berge & Berge, 2019), each generation has a

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different background and characteristics, and its characteristic of generations is also


related with work attitude. In fact, prior study has shown that the work attitude and
value vary from generation to generation (Twenge, 2010). For differences at work, the
author summarized characteristics of each generation based on the literatures (Figure
2.1).
2.1.1.1 Baby Boomer
Baby Boom Generation (Baby Boomers) who was born
between 1946-1964, had in non-digital age and went form cassette tapes to CDs (Katz,
2017). Baby Boomers prefers telephone calls, emails, and face-to-face contact for
communication. Women entering the workforce and a college education influenced
Baby Boomers and change their way of thinking. Regarding work attitude, long hours
in the office and putting in more face time lead more success for Baby Boomers
(Morcelle, 2017). Baby Boomers respects formal chain of command and prefers leaders
who allow them to take part in decision making process (Rajput et al, 2019).
2.1.1.2 Generation X
Morcelle (2017) described that Generation X desires traveling
the world, and could have the opportunity for studying abroad. Unlike Baby Boomers,
time off from work to vacation is an important part of the benefits package. Twenge
(2010) concluded that Generation X has a weaker work ethic, is less central to their
lives, therefore they seek more freedom and work-life balance than Baby Boomers.
Rajput et al. (2019) also mention to similar characteristics that is Generation X is more
independent and fun loving, and lay more emphasis on work life balance. In addition
to this finding, Generation X is motivated by factors such as recognition and status.
Their preference in leadership is who are optimistic and supportive.
2.1.1.3 Generation Y (Millennials)
For Generation Y or Millennials, they have grown up with the
internet, and don’t have any significant problems with using new technology to work
effectively and efficiently than generations before them (Parment, 2012). Unlike Baby
Boomers, Generation Y spends their time when social media and texting have become
a center point for communication and business (Morcelle, 2017). Regarding the
preference of Generation Y at the work, they have a desire to work in an organization
and values where they can do more than just work, and work-life balance. Most of

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Generation Y prefers a flexible work environment (Ferguson & Wendy, 2016).


Ferguson & Wendy suggests a flexibility can be one of important key to keep them
engaged and committed. Moreover, they prefer a teamwork atmosphere rather than a
leadership approach. Rajput et al. (2019) found that Generation Y prefers leaders who
take care of them individual basis and give immediate feedback. Therefore, it is
necessary for the manager who manages Generation Y to provide training for a future
leadership position with them, ensure balance between the team orientation and their
need fulfillment, identify the strengths of them, placing emphasis on recognizing the
high performers they can retain (Darby & Morrell, 2019).
2.1.1.4 Generation Z
Generation Z is digital native and mobile has been a part of
their experience from the beginning (Gale, 2015). When we look into Generation Z’s
work value, they prefer to work to get appreciated and do something for wellbeing of
their company. One of their most important value is “Help others”, and equally
important in that “Career”. In addition to that, they are sensitive toward “Society” and
therefore would value working for companies who care for society (Agarwal & Vaghela,
2018). Having a meaningful job is also a vital factor for Generation Z’s motivation
(Kirchmayer, 2018). Thus, generations are an important factor of understanding their
work attitude and value. Understanding Generation Z is important for the organization
to establish a corporate culture and workplace to gain a distinctive advantage in
attracting top talent employees from the Generation Z. Furthermore, understanding
these characteristics help an employer manage its organization and human resource
effectively. On the contrary, if an employer tries to force Generation Z into a traditional
job environment, it could result in a lack of workforce engagement (Bascha, 2011).
This is even more important when considering employee retention, especially
Deloitte’s survey (2021) found that Generation Z’s loyalty is low compared with
Millennials or Generation Y. Gale (2015) also shared that unlike Generation Y that
entered the workforce in the middle of the recession, Generation Z is entering the
workforce during periods of intense demand services and technical expertise. Therefore,
Generation Z won’t be the same as Generation Y is less likely to job hop.

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Table 2.1

Comparison of Generations & Work

2.1.2 Generation Z in the future workforce


According to the research of Marsh & McLennan (2020), Millennials
and Generation Z come to make up most of the global workforce 72% by 2029. What
we can say here is that Generation Z will account for the majority of the workforce near
future. As this finding, current and future leaders are going to work closely with these
generations more in the near future. In other words, understanding characteristics of
Generation Z deeply is meaningful for future management.

2.2 Workplace Preference

According to Manpower Group Employment Outlook Survey (2021), 69%


of employer is facing difficulty in filling vacant positions. Due to the COVID-19 impact,
technology-related roles are estimated to be in high demand. Thus, the job requirement
has been changed. Meanwhile, there are not enough talents who obtain demanded skills.
In response to the difficult labor market, companies are required to consider the strategy
to attract talents. The results of this survey show that employers need to focus more on
talent acquisition in recent years. The step to take in focusing on talent acquisition is to
understand what job seekers are looking for and what they are looking at characteristics
in the company.

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In recent study by Hicklenton et al. (2021), they discovered three important


drivers of perceived organization attractiveness, which are the provision of positive
social environments, commitment to customer/social-being, and pro-environmental
responsibility. In different study, Valet et al (2021) researched preferences for job
characteristics in Germany and Netherlands, and reached some key findings. First,
above or slightly above average earnings increase the probability of choosing job offer.
Second, people are more likely to choose a job with permanent contract over contract.
Third, people prefer opportunities for further training over no training opportunity.
Forth, scheduling flexibility is important for the probability of choosing job offer.
Lastly, it is interesting that a very good company reputation is even more important
than high earning, training opportunities, or scheduling flexibility.
The survey focused on young employees who are the ages of 18 and 30
revealed that interesting work, good benefits, and chances for promotion are important
job characteristics in their research. In contrast, limited overtime, prestigious company,
and travel opportunities are less important for them (Chao & Gardner, 2008). The
research of Hamid (2020) showed that starting salary, employer reputation and working
environment are important factors affecting the job selection preference for the students
in Malaysia.
There are differences between younger and older persons’ job preference.
According to Rothe et al (2012), the employer has to understand the workplace
preference of different age groups because their research indicates that there are some
differences in the workplace preferences of different age groups such as concerning
personal services, the way of commutation, and supporting team work and innovation,
and so on. From these research results, it is clear that it is necessary to understand what
kind of workplace attracts people by generations, especially in this difficult situation of
hiring. There is the study to examine differences between young and senior employees
have been done. For instance, Kollmann et al. (2020)’s research on job satisfaction
between younger and older employees suggest that while younger employees tend to
be satisfied by monetary rewards, older employees were satisfied by their task
contributions. On the contrary, the task contributions are not so important for younger
employees, monetary reward does not contribute positively to older employees like
younger employees do. Furthermore, Renn et al. (2020)’s findings indicate the

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difference in the results between trainees who no job experience and established
professionals who has at least one year of job experience or was identified by the
question. Almost half of trainees answered that job location is the biggest factor when
pursuing the ideal job. However, setting-specific fit (specific elements of a job setting,
including type of setting and opportunities specific to the setting) is the most frequently
reported theme for selecting one’s first job for established professionals.
Regarding the job selection of Generation Z, Csiszárik-Kocsír & Garia-
Fodor (2018) revealed that the most important driver is a high salary, although the
others such as promotion opportunities and the promise of a good team, good
atmosphere are also important for Generation Z. Offering a high salary and a good
cafeteria, fringe benefits is not enough, as Generation Z is seeking for a company where
they can realize their dreams, where they can fulfil a great and successful career path,
and where they can work in a good team and atmosphere. Therefore, the employer
brand is becoming more important for Generation Z even though the salary is important,
however it is still not enough to retain members of the generation.
In conclusion, those studies revealed that salary is important but this is not
everything to select a workplace. Moreover, the age groups are one factor that the
results were differentiated between young (or student) and senior employees.

2.3 Outcomes of Engagement and Commitment

The studies about the association between workforce engagement and


business performance have concluded positive results by several researchers including
Harter & Mann (2017), and the article of Business Valuation Update (2019). Similarly,
there are positive results have been found between organizational commitment and
organizational performance by Sabir et al (2015). Then, the author additionally picked
up workplace preference as another element. Because Manpower Group indicated the
difficulty in fulfilling vacant positions in its survey (2021). Thus, these three elements
are essential for employers to maintain or improve their performance.

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2.3.1 Workforce Engagement


Workforce engagement is the aggregate of elements that people are
engaged when working hard, putting in effort, staying involved, showing up for work,
remaining focused on what they are doing, and striving to move their work ahead
(Schneider et al., 2017).
Schneider et al. (2017) found the relationship between workforce
engagement and the financial metrics which are ROA and net margin, and customer
metrics which are the data from The American Customer Satisfaction and The Harris
Reputation Quotient. Regarding workforce engagement, it is beneficial for an employer
because the research found that engaged workers are less turnover, able to improve
customer relationship and organic growth and more present and productive (Harter &
Mann, 2017). Moreover, there is the evidence, tangible impact to business returns and
shareholder value when company’s build high level of employee engagement (Business
Valuation Update, 2019). Several research could obtain positive results on the
relationship between workforce engagement and other items such as business
performance and organizational commitment.
2.3.2 Organizational Commitment
Meyer & Allen (1990) explained the organizational commitment by
three components. First component is affective commitment, that is the reflection of
psychological attachment to an organization. Second component is continuance
commitment, that is came from the cost associated with leaving an organization. Third
component is normative commitment, that is the relationship with other persons around
to feel an obligation to remain an organization.
Not only the workforce engagement but also the organizational
commitment, Sabir et al (2015) found that organizational commitment has positive
effect on organizational performance likewise. In addition to this research, Sungu et al
(2019) concluded that the affective organizational commitment affects job performance
positively. From a different perspective other than organizational performance, a
positive relationship between corporate citizenship and organizational commitment to
the company (Robbie & Roz, 2021). Based on the result of the research, it can be
considered that product quality and ethics are weakened by the decline of organizational
commitment. Organizational commitment is also related to the turnover rate, the time

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the company spends on its training, and hiring costs, so it has a big impact on the
management. Since the organizational commitment is important factor for the
corporation, many strategies have been made in order to improve the commitment.
Human resource practices and organizational characteristics that improve
organizational commitment are grievance resolution procedure, employee involvement,
and decentralization of decision making. However, human resource practices such as
employee training, hiring selectivity, benefits, incentive pay systems are not supported
in the research (Fiorito et al., 2007). Furthermore, human resources related measures
have been found to have statistically positive effort on firm performance (Becker &
Huselid, 1998).

2.4 ESG

When the contribution to the society which is one of the important work
values for Generation Z as previous review of the literatures, ESG would be considered
as one of corporate activity toward the society.

2.4.1 What ESG is


ESG stands for environmental, social, and governance. ESG is
considered as sustainability factors. ESG is used by investors to evaluate corporate
behavior and determine the future financial performance of companies. Johnson (2020)
summarized three groupings of factors which environmental, social and governance
criteria. Environmental criteria address how a company performs as a steward of the
natural environment that are air and water pollution, animal treatment, biodiversity,
climate change impacts/greenhouse gas emissions, deforestation, energy efficiency,
fracking, methane emissions, plastic and nuclear energy, sustainable land use, waste
management, and water scarcity. Social criteria examine how a company manages
relationships with its employees, suppliers, customers and communities where it
operates. The criteria are conflict zones, consumer privacy and data security, employee
relations, gender quality, health and safety, human rights, labor standards, modern-day
slavery, supply chain standards and working conditions. Lastly, Governance that means
a company’s leadership, executive pay, audits and internal controls and stakeholders

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rights are anticorruption and bribery, board independence, code of ethics, cybersecurity,
executive pay, gender balance, risk management, shareholder rights and tax
transparency. Similarly, Anevis Solutions summarized elements of each of ESG (Figure
2.2).

Figure 2.2 Elements of ESG


Source: Anevis ESG – Reporting Part I Basics

As of the second quarter of 2020, ESG investment funds account for


more than USD 250 billion. It is forecasted to grow at almost three times that of
traditional investments, comprising 50 percent of all managed investments by 2025.5
(Marotta, 2021). In recent years, there have been signs that ESG investment, and
integration of ESG is increasing. From this ESG trend, investment firms focus on
sustainability and longevity of their investments (Johnson, 2020). ESG best practices
has been become to be considered as one of the keys to successful business strategies
in the medium-to-long term perspective (Clementino & Perkins, 2020). Employers are
required to pay attention to ESG issues. Many of executives and investment
professional think that ESG creates short and long-term value (McKinsey, 2020). Firms
with high environmental and social scores enjoy higher earnings with lower risk than
firms with low environmental and social scores. ESG investing continues to receive
increasing attention, particularly for trustees and other fiduciaries of pensions, charities,
and personal trusts (Schanzenbach & Sitkoff, 2020).

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In Thailand for example, Indorama Ventures has issued Thailand’s


first and largest sustainability-linked bond in November, 2021 in order to achieve its
ESG goal. The interest that the company pays the its investors will be increased if the
company cannot achieve the target. On the other hand, the interest will be decreased if
the company can achieve the target. Moreover, DJSI selected a total of 25 companies
from Thailand which is the most in Southeast Asia in 2021. According to NNA’s news
article (2021), Delta Electronics Thailand is aiming to expand its business and strength
its sustainability by building the sustainable business model that the company
prioritizes especially climate change. Central Pattana which is the only a company from
reals estate industry selected as DJSI companies has committed to provide better
services for sustainable future. Minor International, a major hotel and restaurant
management company announced in November, 2021 that it has entered into an interest
rate swap transaction with Siam Commercial Bank, which is linked to ESG related
initiatives. Similarly, Thai Union Group. The largest fisheries company raised the
Sustainable Linked Loan (SLL) which links borrowing conditions such as interest rates
to the achievement of sustainable targets.
Table 2.2

DJSI - The number of Companies


DJSI World DJSI Emerging
No. of No. of
Rank Country/Region Rank Country/Region
Companies Companies
1 USA 59 1 Taiwan 26
2 Japan 35 2 Thailand 25
3 Taiwan 23 3 India 15
3 UK 23 4 Brazil 10
5 South Korea 21 5 Chile 7
8 Thailand 13 6 Columbia 6
13 India 5 7 Mexico 4
14 Singapore 3 7 South Africa 4
16 Malaysia 1 9 Malaysia 3
16 China 1 9 China 3
16 Hong Kong 1 11 Philippines 1
Total 322 Total 108
Source: The Daily NNA (2021). The author edited.

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2.4.2 Example of company’s approach for ESG


On a global scale, one of the leading ESG companies is NVIDIA,
which has earned ESG rating AAA by MSCI. MSCI is a finance company and serving
as a global provider of equity, fixed income, hedge fund stock market indexes, multi-
asset portfolio analysis tools and ESG products. According to NVIDIA 2020 CSR
Report, NVIDIA is controlling environmental impacts by using a comprehensive
environmental management system (EMS) through ISO 14001. The goals of
environmental objectives include greenhouse gas reduction, electricity use from
renewable energy, waste-to-landfill diversion and implementation of energy
management system, certified to ISO 50001. As a part of society, NVIDIA is requiring
all of its suppliers to comply with CSR Directive, and policies related to human rights.
Likewise, the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights, the ILO
Declaration on Fundamental Principles and Rights at Work, and UN Universal
Declaration of Human Rights are applied to its labor. Furthermore, recent efforts of the
company include maintaining employee health and safety through COVID-19 measure.
There are initiatives that corresponds to governance of ESG to strengthen board
governance, compliance, ethical conduct, and transparency. For instance, the company
assigns independent directors to have flexibility and transparency in their decisions,
provide data about the performance of environmental, social and governance with firms
such as Bloomberg, CDP, ISS, JUST Companies, MSCI, RobecoSAM, and
Sustainalytics.
In Thailand, The Stock Exchange of Thailand picked up some of
companies in the presentation of ESG & Responsible Investing in Thailand. For
instance, Pranda Group, Thai Union, PTT Global Chemical, and Eastwater Group. The
actions taken by them include hiring disabled people, applying legal regulations and
international standards to ensure responsible sourcing and fair labor practices, and
cleaning the ocean and water.

2.5 Further research on Generation and ESG

Cennamo (2005) suggested that organizations should be able to meet the


needs of diverse employees of different ages based on their work values, because it

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provides positive outcomes in job satisfaction and organizational commitment. In other


research, Rajput et al (2019) suggest appropriate styles of leadership should be adopted
by for each generation in order to increase job satisfaction, this is because generations
have differences in work values, work motivators and leadership style. Thus, it is worth
studying generations deeper for the organization performance. As Generation Z is more
interested in society (Agarwal & Vaghela, 2018), it can be expected that activities of
the companies toward ESG would have some impact. While the results of previous
studies show that ESG has attracted attention from companies and investors in terms of
investment, profits and risks, there is not much available research on the influence on
employees. Therefore, the author explores in this study, how ESG influences on
generation Z, especially in terms of workplace preference which will be needed to
acquire and retain talents in the future.

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CHAPTER 3
RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

3.1 Research Design

Studies on the relationship between ESG and firm value has been widely
conducted. For instance, one of the studies concluded that ESG and firm value have
positive relationship (Schanzenbach & Sitkoff, 2020). Studies on Generations Z also
have been done widely, however, these studies haven’t mentioned to ESG specifically
with generations. Moreover, there are not many studies about the influence of ESG on
employees that is from employees’ point of view. Thus, the author focused on seeking
the relationship between ESG and employees, especially organizational commitment,
workforce engagement and workplace preference.

3.2 Research Questions

As prior studies revealed in the literature review, generations are important


factor to understand their work attitude and value. Many of researches have resulted the
work attitude and value affect companies’ performance. Generation Z, especially is
worth researching because this generation will be the main workforce near future. In
this research, the author looked into ESG that is estimated to be paid more attention, to
see its influence on Generation Z. Therefore, the author selected research questions as
follows.

1. Does ESG affect positively Generation Z when they select the


workplace?
2. Which factors of ESG is the most important for Generation Z?

The first question is to see how each factor influences on Generation Z. The
relevant interview questions to this research question also allow us to understand
Generation Z well. The second question to reveal which of ESG is important for the

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company or the manager to consider the most when having Generation Z as its
employees. Findings from these questions should be hints for future management.

3.3 Research Methodology

According to Shoshanna’s study, the qualitative research method is


valuable in providing complexed information and phenomena (Sofaer, 1999). Since the
respondents have different background, the author assumed that all of respondents do
not have same depth in understanding on ESG. Of course, some of the interviewees
may not know about ESG well, hence the author explained ESG if needed, and asked
questions to receive answers with their understanding on ESG. This methodology also
allows us to ask “why” and “how” so that it enable to know more the behind of each
answer from the respondents, and finally carry out accurate research. Imafuku (2021)
explains an importance in the qualitative research. The importance here is the
qualitative research can obtain not only observable behaviors and facts, but also the
internal emotion that can be feelings, perceptions, beliefs, values, identities, social
relationship, and processes deeply. This is why the qualitative research could be
considered as a proper methodology, and the author selected it in this study.
In order to carry out the qualitative research, the author prepared for the
interview by referring to COREQ (Tong et al., 2007) before conducting the interviews.
The author mainly learned from COREQ, how to interview, points to note during the
interview, and how to report the results.

3.4 Data Collection

The author prepared for two steps for data collection. The data collection
was started from online survey and then the author conducted one-on-one semi-
structured interview.
The target respondents here were university students or professionals
with a few years of work experience of age between 20 to 26 years old in Thailand.
Although there are some limitations in this research, the prior research found that
educational qualifications influence employee’s job performance (Ishola, 2018). Thus,

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the educational background was included in the conditions. University graduates that
were selected in this research because they tend to have higher job performance and
greater impact on a company in the future.

3.4.1 Online Questionnaire


For the first step, by using Google Form and SurveyMonkey, the
author asked the respondents to answer a total of 33 questions which are formed with
the questions of demographic, preference for a workplace and ESG. The questions were
designed to understand which of factors is important for job selection. They were also
designed by basing on the prior studies of Bundy & Norris (1992), Chao & Gardener
(2008) and McGraw et al. (2012). In addition to these questions, the author added two
questions to see how people recognize social impact of a company business and
sustainable business model (Table 3.1). Another question to research the most
important factor of ESG, the author cited the factors from Anevis ESG reporting and
Johnson (2020) (Table 3.2). The respondents were asked to rank each question by
selecting a five-point likert scale that contains a rating of 5 corresponded to “extremely
important” to a rating of 1 corresponded to “not important at all”.
Table 3.1

Online questionnaire - Preference for a workplace

Question
Category "How important each factor is to you in your job Reference
selection?"

Chao, G., T., Gardener, P.,


Security Job security
D. (2008)
Social impact of a company's
Social
business
Social Opportunity to help others Bundy, P., Norris, D. (1992)
Business Sustainable business model
McGraw, K., Popp, J. S.,
Having enough time for
Work life Dixon, B. L., Newton, D. J.
family/child/elder care.
(2012)
Leadership Personalities of supervisors Bundy, P., Norris, D. (1992)
McGraw, K., Popp, J. S.,
Work
Support from colleagues Dixon, B. L., Newton, D. J.
environment
(2012)

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Question
Category "How important each factor is to you in your job Reference
selection?"

McGraw, K., Popp, J. S.,


Opportunities for professional
Advancement Dixon, B. L., Newton, D. J.
advancement
(2012)
McGraw, K., Popp, J. S.,
Salary Good salary Dixon, B. L., Newton, D. J.
(2012)
McGraw, K., Popp, J. S.,
Location Desirable location Dixon, B. L., Newton, D. J.
(2012)
Chao, G., T., Gardener, P.,
Benefit Good benefit (health insurance, etc.)
D. (2008)
Reputation Prestige or reputation of a company Bundy, P., Norris, D. (1992)
Chao, G., T., Gardener, P.,
Flexibility Flexible work schedule
D. (2008)

Table 3.2

Online questionnaire - ESG


Category Factors Reference
Climate change strategy Anevis ESG Reporting
Biodiversity Anevis ESG Reporting
Environmental Water efficiency Anevis ESG Reporting
Carbon intensity Anevis ESG Reporting
Environmental management system Anevis ESG Reporting
Equal opportunities Anevis ESG Reporting
Freedom of association Anevis ESG Reporting
Health and safety Anevis ESG Reporting
Social
Human rights Anevis ESG Reporting
Customer & product responsibility Anevis ESG Reporting
Child labour Anevis ESG Reporting
Business ethics Anevis ESG Reporting
Compliance Anevis ESG Reporting
Executive Pay Johnson 2020
Governance
Shareholder democracy Anevis ESG Reporting
Gender balance Johnson 2020
Risk management Johnson 2020

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3.4.2 Semi-structured Interview


For the second step, the author conducted the one-on-one semi-
structured interviews by both face to face and online. The objective of the interviews is
to understand thoughts and insights into ESG and workplace preference in depth from
Generation Z’s point of view. The interviews were conducted around 30 minutes. The
interviews were recorded after receiving their permission from the participants. The
author sometimes had follow-up interview for one respondent in order to ask additional
questions to find association with the answers from the other participants.
A total of 7 persons contributed to the interviews for this research.
The respondents were selected by the connection of the author and snowball sampling.
Some of the participants voluntary joined the interview after answering the online
survey in the first step of the data collection.
The interviews were conducted as follows. Firstly, the author
explained the background and the objective of this research, and non-disclosure of the
interview at the beginning of the interview. The participants were also asked to answer
from employee’s or job seeker’s point of view in order that the participants do not
deviate from the intention of this research. The participants basically answered prepared
questions (Appendix A), and the author asked related questions in depth as needed.
The interview questions were designed based on the research
objective. For the questions to measure workplace preference, the questions were
designed based on Hicklenton et al. (2021)’s research. The questions were yet modified
partially according to the objective of this study and gain the respondents’
understanding deeper. The author prepared the questions to understand what
Generation Z considers when they select their workplace, how ESG is important for
Generation Z, which of Environmental, Social, or Governance is the most important for
Generation Z, what Generation Z expects from the company, and what background or
experience affects their way of thinking.

3.5 Data Analysis

This study applied qualitative research design by using SCAT: Steps for
Coding and Theorization (Otani, 2007). SCAT was developed by Otani, it analyzes a

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relatively small scale qualitative data and finds some potential meaning from the data.
The method of SCAT has basically four steps. Firstly, the analyst reads text and find
focused phrase. Focused phrase can be study related word, wondered word, or not-
understandable word. Secondly, the analyst rephrases from the word found in the first
step to different word from the text. Thirdly, the analyst finds a concept, word or
combination of words to explain the phrase found in the second step. Lastly, the analyst
creates the construct which can represent step one to step three. The analyst takes these
steps to describe a storyline and theory. This method, SCAT is appropriate for this study
because SCAT has been applied to many types of the research (Otani, 2011). In fact,
the results of researchers using this method have been published. One of the researches,
Tanaka et al (2017) applied SCAT for study about externalization and transformation
in the process of learning the piano. Tokuma (2020) applied SCAT for the study about
attitudes toward learning Japanese language. The research on SCAT also has been
conducted. Ueda et al (2017) shared the advantage of SCAT after the research by using
SCAT, that it is useful for not only beginner of the qualitative research but also
interaction of researchers in collaborative work.

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CHAPTER 4
RESULTS AND DISCUSSION

The author conducted the online questionnaire before the semi-structured


interviews. The questionnaire gave a rough understanding on what Generation Z values
when they select their workplace and how they see elements of ESG. In addition to the
online survey, the author found some correlation between respondents through the
semi-structured interviews.

4.1 The result of Online Questionnaire

A total of 50 persons who are age between 19 years old to 26 years old
participated the online questionnaire. 22% of the respondents were from male and 78%
of from female. The online questionnaire is basically separated two parts, one is asking
about preference for a workplace, and another one is about how the respondents value
each of ESG.

4.1.1 Preference for a Workplace (Online Questionnaire)


The respondents ranked each question by selecting a five-point likert
scale that contains a rating of 5 corresponded to “extremely important” to a rating of 1
corresponded to “not important at all”. Thus, the scores on the right side on the table
indicate average scores, minimum score of 1 and maximum 5.
Table 4.1 indicated the result of preference for a workplace. The
results of this questionnaire show that “Good salary” is what Generation Z values most
when they choose a workplace. The closed to the highest score of 4,14, Good salary
was “Support from colleagues”. The third most important was “Job security”. On the
contrary, “Opportunity to help others” was the least important factor among these
factors for Generation Z when choosing an occupation. “Flexible work schedule”,
which has been seen in many cases in recent years, was found to be not so important in
choosing an occupation. The third least factor was “Social impact of a company's
business”, indicating that Generation Z does not necessarily consider it important
whether or not a company is doing business that impacts on the society. The study by

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Valet et al. (2021) found that above average salary and permanent employment are most
important factors in occupational choice in Germany and Netherlands. These points in
Thailand are also proved by this study, as “Good salary” and “Job security” are ranked
highly. Considering the reason why “Job security” was the second highest, it is possible
that the unemployment rate rose dramatically under the effect of COVID-19. According
to Bank of Thailand, the lowest unemployment rate between 2015 and 2019 was 0.88%
in 2015 and the highest was 1.18% in 2017. However, in 2020, when COVID-19
pandemic has begun, the unemployment rate was much higher at 1.69%. In these
economically impacted years, it tends to be more difficult to find a job, especially for
new graduates, therefore “Job security” may be a major concern for the younger
generation. Although it was not the highest score, it is interesting to note that “Support
from colleagues” and “Personalities of supervisors” were ranked second and forth,
indicating that the respondents place importance on relationships with colleagues and
supervisors they work with in the company. In other words, Generation Z is carefully
looking at the work environment, especially the kind of people they will work with
before they join the company. While “Good salary” was first priority for Generation Z,
“Good benefit (health insurance, etc.)” was the eighth most important result, indicating
that many people strongly desire remuneration in money. This can be predicted that the
young generation in particular like Generation Z, because of their young age, they find
it difficult to earn large monthly salary, and are more interested in monetary rewards.
One of possible example for this are to pay for loans when they need to buy an
expensive phone or a car. In fact, in my work experience of working in the recruitment
field for more than 6 years, the author has encountered many candidates who prefer to
be hired on a better monthly salary basis rather than on a better annual salary basis
including bonuses. Regarding the scores of “Sustainable business model” and “Social
impact of a company’s business”, which can be relatively strongly related to ESG, they
did not obtain the scores as highly, ranking ninth and eleventh out of 13 factors
respectively. Other findings from the questionnaire include the low scores for
“Sustainable business model” and “Social impact of a company’s business model”,
indicating that the type of business of the company to work for is not so important to
Generation Z in terms of their interests and preferences. Therefore, it is unlikely that
the company’s business will be an obstacle when Generation Z chooses a company to

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work for. In addition, as Chao & Gardner (2008) concluded that “Prestigious company”
is not important in occupational choice, the same result was obtained in this study as
“Prestige or reputation of a company” was ranked in tenth out of 13 factors. Lastly,
“Opportunity to help others” got the lowest score which contradicts the finding
(Kirchmayer, 2018), that “Help others” is an important value for Generation Z.
However, since Krichmayer’s study was conducted in Slovakia and this study was
conducted in Thailand, it is possible that geographical differences may have caused
differences in the results even the studies focused the same generation.

Table 4.1

The results of preference for a workplace


Rank Factors Score
1 Good salary 4.14
2 Support from colleagues 4.08
3 Job security 4.05
4 Personalities of supervisors 4.02
5 Opportunities for professional advancement 3.97
6 Having enough time for family/child/elder care. 3.97
7 Desirable location 3.96
8 Good benefit (health insurance, etc.) 3.95
9 Sustainable business model 3.89
10 Prestige or reputation of a company 3.80
11 Social impact of a company's business 3.73
12 Flexible work schedule 3.69
13 Opportunity to help others 3.64

4.1.2 Impression of ESG


Similar to the question on preference for a workplace, the author
prepared questions to find out how Generation Z thinks about ESG on a five-point scale.
For each of the Environmental, Social and Governance of ESG, the respondents were
asked to evaluate more specific initiatives of ESG. It might give the respondents an
image of ESG by showing specific initiatives of ESG. In addition, the author complied
the scores for each specific initiative and calculated the average scores. This shows
which of Environmental, Social and Governance is the most important to Generation Z.

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The results of impression of ESG from Generation Z are indicated as


below (Table 4.2). The highest score among Environmental, Social and Governance
was Governance, followed by Social, and finally Environmental. Similar result was
obtained in this study, as Agarwal & Vaghela (2018) described that Generation Z is
sensitive to “Society”. Surprisingly, the score of Environmental was low compared to
the other, Social and Governance scores. This means that Generation Z is not really
caring about company’s action toward environmental issues when they consider where
they will work in the future. For Social, almost all of the specific initiatives got scored
of 4.0 or higher, it indicates that Generation Z highly evaluate Social factor.
As we looked into each Environmental, Social and Governance in
detail, there are some new findings. Firstly, air like “Carbon intensity”, and climate or
weather like “Climate change strategy” scored relatively high among the other
environmental initiatives. On the other hand, those that are less directly related to
humans like “Biodiversity” got the lowest score in this section.
Secondly, what we can read from the results on Social shows that
“Human rights” are highly valued by Generation Z. In addition, “Child labour” received
the lowest score among Social, which got the highest score over the other two factors,
however “Child labour” still exceeded the score of “Carbon intensity”, which got the
highest score for Environmental. This is clear that Social is much more important for
Generation Z compared with Environmental. Third highest which is “Customer &
product responsibility” had the relatively high score compared to the others, it can be
considered that Generation Z values “Having a meaningful job” like Krichmayer’s
study (2018). “Human rights”, “Freedom of association” and “Equal opportunities”
scored high when compared to other Environmental and Governance factors. The
results show that Generation Z is looking for a meaningful existence in the workplace
and a work environment with equal opportunities, so that it is important for the
company to assure and show these related initiatives.
Thirdly, regarding Governance, as Generation Z emphasizes
“Customer & product responsibility” and expects meaningful job, they rated “Business
ethics” the highest within Governance factor. “Gender balance” will be discussed in
detail in the next step, the semi-structured interview, to find out what exactly
Generation Z is focusing on, however they seem to be sensitive about genders. Third

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highest within Governance, “Risk management” can be considered in relation to “Job


security” which had the third highest rating in the previous question. This is because if
the company is not aware of the risks, it may not be able to respond quickly enough to
unexpected events, which may affect their own employment. Since the target of this
study is the younger generation, university students or those who have just graduated
from university, “Shareholder democracy” and “Executive pay” are considered to be
lower in the ranking because it is not something that will affect the younger generation
immediately after joining the company.

Table 4.2

The results of impression of ESG


Rank Environmental Score Average Score
1 Carbon intensity 3.83
2 Environmental management system 3.66
3 Climate change strategy 3.63 3.59
4 Water efficiency 3.48
5 Biodiversity 3.34
Rank Social Score Average Score
1 Human rights 4.44
2 Freedom of association 4.35
3 Customer & product responsibility 4.32
4.23
4 Health and safety 4.26
5 Equal opportunities 4.09
6 Child labour 3.95
Rank Governance Score Average Score
1 Business ethics 4.27
2 Gender balance 4.17
3 Risk management 4.12
4.00
4 Compliance 3.97
5 Shareholder democracy 3.77
6 Executive pay 3.68

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4.2 The result of Semi-structured Interview

In Chapter 4.1, the author conducted the online questionnaire to get a big
picture of what Generation Z considers important in selecting their workplace and how
they think about ESG from job seeker’s point of view. Based on the results of Chapter
4.1, the author conducted semi-structured interviews to find out why Generation Z
places importance on certain things when they select a workplace, and how they came
to this way of thinking. The interviews were conducted by asking the participants based
on the questions prepared in advance (Appendix A). Since this was the semi-structured
interview, the author did not ask the prepared questions but also added some questions
flexibly depending on the respondent’s answers during the interview. Basically, as
shown in Figure 4.1, the interviews were conducted to find Generation Z’s thinking,
what they consider when selecting a workplace, and what exactly it is. After the
interviews, the author applied the analysis method of SCAT (Otani, 2007; Otani, 2011)
to analyze the responses from each participant. The results are summarized in this
chapter.

Figure 4.1 Interview concept

A total of 7 persons (P1 to P7) participated the semi-structured interviews


(Table 4.3). The age of the participants ranged from 21 to 26 years old, and the gender
balance was 43% male and 57% female. Each of them is a university student or a
university graduate, but not all them studies at the same university, nor they have
different majors. All of participants for semi-structured interviews were Generation Z,
and the participants included those who are currently studying in university, those who
are looking for a job after the graduation of university, and those who have a few years

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of professional experience after the graduation of university. The interviews were


conducted in English which is not native language for both the author and the
participants.
Due to the restriction caused by COVID-19, some of participants were
interviewed by using online meeting tool such as Zoom or Google Meet. However,
some of them were interviewed at the restaurant or café to build a rapport. Thus, while
the main questions were asked around 30 minutes per person, some interviews took
from one to two hours including ice breaking and other conversations. There was
important information to be collected from conversations outside of the main questions
as well.

Table 4.3

List of Participants
Participant Gender Age Occupation Major in University
P1 Male 21 University 4th year Finance
P2 Female 23 Fresh graduate History
P3 Male 25 Business owner Psychology
P4 Female 22 Fresh graduate History
P5 Female 25 Finance officer Accounting
P6 Female 26 Medical staff Public health
P7 Male 21 University 4th year Marketing

4.2.1 Preference for a Workplace (Semi-structured Interview)


The author did not talk about ESG related contents in the first half of
the interview, however simply asked questions about what kind of workplace
participants want to work and what they value in a company.
The author could have a variety of answers through the interviews,
however it found that many of participants are looking for “experience” and “learning
opportunities” in the workplace. The author found some interesting findings when the
author asked deeply about the reasons for that and what they want to do next after
having the answer for first question. Many of the reasons for experience and learning

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opportunities are aimed at earning more salary. Thus, they understand that they need to
have good experiences in the workplaces and opportunities for their growth such as
acquiring new skills and further developing their own strength in order to earn money.
Then, they plan to spend money for the life they want to have and for their families.
Some of them prefer to utilize their experience and skills for helping others. A common
thing from these responses is that they are willing to get paid more or experience
through their work and share what they have gained not only for themselves, but also
for others. Earning money is not a surprise as the result obtained in Chapter 4.1.
However, the interviews were conducted deeply to understand after earning money, the
objective is close to “Help others” which is the lowest score in Chapter 4.1.
There are some important comments from the participants through
interviews as below. These comments are related to the results that the author stated
earlier.

[P2] “I would like to have enough money to survive myself and take
care of my family. I don't want to disturb anyone when I do whatever
I want. So, when I think of earning money more, reputation of the
company is probably important in my opinion. I believe that it is
easier to grow up in a large company having reputation than a small
company. The experience I can have there will affect my next job
too.”

[P3] “Money is very important. I want to work in the industry that


I am interested in, and work there and earn money by utilizing
specific skill that I want to acquire. In order to earn money more, I
really want to improve my skill. Of course, I will share it with my
family too”

[P4] “Work location and salary are important to me when I select my


workplace. After earning money through my job, I want to invest in
something that I can earn money more. I would like to buy something

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that makes my life better such as car. Apart from the investment, I
will share some with my family.”

[P5] “I am energized by a workplace where I can have better salary


and bonus than the others.”

[P7] “It does not matter industry. I think balance between job
description, compensation, workplace environment, and what I can
learn.”

This is evident that most of respondents prioritize salary when the


they were asked about what they value when choosing their workplaces.
Regarding “learning opportunity”, P7 clearly answered that what he
can learn is one of the important factors. Not only that but also P7 stated that job
description is the most important factor, however it was revealed through the interview
that he thinks that it is necessary to gain certain experiences for the future growth. In
the case of P7, P7 believes that the sales person is the frontline of business and one of
the most important job positions. On the other hand, the contents of classes in university,
they were always from the aspect of top management. This is why P7 is focusing on
the job description to work more in frontline at an early time. Also, there was another
comment from P4. P4 is looking for an opportunity to utilize own strength in a
workplace, and improve that skill for next job. The importance of learning opportunity
was found here is similar to the finding by Bundy & Norris (1992) who also found
“continuing professional development” is relatively important in the job selection.

[P4] “Moreover, when I found myself that I am good at specific skill,


I start thinking that I want to improve this skill for next job.”

[P7] “This is for learning. I think I don't continue.”


(answer for “Do you continue sales position for a long period of
time?”)

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Furthermore, what they prefer to spend earned money is not only for
themselves but also family. P2, P3 and P4 have plans to share earned money with their
family. This point was also found by the response from P1, that although target is not
specifically family, P1 want to help others.

[P1] “I want to help others. If I want to accomplish something, I want


to elevate others into famous or better.”

Moreover, the answer from P5 should be noted. Because P5 spoke


“energized by a workplace”. Schneider (2017) used this phrase “I feel energized by my
job” to measure workforce commitment, so that even though the purpose of this study
is to find important factors in choosing a company to work for, it is possible that it may
have a positive impact on commitment if a company has the elements that job seekers
or employees are looking for. It is clear that it is important to capture what these job
seekers and employees are thinking of workplaces.
Although there was no correlation among the participants, some
participants, P4 and P6 are concerned about the location of a workplace. As mentioned
earlier, many of respondents are thinking about supporting their family in the future, it
is not unnatural that the result shows that living with family is one of the most important
factors for them. In addition, “Desirable location” was found to be the seventh
important in the online questionnaire. The fact that “Desirable location” was not a high
score in the ranking did not mean that all the participants answered the same answer in
the interviews. Therefore, the percentage of participants who answered in the interviews
that work location is important should be reasonable.

[P4] “When I was a university student, it was hard to commute


between my home to university. It took around 2 hours to commute
the university from my home. Therefore, I would prefer to work
around my home.”

[P6] “One of the reasons why I decided to join this workplace is that
workplace is close to my home.”

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4.2.2 Influence of ESG on Selecting a Workplace


In the second half of the interview, the author asked about ESG,
focusing on what the respondents’ thoughts on ESG are and what is the most important
to them in particular.
Six out of seven participants answered the simplest question about
ESG “Does corporate action toward ESG influence you in your career choice?”, that it
does influence on their choice. This result simply proves that companies that committed
to ESG activities have a positive influence on Generation Z’ career choices.
The author also asked the reason of the answers for this question and
what of ESG they value. This was to gain deeper understanding of the respondents’
thought. In fact, the following responses were obtained.

[P1] “I believe that strong governance might be necessary.


Strong board members will keep the employees in the line. That
means firm survivability at least.”

[P2] “Aspects of ESG are very important. Because I think that ESG
is a basis of the company that they must have. Without strong
commitment related with ESG, I cannot see any achievement of the
company. I would care about Social and Governance. My priority is
fairness.”

[P3] “If a company has strong commitment to Social, there should


have equal opportunities for employees. It motivates me to work
harder. I would also understand my and others results if it is the
results under equal opportunity. I think people in those companies
have Social things could listen to my idea too. Instead, I don't care
Environmental at all.”

[P4] “Social factor is important. Because I will resign if there is no


work life balance and fair opportunity. Thus, Social factor is very
important for me to select my workplace.”

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36

[P5] “Because I prefer to have equal opportunity for everyone in a


workplace. I also want to work in a stable company, a strong
governance should have no fraud so that it should be stable.”

[P7] “Governance would be the most important factor that affects me.
The company should be transparent, should not be corrupted.
Environmental is still important but Environmental factor does not
affect us so much. It is not related to me.”

An interesting finding from this question is that many participants


prioritize Social and Governance, or one of them. In addition to this question, the author
also asked “which of ESG do you think the most important?”. Although most of the
participants were aware of the importance of ESG, it turned out that none of them talked
about the importance of the Environment. This is contrary to the “Gen Z, Millennials
more active than older generations addressing climate change” of the Pew Research
Center (2021), although this study did not examine generational differences in this
regard. It is clear that P3 and P7 think that Environmental aspect is too big topic when
it comes to career choice. While P7 responded that Environmental have nothing to do
with own career choice, he also said that environmental issues are important to him. P3
gave his opinion on environmental factor and business.

[P3] “Environmental factor does not affect me or business much even


though the company does not care Environmental factor.”

Another finding is that behind their emphasis on Social and


Governance, they have a strong desire for job security and equal opportunities. For
example, job security can be seen by analyzing the texts of the conversations. The
author abstracted P1’s “That means firm survivability at least”, and P5’s “I also want
to work in a stable company, a strong governance should have no fraud so that it should
be stable.” Regarding fair opportunities, P2’s “My priority is fair or not”, P3’s “There
should have equal opportunities for employees. It motivates me to work harder”, P4’s
strongly “I will resign if there is no work life balance and fair opportunity”, and P5’s “I

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prefer to have equal opportunity for everyone in a workplace” were abstracted from the
statements to analyze. A deeper reading those texts by using the method of SCAT
indicates that they expect job security and equal opportunities from corporate action on
ESG. While ESG has a strong meaning for investors (Johnson, 2020), it actually has
meaning for job seekers and employees as well.
On the other hand, only P6 did not answer yes for the question of
“Does corporate action toward ESG influence you in your career choice?”. Later, when
the author asked P6 more about it, the author finally found out that the major in
university and the characteristics of the current workplace had a great impact on P6’s
opinion. One of the reasons behind this opinion from P6 is that hospitals need to follow
strict regulations set by the government, and they need to take care of the health of
patients, so hospitals generally keep high standard of all of Environmental, Social and
Governance aspects. The author made this analysis based on the following statement.

[P6] “I think hospitals must have good standard. So, I don't


look into ESG aspects. Of course, everywhere must think something
related to ESG.

In addition, based on the following statement, P6 had majored public


health in university and had some ideas of what she would do after graduation since
early time. Therefore, P6 understood that the career path would be settled before the
graduation rather than considering other options in depths as the other participants do.

[P6] “I want to work in a hospital because it matches with what I


studied in university. I studied health care so I have only this way of
career.”

Further interviews revealed what is influencing their career choices


and their attitudes toward where they want to work. In general, what we can see from
the responses is that their past experiences are greatly reflected in their thinking.
Experiences here include not only what the participants experienced themselves, but
also the experiences of the others who they know such as families and friends. Although

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past experiences of each individual differed, commonalities were found among


individuals. However, in the case of P1, the past good experience influenced his
thinking.

[P1] “Since my young time, I am good at math. I feel happiness when


I can help the others to solve the problems. That's why I want to help
others by my job”

On the other hands, the other respondents indicated that their


thoughts were influenced that were bad for them or people around them, not by good
experiences.

[P2] “My friend was treated unequally in the workplace because of


the gender. I cannot accept this kind of issues in the workplace. I have
more story. Due to the COVID-19, my family's business has been
facing difficulty. It actually affects not only my family but also the
others. However, I think that there is not enough support from the
government to improve this situation.”

[P3] “When I was scolded by my parents, I could know at that time


that I cannot live without the support from my parents. I also felt that
parents are in an advantageous position compared with a child. This
makes me think the necessity of equality.”

[P4] “My experience in first work place where I had spent my time
for a month, working hours there were much longer than I heard
before I joined. In real, I had no holiday, worked till late night. It
made me think of work life balance. It should have transparency for
job applicants.”

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[P5] “It is not direct experience but a sister of my friend was fired
due to COVID-19 situation. So, working in a stable company is low
risk for me even though this COVID-19 situation.”

P2 saw the inequality situation that the friend experienced, so that P2


felt not want to put herself in such an environment. Furthermore, P2 feels that the
government’s action to business which is affected strongly by economic recession is
not fair enough. P3 wants to live in a way does not repeat the painful experiences that
he experienced in the past. P4 is based on own actual work experience in a short period.
P4 was disappointed by the difference between prior information and the facts, which
led P4 to feel unequal about it and to demand transparency. P5 came up with this idea
not from own experience, but the experience of the other. P5 tries to avoid negative
effects of COVID-19 after considering that story. The finding here is that their own
experience as well as those of others and external factors, especially negative
experience such as economic circumstances influence their thinking. Similarly, Ueichi
& Kusumi (2000) found that negative feeling strongly affects a decision making process.
Therefore, my research obtained the similar result with his research. As Johnson &
Johnson (2010) stated about generations that common experiences influence their
attitudes and ways of thinking, similar result that at least the experience from the impact
of COVID-19 was found in the interviews.
For other findings, slightly different from the answers from the other
participants, P6 is dissatisfied with the current workplace and would consider a better
one if the situation could be changed.

[P6] “At this time, the hospital does not care about the health of its
employees. It seems that they don't care if they work more than the
wages they actually have to pay.”

P6 was the only participant who did not feel the importance of ESG
in earlier questions, however this comment from P6 indicates that P6 desires “Health
and safety” which is one of aspects of ESG.

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There is another finding about Social. Four out of seven participants


answered Social is important factor within ESG. Many of the participants who valued
Social want equal opportunities. P2 and P3 who said they value Social desire freedom
of thinking and opinion.

[P2] Diversity of thinking is important. Because I experienced that


recruiter asked me about my political view. My thought on the
politics does not affect my work performance.

[P3] I think that people in those companies commit to Social things


could listen to my idea.

Thus, most of people who value Social ask equal opportunities and
freedom of thinking, although there are several initiatives within Social.
In addition to those, there are a few other findings. One of them is
related to learning opportunity. One of the reasons why the participants wanted to
develop some skills or gain some experience is to prepare for their next career. In other
words, it can be seen that the respondents are assuming that they will not work for long
in their current or future workplace at the moment. They also assume that they will
change jobs in their career development.
Lastly at the end of this chapter, it is necessary to mention to the
relationship between the results of online questionnaire and the interviews. According
to the results obtained from the online questionnaire, “Sustainable business model” was
ranked 9th and “Social impact of a company’s business ranked 11th. On the other hand,
what the author found through the interviews is that Social and Governance are
important for them in choosing a workplace. This seems like a contradict result between
them, however the interviews revealed the following finding. From the online
questionnaire, they envisaged the business as more of a company level and did not
consider the impact on individuals. On the contrary, the interviews revealed that equal
opportunity, freedom of thinking, transparency and training opportunity are important.
The relevance here is that the aspects of ESG, particularly as it affects individuals is

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important to Generation Z. Therefore, Generation Z can be seen as being more


individualistic.

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CHAPTER 5
CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS

5.1 Conclusion

The study revealed whether Generation Z values ESG when they select
their workplace and what they value in particular from each Environmental, Social, and
Governance. Furthermore, the author was able to get into the background of their
thought on what influenced their thinking. The background research could provide us
valuable information that we could not obtain through an online questionnaire. The
figure 5.1 indicates an overview of the results of this study.

Figure 5.1 Overview of the results of this study

The first phase of the research, the online questionnaire indicates that
Generation Z considers salary as the most important factor when they select their
workplace. In addition to salary, job security was also listed as one of the most
important factors. These points overlapped with the research of Valet et al (2021). On
the hand, this study found that helping others was relatively unimportant, although
Generation Z emphasize helping others in a previous study (Agarwal & Vaghela, 2018).
Even in second phase of the research, semi-structured interview, only one out of seven

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participants answered helping others is important. Thinking from a different


perspective, the interviews provided an insight that supporting family after earning
money is the thing they want to do. This point could be considered to be related to
helping others. However, the author could not find any strong evidence on it. In the
online questionnaire, “Opportunities for professional advancement” which is related to
career was fifth highest out of thirteen items. While the result of the research on helping
others were opposite, the high level of awareness of society was common result
between this study and the study of Agarwal & Vaghela (2018).
In the interviews, some participants are career oriented, and aim at specific
professional experience or skill development. For some participants, it was apparent
that they are thinking about career development based on the premise of job hop even
before they join a company. This result is similar to the conclusions of Deloitte’s survey
(2021) and Gales’ study (2015).
Regarding ESG, even in the environmental factor with the lowest score of
3.59 between the other Social and Governance, the result of the online questionnaire
indicates that ESG can be an important factor for Generation Z. The author could ask
the participants in depth through the interviews, and found that almost all but one
participant was aware of the importance of ESG. The importance of ESG is evident that
ESG is the most important factor when selecting a workplace for some participants.
When comparing the three elements of ESG, Social and Governance were rated highly,
however interest in Environmental was low.
One interesting result from both the online questionnaire and the interviews
was that Generation Z has no strong interest in environmental factor. There were clear
answers that environmental factor does not affect their career. The author would also
like to note that this study aimed to understand the influence of the environment on
workplace selection, so that it may be important from different perspectives.
The analysis of the interviews revealed that most of respondents want
freedom of thinking and equal opportunities which are parts of Social of ESG, and it
turned out that they value their own existence within the hierarchy.
Governance was the next highest rated after Social. The reason why they
consider the importance of Governance is because of their job security and the future
business potential of the company. A company with strong governance is believed to

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be stable, able to withstand some risks, and keep transparent to its stakeholders
including themselves, job seekers or employees. In addition, one of the participants
associate strong governance with strong leadership, and this is one thing what they
expect.
When the author asked them how they came to ideas of workplace selection,
the author found that the participants were based on experiences of themselves and
others around them. In some cases, it was based on past experiences that made them
happy, but in most of cases, it was based on past negative experiences, and ideas were
formed a way of thinking to avoid repeating those negative experiences. Hence, the
current economic recession due to COVID-19 has a significant impact on their thinking.
The difference between the results of this study and those of other studies
is summarized in the table below (Table 5.1).

Table 5.1

The difference between this study and other studies


This study Other studies Result
Salary is important.
Good salary is the most
Younger employees tend to be
important. However Good
satisfied by monetary reward. Same
benefit is not as important as
- Valet et al. (2021), Kollmann et
Good salary.
al. (2020)

Help others is an important value


Opportunity to help others got
for Generation Z. - Krichmayer Different
the lowest score.
(2019)
Social is the most important. Gen Generation Z is sensitive to
Z values ”Equal Opportunity” society. Same
and “Diversity of thinking”. - Agarwal & Vaghela (2018)

Gen Z is more active than older


Environmental is not so
generations addressing climate
important compared to the other Different
change.
two factors.
- Pew Research Center (2021)

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This study Other studies Result


”Continuing professional
Learning opportunity is development” was ranked higher
Same
important in the research of job selection.
- Bundy & Norris (1992)

Negative experience (e.g. Negative feeling strongly affects


economic recession) affects their decision making process. Same
thought on job selection. - Ueichi (2012)

5.2 Recommendation

As mentioned in Chapter 1 and 2, ESG approach is increasing year by year


and attracting more attention. The results of this study also indicate that ESG could be
one positive factor in attracting and retaining future talent such as Generation Z.
However, it will be a major challenge to decide which ones of ESG to prioritize when
companies start to approach for ESG in the future. In this chapter, various approaches
among ESG being taken, the author share potential ESG approaches based on
precedents by other companies. However, the results of this study revealed that
awareness of Environmental was not that high, therefore approach for Social and
Governance are focused in this chapter.
Firstly, regarding the approach for Social, the elimination of discrimination
against race and gender, opportunities for skill or career development, and the access
to employment opportunities are high priority approaches. A listed in companies in
DJSI industry leaders, BMW Group had increased spending on employee training and
development. According to BMW Group Report 2020, the increment rate between 2016
and 2019 was 5%, which was EUR 370 million. The objective of these training courses
is to develop expertise which is required in future occupations within the group. In fact,
the development plan has helped BMW Group to attract young talents. Although it
depends on the company’s budget, increasing the budget for training and designing
training course to improve specific skills can be effective. As BMW Group said it is
effective in recruiting, it is also important to disclose the company’s effort to the outside
of the company. BMW Group also is working on sexual orientation and identity. For
example, the group conducted various campaigns as LGBT+ movement’s PRIDE
Months. In addition, the group aims to increase the proposition of women. A Japanese

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internet service provider, Z Holdings provides workshop with its employees in order to
train management team to understand how to work with different type of work style
from themselves. In terms of access to employment, Thai Oil is expanding recruiting
tools to acquire talents by utilizing the partnership with academic institutes, using
digital tools (Thai Oil Sustainable report, 2020). It provides more opportunities of
employment with applicants. This is only an example of Thai Oil, however as a result
of the activities, Thai Oil was named as a DJSI industry leader, and awarded 2020 Asset
ESG Corporate Awards. These activities and results are benefit for employer branding.
Secondly, regarding Governance, companies should take action toward
diversity and inclusion, and compliance with laws and regulations. One program of
BMW Group has set up a telephone service called The BMW Group SpeakUP Line,
which is available in over 30 languages, and it is an internal reporting system. This
system allows the employees to report possible violation both anonymously and
confidentially. In Z Holdings, the company established a system for transparent, fair,
prompt and decisive decision making. In order to supervise and make decision from
diverse perspective, the company has placed independent directors, to strengthen the
supervisory function and improve the quality of decision making. Z holdings also
publish their decision making flow in their website. It gives transparency for all
stakeholders.
Thirdly, although environmental was found to be less important than the
other two factors, it is still important for Generation Z’s job selection, as the results of
the online questionnaire showed that all items related to environmental scored more
than 3. Thus, the company also needs to be committed to the environmental factor. The
BMW Group, for example, is working to increase its use of renewable energy. The
company also tries to generate its own renewable energy and store it. Electricity use is
a necessity for all companies, as not only used in manufacturing but also in offices. This
is why this kind of initiative is one of the most significant environmental initiatives,
and the ability to generate own electricity will also help to reduce the cost of electricity
use. In the non-business area, this study found that Generation Z is less aware of the
environmental than other two factors, so there is a need to improve education system
for the environmental. This is because environmental issues should not be overlooked,
as they affect our lives not only as our occupation but also in the long term.

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Finally, these positive approaches for ESG should be shared with all
stakeholders such as shareholders, customers, suppliers, employees and so on. In this
study, the participants of the interviews were also asked whether they will check ESG
related information from corporate website before applying for a job position. Some
but not all of respondents answered that they will check the information in advance.
Therefore, activities that can influence these stakeholders should be actively disclosed
in the public.

5.3 Limitation

This study was conducted within a limited short period, so that the numbers
of respondents for the online questionnaire and participants for the interviews were
small. Therefore, there may be more new findings or commonalities when the further
research is conducted on a large number of persons.
Since the target of this study was Generation Z in Thailand, if this was in a
different country, the results may be different. In further research can be conducted, it
will be worth including other countries.
The author conducted both online and face to face interviews. However,
more information could be obtained in the face to face interviews. Therefore, the author
might not obtain some information through online interviews. The relationships
between the author and the participants also affect the quality of the interview. Richer
information was obtained from the participants who were closer to the author,
especially reading the influence of the past experience on their thought. In addition, it
is possible that some information could not be obtained due to language barriers.
Because the author and the respondents spoke second language (not native language)
in the interviews.

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APPENDICES

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APPENDIX A
Semi-Structured Interview Questions

1. What points of a company do you value when you select your workplace?
And why?
2. Can ESG be one of important factors for you when you select your
workplace?
a. Why do you think ESG can (cannot) be important for you?
b. How important is it for you if compared with the one you answered
in first question and the one you answered in second question?
c. Do you research any ESG related information before you apply a job
position? And why?
3. What do you place important between Environmental, Social and
Governance? And why?
4. What your experience does it affect your way of thinking about selecting a
workplace?
a. In addition to the answer for question 4, do you have any stories
related to ESG?
5. Which of ESG do you expect from your future workplace? Please describe
in detail.

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BIOGRAPHY

Name Mr. Yuto Takimoto


Date of Birth 9th June 1991
Educational Attainment 2014: Bachelor of Commerce
Shimonoseki City University
Work Position Senior Associate
Work Experiences Present - 2021
KPMG Phoomchai Legal Ltd.

2021 - 2015
Assistant Sales Manager
Pasona Recruitment(Thailand) Co. ,Ltd .

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