Barrett, The Honors College Thesis/Creative Project Collection

Workplace managers have adapted to many new trends and activities over the years. There has been the invention of the laptop, mobile phone devices, telecommuting, etc. These managers, people who lead and handle the different workstyles of the workplace, need to be individuals that are ready for new changes that will occur in the workplace. This includes new trends that comprise technological advances and new applications of current technology. However, Generation Z is continually impacted by current technology. Generation Z is defined as anyone born from the mid-1990s to the early 2010s (Strauss and Howe, 1991). These are the first true ‘smart’ technology natives to our world, as originally noted by Marc Prensky (2010). He describes Generation Z as “Digital natives are today’s young people who were born into the digital era and are growing up exposed to the continuous flow of digital information. Digital natives are a generation or population growing up in the environment surrounded by digital technologies and for whom computers and the Internet are natural components of their lives. They do not need to familiarize themselves with the technology by comparing it to something else” (Prensky 2010). The way they communicate amongst themselves, each other, and the entire world has become faster, more accessible, and has made the world a smaller place. This has impacted the manner of how they communicate and the standards of what they expect when they are communicating with each other. There is a concern in the workplace: How will this heightened use of communication tools in Generation Z affect their workplace habits? This is what I have explored and will be discussing in this paper. An in depth look at how technology has impacted Generation Z’s communication habits and skills, whether this will help or hurt them in the workplace, and what managers of the workplace can do to help themselves and their peers interact with this new generation.

While Covid-19 had severe impacts on education across the board, the goal of our research is to examine how virtual learning affected Business Data Analytics and Computer Information Students at Arizona State University. A survey was created to measure three key academic areas (student learning, communication, and student engagement) that may have experienced a notable change in quality. Forty Nine W.P. Carey students were surveyed and their responses were recorded in a Google Sheet. From there the results were transferred to excel and converted into a Numeric Likert scale. By establishing base scores for each of the survey statements we can isolate areas of virtual learning that underwhelmed or satisfied our target demographic. The objective of the subsequent analysis was to identify any areas within the three focal points that participants felt strongly impacted their performance with virtual schooling during the August 2020 to May 2021 school year.