Question

Age Differences Among Employees and Clashing Cultural Perspectives

Age differences among employees will add to cultural diversity because of unique values and worldviews embedded in varied age groups. Specifically, the workplace of the next decade or so will be inhabited by four basic age groups: Traditionals, Baby Boomers, Generation X, and Millennials. The values and needs of these four groups are not especially compatible, and organizations will need creative reconstructions of the workplace and of work processes in order to maximize the effectiveness of each group and achieve reasonable levels of mutual tolerance.

Descriptions of the four groups suggest to us that many of the potential age difficulties reside in the groups' attitudes toward one another. Traditionals, born between 1925 and 1945 are influenced by the history of catastrophic events such as the Great Depression and World War II. They tend to regard Baby Boomers as disrespectful, too blunt, yet also too "warm and fuzzy." They regard Generation X as impatient and unethical and Millennials as too distracted by technology. Traditionals include people like World War II veteran and former president, George Bush and Massachusetts Senator Ted Kennedy.

Baby Boomers, born between 1946 and 1964, comprise the enormous post-World War II generation that created, or in the case of younger Boomers, grew up under the influence of the 1960s counterculture. They tend to see Traditionals as too cautious, too conservative, and inflexible. They regard Generation X as selfish and manipulative, and Millennials as lacking focus. Bill and Hillary Clinton, as well as Rush Limbaugh, are members of this generation.

Generation X, born between 1965 and 1976, are in numbers a much smaller generation than the generation of Boomers that preceded them. This generation is not a monolithic group that can be defined by one set of principles: they're different in significant ways from the generations that came before them. Generation X tends to bring a new set of concerns to the workplace, especially an emphasis on quality of work life, including the work environment and the nature of the work itself. Members of this age group are also more likely to view work as a means to support their current lifestyle interests (skiing, kayaking, and travel) versus viewing work as a means to support retirement activities. They see Traditionals as rigid, old, and over-the-hill, regard Boomers as disgustingly “New Age” workaholics, and Millennials as too optimistic and insufficiently rule-governed. Google founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin and actress Drew Barrymore are members of this generation.

Although they are children of the counterculture, Boomers nonetheless tacitly accepted many conventions that Traditionals hold as bedrock principles of work life. Generation X is much less likely to accept these conventions, so the arrival of this generation of workers in the workplace presents a new set of management issues and opportunities. Members of this generation are turned off by inflexible time schedules, workaholism, and close supervision. They like to learn new things, expect praise, and want work to be fun. They also want to be encouraged to display creativity and initiative to find new ways to get tasks done. Rather than pressuring Generation X to convert to

traditionalist behavior, many organizations are trying to figure out how to creatively meet their needs.

Millennials were born between 1977 and 1998. They celebrate diversity in all forms and they are both optimistic and realistic in their worldview. Millennials pride themselves on being self-inventive and individualistic. Rather than following or rejecting rules, they seek to rewrite the rules that will govern their lives. They have grown up in an environment where change is rapid and they believe organizing will be much more spontaneous in the future. As a result, they do not so much reject institutions as see them as increasingly irrelevant (e.g., the federal government was incapable of dealing with the Katrina disaster). For millennials technology is not something to be used (as it is for Generation X); it is what life is all about. In short, they assume a technology-dominated world. They do not merely multi-task, they multi-task fast. Finally, because their parents nurtured them, they expect nurturing organizations. Race car driver Danica Patrick and England's Prince William are members of the Millennial generation.

Questions:

1. What sorts of problems should employers anticipate as workers from these different generational groups attempt to work with one another?

2. Are there training and development programs that could be developed by a Human Resources department that would ease or facilitate these different groups of workers cooperating with one another? What would these programs need to do? What content would need to be covered?

3. Think about the characteristics of your generational group. What sort of problems do you anticipate and what sort of adjustments will you need to make to work cooperatively with members of other generational groups? What will be your greatest challenges?

Answer 1

The employer anticipates the following problems as workers are from different generational groups attempt to work with one another -

1. The Boomers and generation X are practical and prefer to draw a line between work and personal life. They want to have flexibile work hours so they can spend more time with family. This group always advocates for employee rights.

So with this group of people, the employer would have to face problem in providing flexibility. The employer should focus only on the work rather than timings. This creates havoc in maintaining problem timings of each emplyee.

2. Millennials always want to feel praised, trust and recognised for their achievements. They are optimistic and distracted by technology. They also want freedom for making professional decisions without being micromanaged and they always prefer to make their own rules.

With these kind of people, the employer face problem in trusting employee to take decisions on their own as some of the decision may go wrong and can create huge losses in return. So, it is difficult to provide each employee with the authority to take decisions on their own without being asked by seniors/management.

3. The employee also face coordination issues due to communication styles of different generation groups.One may be very practical and formal in communication whereas the other generation may be cool and informal.

4.Culture expectations - Different generation can have different culture expectations. Like in case of young employees, they believe time spent in office is not vital, ultimate result matters. They belong from families where both husband and wife are working and therefore they focus more on work life balance. Where as the other generation may have the habit of following working hours in office. They are habituated to reach office on time and leave the office as soon as the office time gets over. So here, the employer has to manage both of them. The employer has to provide openess and flexibility to young generation.

5. Value -Different generation brings different values to the workplace. Influential events such as economic recessions, periods of war and developments within technology shaped values in Traditional people in a way differing from other generations.

While Baby Boomers value individuality and place importance on material success, Generation X are more focused on flexible work arrangements, family time and faster promotional opportunities. And Millennials value social activities, personal freedom and workplace engagement.

These values transmit to the workplace. Baby Boomers expect younger generations of employees to have the same commitment to long work hours and respect hierarchical structures which they grew up with.

With strong emphasis on the family, Generation X on the other hand enjoy flexible work hours and prefer less supervision as well. This combined with the generation of Millennials, who value time off of work, sets a stage for a conflicting atmosphere at work.

Understanding the differences in values will be vital to manage the diverse attitudes and drive the organization forward. Business managers must be focused on honoring the diverse ways of contributing to the workplace and acknowledge the efforts of each team member, regardless of the work style.

Answer - 2

Following training and development programs that could be developed by a Human Resources department that would ease or facilitate these different groups of workers cooperating with one another -

!. Technology Training - The HR department should provide adequate technology upgradation training to provide knowledge w.r.t use and benefits of technology in our life. The traditional people must be teached how we can make our work easy and increase our efficiency with the use of technology. This will decrease the gap between Traiditional and millennials geneartion as millennials are already in favour of using technology.

2. Team built up Trainings - By this training, the employer will try to motivate the team and to built cordial relations between different employee so that they work as "one team".

3.Create space for knowledge sharing - Let the older and more experienced generations of employees act as career mentors for the younger generation, while at the same time creating an environment where younger generations can inspire the older workers with new innovative solutions and ways of working.

4. Feedback and Suggestion Sessions - With the help of these sessions, the HR dept will provide a platform to the employee to give their suggestions and feedback openly. Different generation has different expectations and frequent feedback from them will help to create their form of Work Space.

These Training program will do following things -

1. Team Work - Employees will work as One Team , indifferent of their generation.

2. Openness - The employee can openly discuss and provide feedback and suggestions.

3. Flexibility to Employees.

4. It will create space for knowledge sharing.

5. Adaptation of technology and their use.

The Contents to be used in aforementioned Training sessions are -

1. Flexibility

2. Team Building

3. Communication Channels

4. Expectation on Culture.

5. Technology and innovations.

6. Practical Approach.

7. Knowledge sharing among the employees.

Answer - (3)

Following are the characteristics of our generation groups -

• Traditionalists (born 1925 to 1945) :- These people are inflexible, practical and conservative
• Baby Boomers (born 1946 to 1964) :- Disciplined, Work oriented, strong work ethic, Self-Assured.
• Generation X (born 1965 to 1980) :-skeptical, Flexible, informal, independent
• Millennials (born 1981 to 2000) :- Competitive, technology oriented, not afraid of changing jobs, open minded
• Generation Z (born 2001 to 2020) :- Progressive, less focussed, high use of technology and social medias

Problems in having people from different generations -

1. Young people want freedom and decision making authority.

2. Flexible hours.

3. Practical Approach.

4. Traditional people are conservative and inflexible.

5. Faster Promotion Cycle, use of own devices, work from home facilities.

Following adjustements need to be done to solve aforementioned problems-

• Demonstrate flexibility. Different age groups have different personal and professional needs. Make sure to create a workplace that is open and flexible to different ways of working and work attitudes.
• Managers must make sure to use multiple communication channels when addressing their employees. This includes different meeting formats, style of personal communication and use digital media.
• As different generations bring different expectations to the office, frequent feedback, evaluation and encouragement will be increasingly important for managers to implement as part of the daily work routines.
• Create space for knowledge sharing. Let the older and more experienced generations of employees act as career mentors for the younger generation, while at the same time creating an environment where younger generations can inspire the older workers with new innovative solutions and ways of working.

The greatest challenge will be to make the office a great place to work for all the generations, understanding the cultural requirement of different age groups, providing appropriate decision making authority without compromising the values of the organisation. To create an open environment for the employees to keep their view points and to provide flexibility in working hours without hampering the quality of work.