Managing internal digital publics: What matters is digital age not digital nativity

• Theoretical and empirical investigation of generational HRM preferences.
• 275 Xers and 544 Digitals in the sample.
• Substantially more similarities than differences between Xers and Digitals.
• HRM preferences are not generationally based.
• HRM and internal PR practices should not group employees based on the date of birth.

As there is a certain amount of overlap between PR, corporate communication and HRM functions, there is a need to assess the generational specifics of internal publics from the HRM perspective. The paper analyzes the similarities, differences and overlaps in the preferences of the cross-generational workforce. Theoretical part of the paper critically assesses the available human resource management (HRM) and internal communication literature, providing a thorough description of Xers’ and Digitals’ preferences toward eight HRM subareas (job design, recruitment and selection, performance management, compensations, nonmaterial motivation, training and development, career management and internal communication). Empirical findings, using data for 275 members of generation X and 544 members of Digitals, revealed substantially more similarities than differences between Xers’ and Digitals’ preferences toward various HRM practices. Therefore, managers developing HRM and internal PR practices for the digital publics should not generalize and group employees into homogenous groups based on their date of birth.