THE RECEPTIVITY OF YOUNGER GENERATION ROMANIAN EMPLOYEES TO NEW TECHNOLOGY IMPLEMENTATION AND ITS IMPACT ON THE BALANCE BETWEEN WORK AND LIFE

. In the current era, technological advancement has completely changed many facets of our daily lives, such as the workplace, where modern-day companies are compelled to take proactive actions. Employees face the same challenges by shifting their practices from conventional to more innovative ones. This study explores Generation Z and Millennials‘ receptivity to technological advancement and how it impacts their personal and professional lives. By exploring four personality-based characteristics – optimism, innovation, discomfort, and insecurity – this study develops clear pathways from the perspective of Romanian younger employees. The proposed research hypotheses were tested with a sample of 399 employees, and quantitative data analysis was carried out using partial least squares structural equation modelling. Our findings are expected to provide employers, human resource managers, recruiters, and policymakers with new insights that enable them to develop methods, strategies, policies, and measures tailored to the mentality and behavioural patterns of these specific target groups.


Introduction
In the 21st century, imagining a world without technology would be nearly impossible. Since its emergence, technology has served as a great tool that broadened the scope of human understanding and achievement, providing unimaginable control over both the built and social environment. Consequently, a modern-day company is dependent on its usage, and the same goes for employees working within the company. In today's world, an employee relies more on technology than ever before, but as the old saying goes, every coin has two sides. Besides providing various benefits and offering a convenient lifestyle, technology has also created various challenges. With technological advancement and the digital age, people expected that the amount of work would reduce as their dependency on technologies increased. The reality, however, is a lot different than expected. When it comes to making an overall judgment of technology and its impact on personal and professional lives, opinions are divided, as some point out a direct correlation between technological involvement and work-family conflicts, while others choose to keep an eye on its positive sides.
According to previous scholars, despite having greater access to technology, the younger generation of employees is required to work longer hours, and organizations long for productivity. Paradoxically, people's lives are moving faster and they don't have as much time as they used to, even with significant gains in time as a result of technological developments (Hossain et al., 2018). In relation to this issue, Tennakoon and Senarathne (2020) explain that workers' over-involvement in technology diverts their attention from their families to their work, even after office hours, invading their private space and ultimately disrupting a healthy boundary between professional and personal life. Furthermore, striking a balance between professional and personal life is much more difficult in the twentyfirst century, since organizational dynamism demand employees' superior performance and dedication to their jobs with increased workplace responsibilities. Organizations demand people stay long hours in the office so as to reach organizational goals. On the other end, today's families require greater levels of parental responsibilities than ever (Tennakoon & Senarathne, 2020).
Another way to look at the big picture would be to consider the recent workforce generational shifts by increasing the number of Millennials/Generation Y employees and the professional debut of the newest workforce generational group, Generation Z, accompanied by decreasing the number of Baby Boomers and the X Generation (Gabrielova & Buchko, 2021). Just like any other generation, these younger generations have their own unique characteristics and traits, ideals, and career expectations that differ from those of older ones (Tennakoon & Senarathne, 2020; Ivasciuc et al., 2022;de Boer & Bordoloi, 2022). Moreover their attitude toward work and personal life has changed and the work-life balance has become one of the most important challenges in both developed and developing countries (Tennakoon & Senarathne, 2020). The Millennials and Generation Z are prioritizing work-life balance more than any previous generation and they are less willing to make compromises or sacrifice other aspects of their lives in order to meet work expectations (Robak, 2017). Since people in these age groups are the future of the global workforce (Rzemieniak & Wawer, 2021), it wouldn't be wise to ignore their perspectives and attitude.
In this study, we explore Romanian Generation Z and Millennials' receptivity to technological advancement and how it impacts their personal and professional lives, taking into consideration four human personality-based characteristics: optimism, innovation, discomfort, and insecurity. The proposed research hypotheses were tested with a sample of 399 employees from both the public and private sectors, and quantitative data analysis was carried out using partial least squares structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM), using the statistics software package SmartPLS 3.0.
The present study will contribute in the following ways. First, this study attempts to extend the existing body of knowledge by adding to the debate and by providing a clear image and a more comprehensive view through the lens of Romanian Millennials and Generation Z. Second, the study seeks to supplement the limited literature available in Romania on this topic. Finally, this study is expected to provide insights into the perspectives of younger employees to employers, human resource managers, recruiters, and policymakers.
The present study is structured as follows: In Section 1, past literature is reviewed and the hypotheses are stated. Section 2 describes the research methodology. The main findings are reported in Section 3, followed by conclusions of the research.

Literature review and hypotheses
Nowadays, technological advancement has created additional challenges for modern-day companies, which must take proactive actions. In order to fulfill their life and work goals, employees face the same challenges because technological transformation demands employees' capability to accept and adapt to the new environment by shifting their practices from conventional to more innovative ones. According to prior research, technological advancement may be correlated to positive as well as negative outcomes (Bouwmeester et al., 2021;Pelau et al., 2021;Szentesi et al., 2021;Nemțeanu et al., 2022;Pop et al., 2022;Aloulou et al., 2023). On the one hand, technology can act as a helping hand for employees and organizations across the world by serving them with benefits. Some of these include saving time, energy, and effort, along with lowering expenses and increasing flexibility in carrying out related tasks (Lonska et al., 2021). On the other hand, technology has also brought with it some serious challenges (Chen & Karahanna, 2018;Kane, 2019;Abdul Hamid, 2022;Vyas, 2022).
With technological innovation and the digital age, people anticipated a decrease in the quantity of labor they performed as their dependency on technology increased. The reality, however, differs significantly from expectations. Despite having greater access to technology, the younger generation of employees fall burden to longer working hours as a result of organizations' longing to achieve higher levels of productivity and commitment (Whelan et al., 2017;Hossain et al., 2018;Salo et al., 2019;Tennakoon & Senarathne, 2020;Lamovšek et al., 2023). According to previous scholars, through a technology-connected lifestyle and allonline trend, the internet and mobile technologies have become omnipresent in our everyday lives and impact both personal and professional lives. On the one hand, technological development makes our lives easier; on the other hand, it facilitates our permanent connection to our work, affecting our personal lives (Holden & Sunindijo, 2018;Kumar & Priyadarshini, 2018;Tennakoon & Senarathne, 2020;Bouwmeester et al., 2021;Aloulou et al., 2023).
Regarding the role of technology in work and family, scientific opinion is divided. Hubbard (2016) points out that excessive technological involvement increases the amount of work-family conflict. Also, according to prior research, technological advancements such as internet and communication technology have fostered the culture of work as well as the expectation to work anytime and anywhere. Due to the rapid development of communication technology, employees are now compelled to use online communications tools that allow them to continue working after hours, limiting their time with family and capacity to maintain their well-being (Alleyne, 2016;Tennakoon & Senarathne, 2020). Vyas (2022) points out that in order to create a healthy, stress-free environment and to enable employees to reach their full potential, it is necessary to achieve a balance between professional and personal life.
In the same line, Chan and Tay (2022) conclude that finding a balance between work and life may be a way of maintaining a healthy lifestyle.
According to Chen and Karahanna (2014) and Maçada et al. (2022), technology is linked to feelings of dissatisfaction at the workplace, stressful work life, and psychological burnout. Also, one negative outcome of technology is commonly seen among employees when they make excessive use of technology for professional activities even during their personal time (Hubbard, 2016). Another adverse effect includes frequent usage of technology for entertainment purposes, even during work hours (Maçada et al., 2022). Hubbard (2016) points out that, on average, an American spends around three hours every day utilizing electronic gadgets and browsing the internet. This time does not include the extensive time spent using technology at work, which may reach eight hours per day.
Furthermore, one concerning aspect highlighted by Chen and Karahanna (2018) and Tams et al. (2022) is that companies encourage their workers to use their personal mobile phones for professional activities. Workers are required to stay connected to mobile technologies in order to respond even after the workday has ended. This leads to an increased number of work-related problems after working hours, disturbing the personal time planned to be spent with family members and ultimately affecting their work-life balance (Hubbard, 2016;Alleyne, 2016;Tennakoon & Senarathne, 2020;Maçada et al., 2022). Marsh et al. (2022) found that Generation Z workers are more likely to demand corporate policies that restrict or limit work-related communication outside of work hours. Even if some appear unaffected by such technological intrusion into their private space, others expect more defined boundaries between their personal and professional lives. Moreover, failure to do so leads to stress, dissatisfaction, and, in worst-case scenarios, even psychological burnout (Chen & Karahanna, 2014;Kotera & Correa Vione, 2020;Maçada et al., 2022). In this regard, the Philippines and France have implemented legislation regarding the right to disconnect, which gives employees the right to not respond to work-related activities and requests during non-working hours (Vyas, 2022).
Although many studies have focused on the negative impacts of technology, it would not be fair to completely ignore its positive side. According to Vyas (2022) and Holden and Sunindijo (2018), technological development provides employees greater flexibility and makes their lives easier. Moreover, in today's world, most of office work is performed using computers and other technological devices, making businesses more dependent on technology (Lonska et al., 2021). Scholars as Vyas (2022) explain that without technology, business adaptation during the COVID-19 pandemic to remote working would have been impossible. Moreover, during the pandemic, many people even associated technology as a positive factor that promoted work-life balance, since they were able to spend more time with their families at home (Vyas, 2022).
According to Tennakoon and Senarathne (2020), because people from the younger generation were born and raised in the digital age, it is relatively easier for them to deal with technological advancement. This could be a result of younger generations being more skilled at using technology, as Nikou et al. (2022) find that higher levels of information literacy and digital literacy are linked to a greater perception of the ease of technology usage. Nasah et al. (2010) challenges this conclusion through their findings that, while the usage of certain digi-tal activities like social networking sites is dependent on age, age is not the most important factor in predicting an individual's level of digital literacy.
According to previous researchers, the tendency of individuals to adapt to new environments varies and depends on each person's personality (Park & Park, 2019;Abdul Hamid, 2022). Regarding employees' perceptions of technological progress and their willingness to adapt, these depend on their subjective understanding, as they may have different perspectives of being ready or unprepared to adapt to the new environment (Abdul Hamid, 2022). Previous research has concluded that the overall mindset of technology readiness is dependent on a variety of mental signals that determine an individual's likelihood to use technology in a beneficial way that leads them toward accomplishing both personal and professional (Parasuraman, 2000;Abdul Hamid, 2022).
According to Parasuraman (2000), an individual's technology readiness can be measured using a multiple-item scale known as the Technology Readiness Index (TRI). TRI defined and developed by Parasuraman (2000), is widely applied to understand individuals perceptions of technological progress and their readiness to meet and adopt the new technology. Taking into consideration four human personality-based characteristics, TRI comprises optimism, innovativeness, discomfort, and insecurity. These four components can be categorized into two categories: motivators and inhibitors. On the one hand, motivators are optimistic and innovative feelings about technology, on the other hand, inhibitors are uncomfortable and unsafe feelings about the use of technology (Ali et al., 2019;Parasuraman, 2000;Abdul Hamid, 2022).
Previous research has shown that employees who have a positive perception of technology perceive its utility and adapt to it more easily than others. An optimistic employee will make an effort to learn how to utilize new technology and use it to their advantage (Aldunate & Nussbaum, 2013). People with an optimistic attitude are more likely to focus on the positive aspects of technology and accept it, and they would be far less affected by its negative effects (Ali et al., 2019;Alyoubi & Yamin, 2019;Parasuraman, 2000). Also, the scholars explain that innovation is specific to the people that embrace technology without hesitation, even if its benefits and values are controversial (Ali et al., 2019;Parasuraman, 2000). Kim et al. (2009) and Abdul Hamid (2022) explain that when employees positively perceive technology they are more likely to be motivated to learn and enhance their knowledge and abilities through the identification of productivity and work-related tools, leading to a more productive workplace. These people simply consider that technology may boost their productivity at work and provide them greater flexibility and the potential to adapt in a variety of ways (Ali et al., 2019;Parasuraman, 2000;Abdul Hamid, 2022). Moreover, according to Kuper (2020), if employees see that doing their activities using technology gives them a sense of purpose, then technology serves as an effective support mechanism rather than a system that controls them. Therefore, based on the positive perception of technology we propose our research hypotheses, as follows: -Hypothesis 1 (H 1 ). An optimistic attitude toward using technology is positively correlated with a balance between work and life. -Hypothesis 2 (H 2 ). Innovative attitudes towards using technology have a positive relationship with balancing work and life.
On the other hand, uncomfortable and unsafe feelings about technology act as inhibitors toward technology (Ali et al., 2019;Parasuraman, 2000;Abdul Hamid, 2022). Due to their internal fear of technology, insecure people are hesitant to use newer technologies because insecurity is a lack of confidence in technology and a concern that it will not perform as expected. Those with larger degrees of insecurity view the probability of certain risks associated with employing the most advanced technologies as being higher. Discomfort may be defined as a deficiency of control over technology and a sense of getting overwhelmed. People who exhibit this personality-based characteristic, experience anxiety and feel worried when using technology since they think that it's controlling them (Ali et al., 2019;Parasuraman, 2000). Therefore, based on the negative perception of technology we propose our research hypotheses, as follows: -

Research design and sample
The main objective of this study is to explore, from an empirical perspective, Romanian younger employees' receptivity to technological advancement and how it impacts their balance between work and life. Optimism, innovation, discomfort, and insecurity are four human personality-based characteristics under consideration. A quantitative approach was used to empirically validate the proposed research hypotheses. The research questionnaire was distributed to Romanian public and private sector employees via a Google Form by employing a simple sampling technique.
The target population of this study was represented by Millennials/Generation Y and Generation Z. According to previous scholars, in this study, Millennials or Generation Y comprise individuals born between 1980 and 1994, and the Z Generation are those born between 1995 and 2010 Mahapatra et al., 2022;Rzemieniak & Wawer, 2021;Bednall et al., 2012;Jorgensen, 2003). It is important to note that different sources and authors may use somewhat different age segment to identify each generation's birth years. Before commencing the data collection, participants were informed about the target population and about the purpose of this study. Their participation was completely voluntary. In addition, participants did not receive any benefits for filling out the questionnaire. Initially, a total of 406 questionnaires were received. After an initial check, the final sample consists of 399 responses used for analysis. A comprehensive description of the participants in the sample is presented in Table 1.
The majority of the respondents, 234 (58.6%), are people from Generation Z, while the remaining 165 (41.4%) are represented by Millennials/Generation Y. Most of the respondents were female 276 (69.2%), while the remaining 123 (30.8%) were male. Most of the respondents were single 166 (41.6%). 142 (35.6%) of the respondents were married, and the majority 275 (68.9%) had no children. In terms of education level, 193 (48.4%) of the respondents

Questionnaire design and measures
The questionnaire consists of 27 items, grouped into two sections. The first section includes 16 constructs adopted or adapted from previous research in this field (Hubbard, 2016;Hossain et al., 2018;Tennakoon & Senarathne, 2020). The feeling of balance between work and life was measured with six items, the optimist attitude towards using technology was measured with three items, the innovative attitude towards using technology was measured with three items, the distrust of technology was measured with two items, and the feeling of lack of control over technology was measured with two items. All items were assessed using a 5-point Likert scale, ranging from strongly disagreeing (1) to strongly agreeing (5). The second section contains 11 questions about the demographics of the respondents. We utilized PLS-SEM as the statistical tool to test the research hypotheses. Two different parts of data analysis are required for PLS-SEM. The first part of the data analysis validated the measurement model, while the second explored the hypothesized correlations between the constructs.

Measurement model evaluation
Reflective measurement evaluation requires three main assessment criteria: internal consistency, convergent validity, and discriminant validity. Using composite reliability (CR), internal consistency was verified. Factor loadings (FL) and values of average variance extracted (AVE) allowed for the determination of convergent validity.
In reference to Table 2, Skewness and Kurtosis values for all constructs were between the standard levels of -2 and +2, validating the normality test of the data. For the vast majority of constructs, both the composite reliability (CR) and Cronbach Alpha (CA) values are higher than 0.7. This shows that our data is consistent and reliable. The lack of control value for CR is less than 0.7 because it has two items, but their factor loading (FL) values are greater than the standard value. For CA, the lowest value was 0.681, which is considered a moderate one (Hair et al., 2019). Our findings indicate good convergent validity, as the FL is greater than 0.7 and the value of the average variance extracted (AVE) fulfills the criteria. The collinearity issue was verified by Variance Inflation Factor (VIF) values. The result showed that the values of the Variance Inflation Factor (VIF) varied between 1.055 and 1.385 indicating that our model does not exhibit multicollinearity.  Table 3 shows that the AVE square root values are higher than the constructs' corresponding correlation values, indicating satisfactory discriminant validity. Moreover, the cross-loading values (Table 4) of other variables are lower than the factor loading value of each construct, indicating good discriminant validity.   Table 5 shows that Heterotrait-Monotrait Ratio of Correlations (HTMT) for all values was less than 0.80, demonstrating discriminant validity for all constructs.

Structural model evaluation
In order to examine the proposed research hypotheses, a structural equation model based on the least squares method was applied, with the feeling of balance between work and life as a dependent variable and optimism, innovativeness, distrust, and a lack of control over technology as independent variables. Figure 1 and Table 6 depict the structural model results.
The bootstrapping process (5,000 resamples) was applied, using Smart PLS 3.0 software, to examine the significance of the path coefficients. The predictor variables explain about 23% of the variability in work-life balance, as indicated by R 2 = 0.233.   Table 6 shows the results of the hypothesis testing and structural relationships. Regarding the first hypothesis (H 1 ), the findings reveal that an optimistic attitude towards technology is statistically significant at the 5% level (p = 0.035 < 0.05; t = 2.106) with the coefficient (β = 0.114) showing a positive relationship with work-life balance. Therefore, our hypothesis 1 is accepted and well supported. Our findings support that people with an optimistic attitude embrace technology easily as they perceive it as more helpful and simple to use. They are less affected by the negative outcomes of technology. Optimists think that technology may boost their productivity at work and grant them considerable independence in a variety of ways.
Hypothesis 2 (H 2 ), predicts that people's innovative traits positively impact the work-life balance. Consistent with this prediction, the findings reports a positive coefficient for innovativeness (β = 0.185). This outcome is statistically significant at the 1% level (p = 0.000 < 0.001; t = 3.621) supporting the second hypothesis of our study. These findings suggest that people who score highly on the innovativeness scale possess a distinct set of views about technological advancements. Such people enthusiastically explore and understand new technologies and are thus early adopters. Moreover, innovative-minded people embrace technologies without hesitation, even though its merits and values are ambiguous and contested because they have a favorable perception of technology's utility.
Our study also examined that insecurity and distrust in the use of technology can negatively affect the balance between work and life. Regarding this prediction, our findings report a negative coefficient (β = -0.311) for distrust and this relationship is statistically significant at the 1% level of significance (p = 0.000 < 0.001; t = -6.609) confirming that distrust of technology has a negative relationship with work-life balance. This result supports our prediction, and thus, hypothesis 3 (H 3 ) of this study is accepted. This finding suggests that the degree of insecurity is inversely correlated with how confident one feels using new technology since insecurity is a lack of faith in technology and a worry that it won't function properly. Higher insecurity levels make people more aware of potential risks associated with utilizing new technologies. People with insecurity refrain from using new technological items as a result of their irrational dread of technology.
Hypothesis 4 (H 4 ) predicts that lack of control over technology is negatively related to work-life balance. In line with this prediction, we find a negative coefficient (β = -0.102) for lack of control with a 5% significant level (p = 0.013 < 0.05; t = -2.484). Our findings confirm that a lack of control over technology usage negatively affects the worklife balance of our Romanian target group. People with the trait of lacking control over technology experience unease and anxiety when using technological products because they believe that it is in control of them. They question its relevance for common people. Individuals with high levels of lack of control may have a generalized phobia regarding technology-based products and services, thinking that they often exclude rather than include all types of people.

Conclusions
Individuals' propensity to adapt to new settings differs and is influenced by their personalities. Employee impressions of technological advancement and their readiness to react reflect upon their subjective interpretation because they may have various perspectives on how prepared or unprepared they feel. The ability to use technology to accomplish goals connected to one's life and career has been described in previous studies as a mindset overview formed by cognitive processes and perspectives.
Considering human personality-based characteristics, technology readiness includes optimism, inventiveness, discomfort, and insecurity, which are based on four aspects of human psychology. Motivators and inhibitors are two groups into which these four elements are divided. Specifically, technology-related thoughts of innovation and optimism serve as motivators, while uneasy and unsafe feelings about using technology serve as inhibitors. Regarding this premise, the present study explores Romanian Generation Z and Millennials' receptivity to technological advancement and how it impacts their personal and professional lives, taking into consideration four human personality-based characteristics: optimism, innovation, discomfort, and insecurity.
The novelty of our research consists in examining the receptivity to technological advancement in light of recent workforce generational shifts and the future global workforce perspective (Millennials/Generation Y and Generation Z). Previous research tends to focus more on the impact that technology has on the interaction with extra-organizational entities, such as customers, and has ignored the attitude and how a company's employees perceive this whole process. The younger generations of employees, with their own mentalities and behavioral patterns, are the first ones to be born and brought up in an era when technology already existed. Since these age groups represent the future of the global workforce, this study is expected to provide insights to employers, human resource managers, recruiters, and policymakers through the lens of this target group of employees.
In the current era, an employee relies more on technology than ever before, but besides providing various benefits and offering a convenient lifestyle, technology has also managed to create various challenges. According to our findings, people with an optimistic attitude embrace technology easily, as they perceive it as more helpful and simple to use. Optimistic people are less affected by the negative outcomes of technology and consider that technology may boost their productivity at work and provide them greater flexibility in a variety of ways. Also, our results indicate that respondents with innovative-minded, possess a distinct set of views about technological advancements. Such people embrace technology without hesitation because they have a favourable perception of its utility. People who score highly on the innovativeness scale enthusiastically explore and understand new technologies and thus are early adopters. On the other hand, insecure people are hesitant to use technology. Higher insecurity levels make people more aware of potential risks associated with utilizing new and advanced technologies and raise concerns that it will not perform as expected. Moreover, people with the trait of lacking control over technology, experience feelings of discomfort, overwhelm, anxiety, and worry when using technology because they believe that it's controlling them. In this case, managers should emphasize the advantages of technology to problematic employees. They have to consider employees' personalities because not everyone will agree that the technology is beneficial and easy to use.
With technological advancement and the digital age, companies must take preliminary measures by informing their employees about technological developments in order for employees to properly prepare themselves for digital transformations. Organizations can motivate their employees by providing them with training and technical skills coaching. In addition, technology is most effectively utilized by employees when paired with a flexible job structure. To be prepared for technological transformation, however, is not just the responsibility of companies but also of their employees. Technological transformation demands a high level of adaptability from employees to the new environment by shifting their practices from conventional to more innovative ones. Therefore, employees must understand the tendency to use technology and the inevitability of adapting to new workplaces that are increasingly making use of technology.
The findings obtained by our study must take into account the following limitations. First, the sample is only comprised of Romanian Generation Z and Millennials. In this re-gard, future authors can employ the study model and test it in other countries or with other generations. Future research might also investigate additional constructs that affect work and personal life management. Another limitation is the use of a quantitative approach. Future research might consider the use of the experimental method.