Differences About the Use of Technology in the Workplace and What Public Managers Can Do About It - Research Paper Example

Generational Differences about the Use of Technology Technology in the workplace The advances in technology that has been achieved over the past years have brought a great revolution in the business world. Technology use in the workplace has affected nearly all the aspects of the business working life. Communication has been shortened, and people can reach each other throughout the globe in a matter of seconds in a cheaper cost. It has noted that employees do not need to be with their clients and co-workers physically in their workplaces, instead they can employ the use of communication effectively in their homes, at distant offices, across the corners of the world, and even in their private cars and planes (Parry and Urwin, p. 79). What the introduction of new technology in workplaces seems to be offering are opportunities and a wide variety of services being offered. All things being offered by technology seems to be unified by a single factor; increased productivity and efficiency. On the hand, several companies have been quick to take advantage of technological advancement, adopt these technologies in their office premises, and tout improvements in their business performance that has been significant. With time, the physical office seems to be losing its importance and significance. Therefore, the employees are encouraged to embrace technology and telecommunicate from any locate that they prefer. With the workers physically isolated from each other, it is inevitable for them to suffer a blow in the interpersonal skills and workplace relationship deterioration. With the media hypes on the subject of technology in the past few years, the revolution in business technology would transform slowly with the inventions of new office equipment’s. Those willing to adapt and keep pace with the flexibility and advancement in technological development have chances of surviving and prospering in business world as compared to other business that are not ready to use of technology in their offices (Smola and Sutton, p. 363). In today’s world, business has taken unprecedented twist; it does not happen face-to-face, as many people would think. Instead, in today’s communication is fully depending on calls made from conferences and chains of emails that make it challenging for employees or any business person involved to know his or her partner. Unprecedented laments have also been heard among business people who have been dissatisfied with the advancement in technology in the workplace that has been adopted as the norm in business daily lives. With the increasing number of workers who are working in virtual teams all over the world, it is a mandatory for the many business relationships to depend in technology as a tool of doing business. It is as though working well with other people and learning from colleagues on daily interaction does not bring enough challenge to the business, Business owners together with their employees are now faced with new tasks of trying to close up the gap seen among the generational workforce of the business. This generational gap noted in business premises is not age related but a reflection of the gap seen because of advancement in technology. The introduction of technology in business does not mean that the old generation, generation X, is being replaced in various workplaces. What this means is that their culture of work will be limited in several business and hence heading out the door. The old generation only uses the new technology at convenient times such as banking, technology to them is far from becoming a central part in their social lives, and this is expected to remain the case for long. With the new generation, the millennials, communication is frequent, and I s done using brief updates that seem to be efficient as opposed to the old generation ways of doing things that take time. They embrace the idea of “if technology can be used to solving problems why not adopt the tool?” How technology is influencing relations between the generations at work. The modern business is operated at a time of great changes and advancement in technology. Technology in various workplaces enables business to expand efficiently and a faster rate. With the technology at hand, companies have a wider customer to target and hence grow to a new level. The growth in technology creates huge changes in behaviors and adaptation to the multi-generational workforce in business. Millennials tend to believe that using technology at home is better than using the same technology at work. They love to be connected at their place of preference without having to go to the workplace (Macky, Gardner, and Forsyth, p.857). In most workplace, the advancement in technology is often regarded as the most important reasons for the changes seen in most businesses. Historically, most workplaces were composed of two group; those that were old and about to retire referred to as old-timers and the young who were the know-it-all. Today, most of these workplaces are composed of a mixture of workforce from different generations. With technology being introduce in most workplace, confusion and clashes tend to develop among these groups of generation. The generation X workforce is impatient and may view the baby boomers as self-absorbed who are very prone to sharing information; on the other hand, the baby boomers may view the old generation of traditionalist as rigid and dictatorial. General x may view the millennials as a generation composed of spoilt people and in return, the millennials may view the generation x as being negative and cynical. With the technology, it is perceived that there is a probable decline in the ethics used to be applied in working places. The decline in the application of work ethics is considered among the main factors that are contributing to workplace conflicts. The generation x have been branded as slackers, and the employers are constantly complaining that the workforce composed of younger workers are uncommitted to the tasks allocated. Baby boomers, on the other hand, are considered a generation of workaholics. Whereas the generation composed of the traditional have been branded to be a generation of workaholics. It is debatable on whether the younger generations do not work as the previous generations (Salahuddin, p. 1). The generational difference in a place of work results in cohort formation. Cohort in turn influences a person’s feelings towards authority and organizations and shapes the desires of the employees in relation to work and their productivity. The baby boomers generation grew in an era when economic expansion was in its peak, therefore; they were rewarded for their hard work through job stability and increase pay. In contrast, the generation X work force was born and raised in an era where economic instability was realized. Hence, the workforce is cynical, comfortable with diversity at work places and competition. Generation Y is having grown in the midst of economic stability and increased entrepreneurialism they, therefore, have very high expectations of themselves. They are flexible due to the skills they possess on technology, and this gives them a higher advantage in the modern business practice. When companies are doing an overhaul and embracing the new technology in their system of working, the other generations of workers are feeling as though they are threatened, and their services will not be needed in the future. This creates a conflict driven by difference in generation and impacted more by the introduction of new technology in the new system of the managing business (Twenge, Campbell, and Freeman, p.1045). Generations represented in todays workplace Today’s working places are more endowed with a diversity compared to any other time in business history. With four different generations working actively in the workplace, it is more important to consider on how people work together to be an important factor more than anything else. Many organizations have employed a wide range of employees having different age groups possessing different ethics of work, and all these must be managed in different ways. Downsizing, competition and greed effects are no longer the problems facing many business workplaces, but rather the different generation of people who are working together and often collide. The four generation seen in various workplaces; generation X and generation Y, baby boomers and the veterans bring different values, ideas and styles of communication and different ways through which things can be done in an organization. In different working places, it is important for the business owners to identify the different generations who make up the workforce. The veterans are characterised by their hardworking behaviors and respect authority. Work to them is an obligation. They are the most people who are directive of all the four generations. The baby boomers are workaholics and work hand in hand with their peers in decision-making. Generation x seek out for out structured places of work and they tend to challenge their peers and co-workers to making their decisions. Generation Y and the millennials are always looking forward to the future and are the group that enjoys working with pother people to accomplishing stated goals (Meriac, Woehr, and Banister, p.315). In various working places, the differences on generation always has an effect in almost everything ranging from recruitment of new employees, team building, dealing with different changes, motivation, managing and maintaining as well as increasing the levels of productivity. Over the next few decades, the business world is going to experience mass exit of much of its workforce, mainly from the retiring generation composed of baby boomers. The generation that is expected to lead is experiencing many challenges and overall lack of readiness to lead the business and cooperate sectors. The business world should be getting concern, and indeed something must be done. Form many business work places, it has been noted that the generation X and baby boomers are holding most of the positions in senior leadership and managerial sectors. The companies and business should be possessing wisdom, experience and strong commitment to the future of the business. In many workplaces, there are two main cams of workers who are always looking at each other across a divide full of suspicion, weariness, and frustration. The Y generation and baby boomers are mostly focused on the organizations profits and loss, growth of revenue, filling of any position that is open, employee development and work culture improvement in the working areas that they are leading. There are different expectations from the Y generation in the working places compared to their predecessors who are expected to take over (Sessa et al., p. 47). The different generations being represented in several working places provide a dreadful challenge and complexity for managers. The increasing pressures noted in today’s business are leading to more demands in the agility in terms of the offered products, the models of business models, and partnership; interactivity that is increasing with well-connected and technology. The millennial generation is the most recognize the new generation that possesses different working behaviors. They are not only familiar with the tools of collaboration but expect their working environment to encourage them to use the available tools. Therefore, in the working places it is important for manager and other employees to understand the generational gap so that workplace can be made more productive. Intergenerational training can be conducted to help employers to understand their employees better and what understands makes them tick. The employers should look out on the things that make their employees of a different generation get motivated. Management techniques that can flex so that the needs of each generation are met equally without biases is also important to be instituted in the working place. Studies have shown that, any attempt by the employers to change demographics of the workplaces do have a drastic effect in the morale as well as the productivity of the workers. Hence, it is important for companies and business to incorporate intergenerational trainings to be a key component to the training programs for both leadership and management so that the participants can be taught on how different generations can react and interact with each other. What managers can do to reduce tension in the multi-generational workplace? Identifying the distinctions among the different generation sin working places can help in providing useful framework that will be needed in building awareness and understanding of the various viewpoints, attitudes and the needs among the various generations as well as the future changes implication in the working place. It can become a competitive advantage for most organization to understand the uniqueness of the differences in generation in terms of increased productivity and human performance. To minimizing the tension in the workplace created by the difference in generation, the company must bridge the gap. The importance of bridging this gap is that it helps in cultivating an atmosphere of mutual acceptance, and a climate where employees feel valued is created. Bridging generation gap is an essential step in establishing an understanding of the characteristics and attitudes of each generation (Whiteoak, Crawford, and Mapstone, p.77). It is imperative for the employers to understand that every employee is an individual henceforth must be individually engaged. Instead solely reacting to the differences that help in separating people, what bind them together should take advantage of and emphasis put. This can be best done through honoring all individuals’ qualities that have been brought to the working area. What organizations should do is to assume that those individual differences are because of generation. Organizations must learn to redirect their attention on the aspect of the generational conflict resulting in the workplace other than just the conflict itself. The more the organization understand about, the bigger picture of the patterns around the differences in generation, the more the conservation on the differences about generation can be effective. The curiosity of other workers can only be increased by learning more about other generations. This is crucial in an organization because it will increase an employee’s chances of being heard and understood only if their perspective is known. This will help in the reduction of tensions in the workplace among the various generations (Loera, p. 1087). The organization should focus its resources on the fundamentals of conflict resolution. It should be focusing its feedback on the behaviors of the workers rather than the impact. This will help in identification of the underlying interests behind the positions and differences that brings conflict between workers in the working environment. In operating an environment where several businesses must do more with fewer resources and get the best out of their workforces, it is vital for the different generations to work and coordinate well together. Businesses can be fully equipped to achieve their objectives by encouraging their team that is composed of different generations to work together across their generations and giving in all what they have to maximize on the output (Dwyer, p. 101). To transform the current working population into a cohesive multigenerational working machine, it is important for the employer to focus resources and time to the strategies that matter most. These guiding principles of multigenerational transformation of workforce- collaboration, flexibility, technology, talent development and evaluation- are the major areas that the business owners must focus most because they tend to resonate with all the generations in the working environment. The employers should be willing to implement programs that will be aiming at addressing these key areas. In any organization, an aspect of understanding the differences caused by generations is crucial. If an organization ignores the issue, it may be forced at some time to accept the fact that issues between different generations do exist and are important to be addressed. Despite all attempts to understand the difference that exist between these generations, the knowledge of these differences does not provide all the needed answers in solving the problems that exist in the working environment. It helps workers can have a better conversation and be able to on the fundamentals of resolving conflicts in case generational issues occur in the workplace (Tolbize, n. pag). Work cited Dwyer, Rocky J. “Prepare for the Impact of the Multi-Generational Workforce!” Transforming Government: People, Process and Policy 2009 : 101–110. Loera, Jose A. “Generational Differences in Acceptance of Technology.” Telemedicine journal and e-health : the official journal of the American Telemedicine Association 14 (2008): 1087–1090. Macky, Keith, Dianne Gardner, and Stewart Forsyth. “Generational Differences at Work: Introduction and Overview.” Journal of Managerial Psychology 2008 : 857–861. Meriac, John P., David J. Woehr, and Christina Banister. “Generational Differences in Work Ethic: An Examination of Measurement Equivalence across Three Cohorts.” Journal of Business and Psychology 25 (2010): 315–324. Parry, Emma, and Peter Urwin. “Generational Differences in Work Values: A Review of Theory and Evidence.” International Journal of Management Reviews 2011 : 79–96. Salahuddin, Mecca M. “Generational Differences Impact On Leadership Style And Organizational Success.” Journal of Diversity Management 5 (2010): 1–6. Print. Sessa, Valerie I. et al. “Generational Differences in Leader Values and Leadership Behaviors.” The Psychologist-Manager Journal 2007 : 47–74. Smola, Karen Wey, and Charlotte D. Sutton. “Generational Differences: Revisiting Generational Work Values for the New Millennium.” Journal of Organizational Behavior 23 (2002): 363–382. Tolbize, Anick. “Generational Differences in the Workplace.” Research and Training Center on Community Liviing (2008): n. pag. Print. Twenge, Jean M., W. Keith Campbell, and Elise C. Freeman. “Generational Differences in Young Adults’ Life Goals, Concern for Others, and Civic Orientation, 1966–2009.” Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 2012 : 1045–1062. Whiteoak, John W., Norman G. Crawford, and Richard H. Mapstone. “Impact of Gender and Generational Differences in Work Values and Attitudes in an Arab Culture.” Thunderbird International Business Review 2006 : 77–91.  Read More