American Journal of Advanced Multidisciplinary Innovation and Research

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Social Engineering Vulnerability in Multigenerational Workforces

Author(s) Dr. Ananya Rao
Country United States
Abstract Social engineering remains a persistent organizational cybersecurity challenge because attackers exploit trust, authority, urgency, familiarity, distraction, fear, reciprocity, and other characteristics of human decision-making rather than relying exclusively on technical vulnerabilities. Contemporary workplaces complicate this problem because employees from different age cohorts work together while possessing different combinations of technological experience, occupational seniority, communication preferences, digital routines, cybersecurity self-efficacy, and exposure to particular attack channels. This study examines social engineering vulnerability within multigenerational workforces while challenging the assumption that chronological age alone provides a reliable basis for predicting employee susceptibility. Recent empirical evidence is inconsistent: some studies have reported greater phishing susceptibility among older employees, other organizational simulations have identified comparatively greater vulnerability among younger workers, and further research has found that age does not independently predict susceptibility after behavioral and psychological factors are considered. The present study therefore develops a context-sensitive model in which vulnerability is shaped by attack type, security self-efficacy, workload, employment context, reporting behavior, training relevance, and organizational safeguards.
Because no authentic workforce dataset was supplied, a transparent simulation involving 320 hypothetical employees across four age-cohort categories was used for methodological demonstration. Five social-engineering dimensions were modeled: credential phishing, voice and SMS pretexting, authority and business-email-compromise manipulation, multifactor-authentication prompt fatigue, and delayed incident reporting. The simulated profiles reveal distinct rather than uniformly hierarchical vulnerability patterns. Early-career employees display comparatively higher simulated vulnerability to credential phishing and authentication-prompt fatigue, whereas the oldest modeled group shows higher simulated exposure to voice/SMS pretexting and reporting delay. The findings demonstrate why organizations should avoid age-based cybersecurity stereotypes and instead adopt adaptive security awareness, phishing-resistant technical controls, context-sensitive training, psychologically safe reporting, and behavioral risk assessment. The study contributes a multigenerational human-risk framework suitable for empirical validation in organizational cybersecurity research.
Keywords social engineering; multigenerational workforce; phishing susceptibility; human factors; cybersecurity awareness; employee behavior; security training; human risk management
Field Engineering
Published In Volume 3, Issue 4, July-August 2022
Published On 2022-07-07
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