It's A Millenial Thing Analysis

Every generation is influenced by its period 's economic, political and social events. From the Great Depression to the civil rights and women 's movements to the advent of television and advanced computer technologies. Thus generational background/situation may also affect the way they work. The key is to be able to effectively address and take advantage of the differences in values and expectations of each generation in the workplace. The current work place consists of four different generations; The Baby Boomers (1946-1964) who are slowly retiring and existing the workforce, The Generation X (1965-1976), The Generation Y or millennia (1977-1997), and the Generation Z who are about to or are just entering the work force. Although these different generations tend to want similar things in a workplace their environment/background has shaped their character, values, and expectations (Hahn 2011).

“After a century of trying to control people, processes and information, we have come to a point in organizational history where we need to recognize that what worked before just simply isn’t enough anymore.” This goes to prove that over time just like everything else evolves our behaviors towards our colleagues has to evolve as well. And management has to learn the new behaviors of his/her employees. The Millennials and generation Z needs to know that they are appreciated and need to be challenged before they get bored, hence the reason why managers need to learn

Today, the workforce is made up of many different generations, which is affecting and effectively changing the workplace culture as a whole. The major generational differences between millennials and baby boomers can be either positive or negative depending on whom you ask. Boomers may categorize millennials as lazy and entitled, while millennials may call themselves innovative. No matter what they call themselves or each other, they all have to work together now as simply as that. This topic has sparked a lot of discussion as to how it’s best for each generation to act and deal with their other generational coworkers.

Older colleagues to this generation is the Y generation as lazy individuals who are more difficult to manage. This generation also has a reputation for leaving their organization of employment abruptly to seek new opportunities. Generation Y has been exposed to the world in a different way than previous generations, they are more racially and ethnically diverse and they are much more segmented as they have seen the rapid development of cable, the internet, etc.

The workforce is seeing up to five generations working together for the first time in history. People are choosing to work longer and delay retirement. Ultimately, the workforce could experience up to six generations working together. It’s the role of business leaders to embrace diversity and guide their teams to cohesion. Generational gaps can pose challenges in the workplace, but understanding each generation 's unique characteristics and skills sets will assist in effectively managing diversity to keep a peaceful coexistence.

Many employers are challenged with handling the millennial due to the lack of proper understanding of this generation since there is plenty of myths, propagated through anecdotes and assumptions. However the separation of the myths and the facts is important for an organization so as

"Working with Grandpa" presented four different generations still in the work force, and each generation has its unique characteristics (Grammar Connections 5, 112). The youngest generation mentioned, Generation Y, computers and other technology are always involved in their private and work lives. They “Millennials” or “Echo Boomers” enjoy working as a teams, and cooperating with their old co-workers because of the influent of their parents. The second generation, Generation X, they try to achieve their work-related tasks by themselves in contrast to Generation Y. They tend to be more doubtful, when it comes to following authority figures.

Upon reflecting on the three main generations that comprise the workplace today, a few differences emerge. “Baby Boomers” grew up in a time when movements were prominent, the Vietnam War occurred, key figures were assassinated, the Watergate Scandal occurred, and television was introduced (Twenge et al., 2010; Schullery, 2013). Overall, “Baby Boomers” seem to exhibit a distrust of authority, value hard work, and want to enjoy their achievements (Robbins & Judge, 2015; Twenge et al., 2010). As such, they are results driven and give their utmost effort (Robbins & Judge, 2015). “Generation X” grew up in a time of computers, divorce, two career parents, MTV, and economic uncertainty (Twenge et al., 2010; Robbins & Judge, 2015). For the most part, they seem to exhibit the workplace behaviors of independence and a lack of commitment to employers (Twenge et al., 2010). They value a balance between work and life and place more focus on extrinsic rewards such as monetary compensation (Twenge et al., 2010). “Millennials” grew up in prosperous times with technology dominating the era and over-protective parents (Robbins & Judge, 2015; Schullery, 2013). Generally, they seem to place a greater value on employee benefits, leisure time, teamwork, and open communication (Society of Human Resource Management, 2004; Twenge, 2010; Myers & Sadaghiani, 2010). In addition, they have also been given the labels of “self-centered” and “entitled” (Myers & Sadaghiani, 2010).

This mixture of generations creates many issues in the modern workforce, as many differences in culture, norms, behaviors, values and perceptions of the workplace exist across these generations. Also, for perhaps the first time in history, four distinct generations are working alongside each other in the business world. As noted by Sam in his email, the coexistence of different generations can have many influences on the workplace. One of the biggest influences is the different attitude and acceptance of technology, as the millennial generation was the first one to

Professor Vasanthi Srinivasan also noticed some friction between generations. Srinivasan is the Indian Council for Cultural Relations, chair of corporate responsibility and governance, has an MBA in human resources, and has a PhD from the Indian Institute of Management Bangalore. In her article, “Multi Generation in the Workforce: Building Collaboration,” she writes, “Informal groups of ‘old timers’ have experienced significant critical events in the early stages of the organization, and ‘new recruits’ who often come with higher qualification and skills are likely to be seen as ‘outsiders’” (Srinivasan 49). These differences could cause generations to doubt one another and avoid communication in the workplace.

In Supervision Managing For Results (2013), the author establishes that the Generation Y whom I consider to be youngest “are often highly self-confident, achievement-oriented, internet savvy, upbeat, impatient, and tenacious. They often love to learn, are socially conscious, can multitask, like to network and socialize with others, desire meaningful work coupled with feedback and recognition, and enjoy flexibility and autonomy at work” (p.384). Furthermore, the older generation (Baby Boomers), “value personal growth and self-gratification, a comfortable life, the use of logic, teamwork and involvement, and their own health and wellness” (Newstrom, 2013, p. 384). Also, having a strong work ethic, drive to succeed, willingness to give it their best and time to achieve a goal are characteristics of the baby boomer

Every work environment is teeming with people from various generations. Though, the majority of people wish for a healthy work environment this is not the easiest to come by. People from these different generations have different ways of looking at the world. They were raised differently and though theoretically want the same things they want to reach these goals in different ways. Rising to leadership, the understanding of technology, adapting in the workplace, and communication are the four criteria you need to know to understand how the people of Generation X and Millennials function together in the workplace.

Unsatisfied employees may be more likely to work less efficiently, and demonstrate less loyalty to their organizations. Aspects of entitlement from Millennials may also engage intergenerational disagreement if members of management are from older generations, resulting in workplace conflict. Senior workers may begin rebelling against Millennials as they argue it is the younger generation’s turn to make the same sacrifices required by the older generations, and accept responsibility for performance outcomes (Myers & Sadaghiani, 2010) rather than abandoning their position when the work gets tough. Millennials do not wish to pay the same dues as their parents did with longer office hours, fewer promotions, and no work-life balance; as parental generations feel offended by the demands of Millennials, Millennials feel mistreated if they are required to accept any of the realities their parents had to

In an interview of 2016, Simon Sinek analyses and discusses the topic of Millennials within the workplace. Throughout Sinek’s speech in his interview, he explains the disadvantages which Millennials have faced while growing up in their generation. Now, Sinek claims that the reason why Millennials have been dealt such a “bad hand” in life, is a result of failed parenting strategies, and an imbalance of technology along with social media (which has advanced like never before within the adolescence of Millennials). Therefore, the imbalance of the internet and real-life interaction results in millennials being unable to form deep and meaningful relationships, in order to carry out happy and meaningful live in comparison to previous

The conflicts or differences can be caused due to various reasons like the preferences in the Communication Style, the Traditionalists and the Baby Boomers prefer more of face to face communication and the GenX and the Millennial prefer email and text messaging ([16] Glass ,2007:[52]Wagner,2007) Differences can also happen how they view authority and Management like Traditionalist believe in a chain in command , Baby Boomers believe in a consensus Model ( Roy,2008a,b) And when it comes to career stability, Traditionalists and Generation X likes to focus on employability over climbing the career ladder. And Generation Y has a high preference for engaging workplaces