Technology And Intergenerational Management Essay

As generations go by, our predecessors assume we are skipping out on important aspects of life just to get a few extra minutes on our devices. In Catherine Rampell’s “A Generation of Slackers? Not So Much”, it is said the older generations believe Generation Y is “coddled, disrespectful, narcissistic, and impatient” (Rampell 388). In all reality our generation is just doing what it has to in order to thrive in the world we live in, where technology is one of the largest parts of our everyday lives. If the older generations that criticize Generation Y had grown up in Generation Y they would realize the world we live in requires the use of technology. The advancement of society with technology has shaped Generation Y to be the people that they are, relying on technology; however, older generations believe Generation Y is lazy.

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).

The Tethered Generation, written by Kathryn Tyler, a self-identified member of Generation X, published this article in HR Magazine, a magazine for HR Professionals. In this piece, Tyler elaborates on what she believes to be the most dependent generation to exist: Millennials. A “frequent contributor” to the publication as a freelance writer, she has quite the background in human resources and training, which reflects in the style of this particular article. In the beginning Tyler discusses the effect that tethering to technology, peers, and parents has had on this generation. Towards the end, she writes a sort of “how to” guide on dealing with those effects in the workforce, and how to make the transition into the workplace for those individuals (and other employees) as smooth as possible. Her thesis is evident in the beginning of the article. Tyler argues that because millennials are too attached to technology and dependent on other people that are close to them (like parents and peers), they lack the skills and traits that previous generations possessed, as well as autonomy, and in the process created an epidemic of very overbearing parents that may be too concerned and involved in the life of their children, which could be detrimental to the new young adult’s development of their professional life. This rhetorical analysis is going to dissect the writer’s use of logos, pathos, and ethos in her argument.

It is a well-known fact that technology and media outlets today play a major role in a person’s life. Generally, a person has access to the media through cellphones, computers, radios in a car and television. It may be perceived by some, even within a technologically advanced society such as America, that media has no effect upon enhancing cultural relationships, though many social networks do indeed connect cultures.

In her article “The Tethered Generation” for HR Magazine in May 2007, freelance writer Kathryn Tyler asserts that due to the fact that millennials grew up with new technologies such as the cell phone and internet, many of the skills they need to integrate into the workforce is severely lacking. She goes on to support this argument by addressing millennial connectivity and helicopter parents. With Tyler’s background in human resources and training and her proclamation of being member of generation X, Tyler shares her observation that millennials entering the workforce are tethered to technology, which in turn effects their work, communication, and decision making skills in and out of the office. By supplying the reader with information about these transgressions, Tyler builds her claim that HR professionals should work harder to accommodate the millennials’ shortcomings. She appears to write in hopes of HR professionals understanding why Millennials have developed into the people that they are in order to provide HR professionals with a better understanding of them and to teach these professionals how to deal with their millennial employees. Tyler’s explicit argument, which effectively appeals to her audience’s perception of millennials, is supported by an appeal to ethos in which she employs statements from credible professionals to optimize her argument. This strategy of opting to sparingly use her own voice in the text poses a unique method of making her audience more

Technology was massively growing in the years 2000-2010 causing a technological revolution. Many people were shocked by this advancement and were not as highly as acceptant. The article New workers, New workplaces Digital ‘Natives’ Invade the workplace written by Lee Rainie explains the growth and spread of technology and the effect it has on the younger generation in comparison with the older generation. Lee Rainie explains the consequences of this technology in the workplace. The intended audience for this text would be employers who want to learn more about technology and the effects of it on the younger generation. The purpose of this essay is to develop an understanding between the older generations who has not lived with technology alongside the younger generation who were raised by it. The context, organization and the tone of the essay all determine the effectiveness of the argument.

In her versatile article, “The Tethered Generation”, published in HR Magazine in May 2007, educated freelance writer Kathryn Tyler expresses her opinion of technology and its effects on the millennials generation (those born in the United States between 1978 and 1999). Tyler’s intended audience includes the many readers of HR Magazine, those who probably work in the Human Resources (HR) Department themselves. Her purpose is to educate other HR professionals on how they should become aware and prepared to a millennial generation too soon start working in the same workforce they are in. She shows this by arguing that since the reliability of technology, millennials have slowly started to drift away from their own responsibilities, causing a changed etiquette in professionalism while in a workforce environment. Tyler, a member of Generation X (those born in the US between 1960 and 1977) and a former Human Resources generalist, often writes passive, two-sided articles, addressing that neither side of the argument is to blame, according to her previous work in HR Magazine. This conversant piece continues that pattern of examining the cultural change from the perspective of human resource issues. what follows, I will try to reach out to my audience of classmates in order to have them agree with me that Tyler’s persuasive appeal is not strong enough to appeal to her audience.

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

The Baby Boomers: In today’s fast growing workforce, this generation is known to be hard workers as well as excellent teams players. They are loyal workers, exercise self-control and are self-willed due to the fact that quite a few of the early Boomers had to compete for schooling and jobs when they were teenagers. Because of this, they feel a sense of obligation to fit in and dedicate themselves to their position; usually relishing in the accomplishments of their job. Because of this sacrifice, most Boomers view their jobs with a sense of fulfilment that gives them a feeling of self-worth in light of that achievement. This generation was once leaders; however, now they are being led by the younger generation of workers (Phillips, 2016). The computer made its debut during this era. It was mainly found in the business world and in academia. As a matter of fact, many Boomers seemed to be more suspicious of computers and were resistant to this form of technology. Many however were not subjected to operating computers; And, simply avoided them as much as possible.

Throughout Simon Sinek’s speech regarding the topic of millennials within the workplace, he makes his claim very clear that Millennials disadvantages can be directly correlated to the failed parenting strategies, the advancement of technology, and lastly the environment created by big corporations which hire millennials. Sinek states that these negative factors cannot be blamed on Millennials, but rather the older generations. I wholeheartedly agree with Simon Sinek on his position over this argument because I myself am a millennial who has observed and experienced the claims which he makes. I have felt the failure of parenting systems which gave me a sense of entitlement, I have observed the powerful impact technology has taken over my generation

Over the past few years, companies’ dependence on new and improved technology to manage their business rapidly increases due to its effectiveness and reliability. As a result of these ongoing technological advances, there is a continuous change in the nature of the workplace. For decades, older generations dutifully followed the tradition of the undemocratic rules and structures in these organizations. However, in recent years, with the presence of technological innovations and new perceptions, workplaces are evolving and millennials are deviating from this precedent to a more democratic form and making impactful changes in corporate America.

The workplace of today involves interactions among people from four different generations often causing much conflict for leaders and organizations. Each generation represented has its own set of different values and beliefs. These differences can easily lead to conflicting barriers within the workplace. This can pose a significant problem for those in leadership. In order to combat this issue, leaders and organizations can effectively deal with these issues by offering different programs such as executive mentoring, town hall meetings, and leadership seminars for those in leadership.

Communication is the exchange of information or ideas between two or more parties. Workplace communication is that exchange operating inside the workplace, and is a topic of consistent importance. New media is regularly integrated, new studies are completed about different personality characteristics, and varying ages leave and enter the workforce. This report provides a summary of findings about intergenerational communication in the workplace, specifically between Boomers, born between 1946 and 1964, Generation X, born between 1965 and 1980, and Millennials, or Generation Y, born between 1981 and 1997 for Eller, Inc.’s use in an upcoming project (CNN Library). Details about each generation’s communication preferences, strengths, weaknesses, and integration of the communication methods of the three generations can be found throughout.

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

SUMMARY OF THE ARTICLE “UNDERSTANDING AND MANAGING GENERATIONAL DIFFERENCES IN THE WORK PLACE” ( Cited from Kapoor and Solomon 2011)