Decent work and healthy employment: a qualitative case study about Colombian millennials
International Journal of Workplace Health Management
ISSN: 1753-8351
Article publication date: 27 May 2020
Issue publication date: 12 November 2020
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this article is to show how a group of Colombian millennials perceive different aspects of working life and how their ideas about job satisfaction, professional expectations and levels of autonomy are related to contemporary demands about inclusion, diversity, equity, autonomy and control.
Design/methodology/approach
With this objective, 167 semi-structured interviews were conducted with millennials who work at 10 Colombian companies from the manufacturing and service sectors, located in the five main cities of the country. With a qualitative approach, in the interviews, the research team used a strategy inspired by the technique of generating visual structures associated with grounded theory.
Findings
It is concluded that new generations of Colombian workers know of the importance of rewards and autonomy in work and are more critical and less passive in the face of unhealthy working conditions. At the same time, their conduct and speeches are the consequence of the characteristics of the Colombian labour market. The document responds to the need to deepen the debates on welfare and happiness in organizations and to include the demands of millennials in the reflective and political horizon of the ideas of healthy employment and decent work. In practice, this article seeks to demystify ideas about millennials in Colombia and critically contribute to reflection on intergenerational relations in organizations and salary and welfare models. As a Latin American case, it is an original contribution that avoids the common places and the frivolity with which the insertion of the new generations into the working world has been analysed.
Practical implications
In practice, this paper seeks to demystify ideas about millennials in Colombia and critically contribute to reflection on intergenerational relations in organizations and salary and welfare models.
Originality/value
As a Latin American case, it is an original contribution that avoids the common places and the frivolity with which the insertion of the new generations into the working world has been analysed.
Keywords
Acknowledgements
The authors want to thank (or acknowledge) the Unit of Alta Dirección for the funding for this research.
Citation
Gallo, Ó., Gonzales–Miranda, D.R., Roman-Calderon, J.P. and García, G.A. (2020), "Decent work and healthy employment: a qualitative case study about Colombian millennials", International Journal of Workplace Health Management, Vol. 13 No. 5, pp. 477-495. https://doi.org/10.1108/IJWHM-04-2019-0053
Publisher
:Emerald Publishing Limited
Copyright © 2020, Emerald Publishing Limited