Entitled or misunderstood? Towards the repositioning of the sense of entitlement concept in the generational difference debate

Abstract

This paper contributes to debates in the broad area of generational differences at work. Specifically, we locate this study within the literature of the work values and expectations of the 'Millennial generation', also known as 'GenMe' (Twenge, 2006; 2010). Much has been made in the media and popular practitioner literature about how the latest generation of workers have a 'sense of entitlement' and therefore expect more from the workplace than previous generations. In this paper, we argue that this mainstream view of the sense of entitlement as a concept is problematic and requires a more critical examination. We consider two divergent bodies of literature on the sense of entitlement in relation to generational differences at work-a manageralist approach, which conceptualises sense of entitlement to work-life balance (WLB) as a negative trait, and a second body, based on the seminal work by Sue Lewis and colleagues, that treats sense of entitlement as a situated process rather than an internal characteristic. We use data from a study of young adults leaving university in the UK, inspired by Sue's work. Our analysis challenges the notion of today's younger workers as more 'entitled' than previous generations. This study extends existing research by providing a contextualised analysis of young people's situated accounts of sense of entitlement at work.

Fathers’ Perceptions of the Availability of Flexible Working Arrangements: Evidence from the UK

“…Sense of entitlement is different from actual entitlement, as it is influenced by social, normative and feasibility comparisons (Lewis, 1996). It largely hinges on whether employees feel that work-family support from an employer is a favour or a right (Chatrakul Na Ayudhya and Smithson, 2016;Lewis and Smithson, 2001). There is a widespread perception that FWAs are a favour to women due to their dual role as caregivers and workers (Atkinson and Hall, 2009).…”

The Impact of Global Economic Crisis and Austerity on Quality of Working Life and Work‐Life Balance: A Capabilities Perspective

“…In our paper, we build on the usage of the capabilities approach in the context of work‐life balance by developing the concept of the sense of entitlement within the framework to illustrate how the crisis and austerity measures have eroded working conditions and thus the sense of entitlement, leading to the weakening of our participants' agency and capabilities to achieve a high quality of working life and satisfactory work‐life balance. Conceptually, the sense of entitlement has been applied as a framework for exploring how individuals form perceptions and expectations through a social comparison process, constructed on the basis of what is considered normative, socially appropriate and feasible (Lewis and Smithson, ; Lewis and Haas, ; Herman and Lewis, ; Chatrakul Na Ayudhya and Smithson, ). In relation to the capabilities approach, Hobson et al .…”

Cross- Cultural Entitlement and Resilience: A Suggestion for Western Cognitive Therapy

“…through aggressive behavioral responses (Zemojtel -Piotrowska et al, 2015). As for the fields in which it has proliferated, entitlement has also been conceptualized as romantic, taking place between couples (Grubbs, Cambell, Exline 2016), sexual, being expressed through forms of sexual forceful acts such as rape (Richardson, Simons & Futris, 2016), generational, with millennials being described as a self-centered, non-altruistic generation as compared to their ancestors (Ayudhya & Smithson, 2016), spiritual, with people believing that God is indebted to their personal service (Grubbs, Exline, 2017) and academic (Lemke, Marx & Dundes, 2017), emphasizing on quantifiable recognition of one's deservingness that is uncorroborated by according performances (Knepp, 2016) and disqualifying any provider of negative evaluations (Holderness, Olsen & Thornock, 2016).…”