Abstract: The development of generational work value is attributed to the change of the society and culture. Researches in this domain are compatible with the trend of researches on the generational differences and conflicts in working context, while are helpful for people to understand and grasp the social and cultural development of certain countries. Those researches delineate “generations” by significant historical events and focus on exploring the social and cultural characters of them. Currently, most western researches have shown that there are different developmental rules in certain aspects of generational work values, such as: the main emphasis of the work, altruism, internal and external values. However, developmental trend of work value in our country has demonstrated different rules, which results from specific social history and culture. Therefore, the further research should focus on developmental rules of “generation unit” of work value on the basis of strict distinguishing of unique characteristics of social culture with adopting appropriate research methods and delineation standards of “generation”, besides extending the depth of research contents and especially strengthen localization of researches in China, which is of significant reference value to management of Chinese organizations.

Key words: generation, generational work value, cross-sectional design, time-lag design, localization