The labour shortage is increasingly drawing attention to the older age group and its mobilization in the labour market. In both Europe and Hungary, is a growing need for workers of retirement age, as fewer and fewer young enters the labour market. In Hungary, the number of people aged 65 or over in employment has been rising steadily and dynamically since 2015 (Hungarian Central Statistical Office 2015-2022). A multigenerational work environment may have advantages and disadvantages, the interpersonal and intergroup dynamics may be constructive and destructive (Fülöp & Takács, 2013). While intergenerational cooperation in the workplace has been studied more extensively, there has not been systematic research on competition among young (below 35) and older (above 55) employees in the workplace.
The present study aimed to explore how young and older employees perceive competition among the generations in general and in their workplace and what kind of personal (constructive/destructive, fair/unfair) competitive experiences they have and how they perceive intergenerational competition in relation to cooperation among the generations in their work environment.
Altogether 40 semi-structured interviews were carried out with 20 young (below 35) and 20 older (above 55) employees. The interviews were transcribed and thematic analysis (Braun&Clarke, 2022) was applied to identify the main themes along which the participants perceive intergenerational competition in their workplace.
The results show, that intergenerational competition does occur in the workplace. Young and older employees attribute different competitive advantages to young/old depending on the particular area of comparison and competition, perceive different obstacles and unfair treatment in competition in relation to their age and gender and age & gender.
The more in-depth understanding of the competitive dynamics among different generations may contribute to a more effective management of the personal resources of employees and this may have several advantages at the individual, corporate, social, and economic levels.