Abstract. Generation Z is often defined in public and organisational discourse as less resilient, less willing to work, more psychologically vulnerable and more inclined towards immediate rather than progressive achievement than previous generations. Such interpretations tend to locate the presumed problem within the generation itself, treating behavioural differences as evidence of declining work ethic, motivation or tolerance for adversity. This paper challenges the explanatory value of this “generational decay” perspective and suggests an alternative psychosocial account. It proposes that characteristics attributed to Generation Z should be examined in relation to the developmental environment in which its members established expectations regarding success, effort, reward and wellbeing. Basing its arguments on social learning theory, social comparison theory, expectancy-value approaches to motivation and contemporary evidence concerning social-media use, materialism, academic procrastination and occupational values, the paper proposes that digitally mediated socialisation may systematically alter perceptions of normative achievement.

Social media disproportionately increases the visibility of exceptional outcomes while providing significantly less information about unsuccessful attempts, ordinary trajectories and the temporal costs underlying achievement. Therefore, exceptional success may become perceptually more available without becoming objectively more probable. The paper proposes that this asymmetry can contribute to a recalibration of expectations regarding the magnitude, probability and speed of reward, potentially reducing the subjective attractiveness of gradual educational and occupational pathways and increasing vulnerability to discouragement and disengagement when expected outcomes fail to be achieved. However, Generation Z’s changing relationship with work should not be interpreted exclusively as negative. A higher priority on respectful treatment, psychological safety, adequate pay, flexibility and personal development may constitute an adaptive renegotiation of the psychological contract between workers and organisations. The paper therefore differentiates reduced tolerance for productive discomfort from reduced tolerance for unnecessary psychosocial harm. It concludes that apparent generational decline may be more usefully conceptualised as a complex pattern of adaptation to altered technological, social and economic conditions, resulting in both vulnerabilities and potentially progressive changes in attitudes towards education, work and interpersonal life.

Keywords: Generation Z, social media, social comparison, work values, social learning, academic procrastination.