Intrinsic motivation of millennials and generation Z in the new post-pandemic reality

The COVID-19 pandemic, which became a global crisis in 2020, has radically transformed people’s normal lives in a matter of weeks. In addition to the health consequences, the virus has had a significant impact on the society and the economy, including the labor market. The present study aims to assess how traditional working has been transformed into teleworking in Slovakia. The study examines whether Slovakian workers are satisfied with teleworking. The questionnaire survey was conducted in December 2020 during the second wave of the coronavirus in Slovakia. Based on the obtained results, a significant relationship between teleworking satisfaction and salary satisfaction, supervisory support, and job autonomy was found. Based on the obtained results, teleworking introduced due to the coronavirus had a clear positive effect on job satisfaction of the examined Slovakian employees. As a result of teleworking, the relationship between manager and subordinate has improved, and work-life balance has also developed favorably.

Acknowledgments
This study was funded by the Pallas Athéné Foundations.

The COVID-19 pandemic has had a significant impact on small and medium enterprises (SMEs). The purpose of this study is to assess the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on SMEs in Georgia, identify the challenges of SMEs in pandemic conditions, and analyze government economic policy measures. For this purpose, 102 small and medium entrepreneurs from different regions of Georgia were interviewed. The survey was conducted by sending a questionnaire through digital channels. The results were processed using data analysis, quantitative and qualitative research methods, and presented graphically. As a result, key challenges and development directions that are typical for SMEs operations in Georgia during the pandemic were identified. For 60.8% of surveyed SME owners, lockdown is the main challenge. Sales volume of 45.1% of SMEs decreased. In addition, 39.3% of the surveyed SME owners increased the innovative capabilities of a company and 37.2% increased the sales volume of a company through digital channels. The main challenge of the pandemic, lockdown, gave impetus to a change in entrepreneurial behavior. In a pandemic, entrepreneurial activity has become more favorable through digital channels. During the pandemic, there is a need to continue the government’s program of tax incentives and subsidies for SMEs. In addition, the government should promote education in the fields of entrepreneurship, innovation, and technology.

At present times, the impact of new technologies on job creation is going to be a serious problem in personnel management. In the human resources contents, this issue still remains in minor attention. As a result of new communication technologies development in the near future, we will be facing too many changes in working patterns and demands on staff regarding job requirements. Simultaneously with the above stated changes on labor market, a new generation of workers is emerging that grew up with the development of communication technologies, they profess different lifestyle from the one the generations have had before. Many of these generations become employers and bring new approaches to employment of people being different from traditional working patterns. Despite the facts being alleged in this study, it is difficult to estimate to what extent those changes will affect Slovak labor market. Gradual development of technologies is an ongoing process in Slovakia as well and in four years robotics is to be a key technology in most manufacturing plants mainly in automotive industry. Currently, three generations are present on labor market that may have a different approach to changes being implemented nowadays. In this study, the authors analyze the survey results on the use of communication technologies by Generations X, Y, Z, and their abilities to be prepared for changes on labor market. Survey provides interesting information about the access of different generations to communication technologies and their relationship with technical innovations.