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As they say, “Change is the only constant.” Thriving and surviving during a period of extraordinary collision of technological advances, globalization, and climate change can be daunting. At any given point in one’s life, a transition can be interpreted in terms of the magnitude of change (how big or small) and the individual’s ontological experience of change (whether it disrupts an equilibrium or adapts an emergent way of life). These four quadrants represent different ways to live in a highly dynamic and complex world. We share the resulting four-quadrant framework from a quantitative and a mixed methods study to examine responses to various ways we respond to transitions. Contingent upon these two dimensions, one can use a four-quadrant framework to mobilize resources to design a response and hypothesize a desired outcome. Individuals may find themselves at various junctions of these quadrants over a lifespan. These four quadrants provide “requisite variety” to navigate individual ontology as they move into and out of fluid spaces we often call instability during a time of transition. In this chapter, we identified social, cognitive, psychological, and behavioral factors that contribute to thriving transition experiences, embracing dynamic stability. Two new constructs were developed, the first measures the receptivity to change, Transformation Quotient (TQ) and second measures the range of responses to transitions from surviving to thriving, Thriving Transitional Experiences (TTE). We hope our work will pave the way for Thriving to become a “normal” outcome of experiencing change by transforming the lexicon and expectation of engaging with transitions.

This study aims to examine how the perceived importance of work values differs among the three generations (Cultural Revolution, Social Reform and Millennial) in the Chinese workforce.

Grounded in work values and generation theories, hypotheses were tested by empirical data collected from 464 Chinese employees from companies located in the Yangtze River Delta of China. A one-way multivariate analysis of covariance and a series of one-way analysis of covariance and t-tests were conducted to compare the three generations with respect to work values.

The results revealed significant generational differences existing in China with respect to extrinsic–intrinsic work values measured by the work-need typology (Huseman and Hatfield, 1990). After controlling for demographic variables, Millennial employees were found to show the highest preference for both extrinsic and intrinsic work values, followed by the Social Reform generation, whereas the Cultural Revolution generation scored lowest. Additionally, important similarities across the three generations were also found.

These findings highlight the complex nature of generational phenomena and suggest the need to further develop a deep appreciation and understanding of the underlying reasons for those generational differences and similarities.

Drawing from generation and work values theory, the authors developed a theoretical framework that allows us to directly compare the three generations in the Chinese workforce with respect to the magnitude of importance each generation attaches to various work priorities. The present study represents an important initial step in throwing more light on the mechanisms underlying the observed generational differences and similarities in work values.