Generation and Gender Management in Workplace - Research Paper Example

Generation and Gender Management in Workplace Introduction Organizations in the modern world are faced with the challenges of managing people with varied age groups having diverse anticipations. There tends to lay a huge divergence between the employees working in an organization. There may be differences in actions, preferences, and attitudes that can act as the root of organizational problems. There are various generations of people in a workplace, who work collectively in order to achieve their personal and professional goals. The organizations in the contemporary era might have to encounter several problems such as conflicts of interest as different generations of people might have different viewpoints regarding their job responsibilities. Hence, managing diverse people are challenging for the organizations. People from different generations’ forms a part of the workforce, where the new employees have to work along with several elder employees (Dow Jones & Company, Inc., 2014). The paper deals with reflecting upon a work experience in Sheraton hotel to investigate generations and gender management in the workplace. Generations and Gender Distribution in Workplace Generally, there are four generations in the workplace. One of the oldest generations working in an organization is ‘Veterans’, born between the years 1922 to 1946. Veterans are the senior most people working in an organization, in terms of age bar. However, in Sheraton Hotel, there are no veterans. The next category generation is the Baby Boomers, born between the years 1946 to 1964. Most of the baby boomers are experienced, particularly due to the fact that the people of this generation have faced challenges during both good and difficult times of the organizations. These baby boomers gain knowledge from their experience, skills, and thinking abilities. Furthermore, baby boomers believe that whether they carry any specific educational degree or not, a person can gain success only through personal experiences with an organization. They value the corporate timings and organizational motives, and are inflexible to trends of the people in their personal and professional culture. In Sheraton Hotel, there is only one female baby boomer, employed as dormitory supervisor. She is a middle-aged woman, whose chief responsibility is to maintain the dormitory surroundings clear. She has gained experienced in this work, which she relates to her numerous achievements after she was elected as the dormitory supervisor years back. She acted as a vital source of motivation for me, because she exercised a strong influence over the middle level employees and trainees. She wanted me do contribute towards the betterment of the hotel and work effectively, so that I can gain appropriate experience through my work. She further suggested that wasting the hotel’s time would be a loss, both for the hotel as well as me. Hence, she encouraged me to work as per hotel’s norms and assisted me in effectively performing my role as HR trainee. I further observed that unlike others, the lady was least concerned about her personal goals and was conscious regarding fulfillment of the hotel’s vision statement (The Economist Newspaper Limited, 2013). The third categories of employees in working generations are the ‘generation X’ employees, born between the years 1964 to 1980. Generations X is among the first employees who have grown up with the technological tools and the use of computers in working. Furthermore, their success is marked by their ability to use technological advancements in their professional lives. Those organizations aware of the roles of technology in future, have invested heavily on the ‘Training and Development’ (T&D) of generation X employees. Additionally, it can be said that generation X staff members are vital to bridge the gaps and establish relationships among the baby boomers and generation Y employees. Sheraton Hotel has six employees from generation X’ categories who are employed under various positioned in the hotel. These include one female recruitment manager, a female personnel manager, a female training manager, a male training supervisor, a female clerk, and me, employed as a management trainee. Generation X category staff members are usually middle and low level managers. The last category in the workplace generation hierarchy is the ‘generation Y’ employees. They are born between the years 1980 to 2000 or 1982-1995, and are also known as Nexters and Millenials. Generation Y employees are tech savvy, blunt and are opposed to the baby boomers, who are occupied with the belief that education is the most vital factor to achieve success. They further have a positive thinking regarding the technological advancements and think that social responsibility is a very crucial factor for determining the success of an organization (Martin, 2005). The topmost employee in terms of hierarchy in Sheraton Hotel is the HRD director, acting as the boss of the hotel. The Chinese hotel concerns about gender management in work environment. The hotel employs eight staff members, out of which the boss and the remaining five members are female. This shows the concern of gender management in Sheraton Hotel. Generation and Gender Management in Workplace In a workplace, generations can be well managed through the plethora of steps that can be opted by Sheraton Hotel for managing generation X category of employees. This can be done through imparting adequate web-based training, allowing the generation to confront themselves with the hotel’s vision statement, briefly relating the training materials to organizational goals. Furthermore, the hotel can manage employees from different generations by providing them access to organized databases and presenting them the prospect of multimedia learning. These employees must be allowed to question the authority and experts in case they face any problems and provide the required feedback. Sheraton Hotel employs a female HRD director, who has high job roles. Hence, in case of discrepancies, the hotel can take certain steps to manage the problems. The director falls under the ‘Generation Y’ category and hence, can be managed by providing her access to technological environment, as generation Y employees are tech savvy in nature. They have the ability to learn and develop themselves as per their personal and professional needs. Furthermore, they must be provided with adequate flexibility in their work and salary. These generations of employees are highly efficient in performing tasks that they feel are meaningful and their work can be enhanced by offering them creative learning opportunities. They must be provided with prospects to use social media sites, mobile phones, and internet to get in contact with their peers and colleagues (Saleh, n.d.). The differences amongst generations can be effectively managed by the hotel by keeping the employees motivated and promoting working in team for achieving professional goals. Every generation has its own way to communicate with others. For example, baby boomers prefer direct face-to-face contact, while employees falling under the ‘generation X’ & ‘generation Y’ categories prefer emails, as they have grown up with the use of technical advancements. Management in order to manage diverse communication patterns among generations can combine emails with face-to-face contact that can involve the style of every group. Management can also customize the patterns of incentives provided to the employees from different generations, as each generation has its own motivation level. Baby boomers can receive motivation through the monetary benefits, whereas, generation X and generation Y can be motivated through recognition. Potential threats can be minimized if employees are given the opportunity to determine and select their own incentives. Additionally, management in the hotel can personalize the performance appraisal for different generations. The performance must be measured in such a way that it involves personalized approach rather than appraising the organization as a whole. Furthermore, the management must recruit staff members from varied generations through the application of creative thinking abilities. As the organizational positions are being filled up with more and more generation Y employees and the baby boomers are considering retirement. Hence, the management must recruit the newly talented employees based on their flexibility levels, comfortable working environment, and communication choices. Mentoring must also be encouraged in the workplace to create a learning environment that will allow the baby boomers and other senior members to share their experiences, competencies and suggestions to the generation X and generation Y employees. Furthermore, the younger generation X and Y level employees can provide technological solutions to senior baby boomers, as they are equally aware of the latest advancements in technology (Flewelling, 2014). Concerns regarding gender differences must be managed effectively by the organization to avoid any discrepancy in work. The success of an organization is highly affected by its employees and their responsibilities. The gender-based concerns may include factors such as sexual harassment, segmentation of working structure, along with support for men, among many others, responsible for hampering success of women in an organization. An organization can take adequate steps in order to cope with gender-based problems. In this regard, Sheraton Hotel can develop mentoring scheme for women with the assistance of other women. Such mentoring scheme involves a senior level or experienced female employee imparting required skills to junior level female members in case of misconduct by male colleagues. Another technique required to manage gender diversity in a workplace is showing empathy towards female staff by the male colleagues. Female staff members require empathy instead of solutions to varied problems. Whereas, senior level female staff member as in Sheraton Hotel, can manage the junior level male employees by providing them solutions to the problems encountered, instead of displaying empathy towards them. Additionally, the hotel can also conduct training sessions on anger management in the workplace. Male members, when faced with stressful and negative situations, display a high level of anger towards their colleagues, especially females. It is possible to control anger by inhaling long breaths and avoiding exhibition of personal and professional goal induced stress on peers and co-staff members. Apart from receiving assistance from the management, the employees can themselves work out to solve their professional and personal problems. Female employees can discuss their emotional problems by engaging themselves in talks with senior female members, as male employees think female’s problems as complaining and unproductive in actuality (Weiss, 2008). Detailed Description of the Work Experience and Its Relevance Sheraton Hotel is a premium segment hotel that offers a wide range of services to its customers from China and the rest of the world. As a management trainee in Sheraton hotel, I had gained plentiful experiences from my job responsibilities. I was involved in learning provided by senior level employees. The boss was a female employee and the majority of the middle-level staff members were female members who provided me a positive idea regarding the hotel, that it supports gender management in hotel. Most of the job responsibilities provided was helpful for me to gain experience in several fields. The experiences which I had gained from my job role was to carry out administrative tasks, answering calls received from customers, welcoming guests through friendly appearances, showcasing high quality services, comply with the demands of customers. The experiences further involved carrying out the required process at the time of arrival as well as departure by the employees and fulfilling the requirements of customers as per the available resources in the hotel. Furthermore, I had experienced learning by the use of technological instruments such as the personalized emails for inviting guests and promoting the hotel (Jerris, 1999). Furthermore, I was provided with training to report to the front office staff and supervise the activities of the HR department. Furthermore, as a HR trainee, I was responsible for establishing coordination with the other trainees and employees of the hotel, keeping in mind, the gender diversity in organization. Moreover, I had to interact with the government officials, clients, and suppliers apart from the guests for promoting the hotel. I gained experience of maintaining liaison among the departments, such as Engineering, Housekeeping, Security, F&B, as HR department is concerned with maintaining relations with such departments for running the hotel as per the customers’ expectations. As I was a subordinate level employee, I further gained experience in decision making and suggestion competencies, as I provided vital information to the senior level baby boomers and generation Y staff to solve organizational problems (Tesone, 2008). Furthermore, I had to assist different departments in conducting the recruitment procedure through their collaboration with outside agencies. As a HR trainee, one of the most vital areas where I had to focus was to learn and carry out an interview through selection of eligible candidate. I acquire experience in job allocation, where I had to initiate the induction process for the selected employees of Sheraton. I further was able to perform my roles effectively as I was given the task of gathering information on market reviews regarding customer experiences. In Sheraton Hotel, another important job role that acted as a positive experience for me was to collect and revise the payrolls of all the employees in various departments and the preparation of employee records. I further acquired learning from the various dimensions in HR, including recruitment, selection, training and development (T&D), performance appraisal, remuneration and feedback. I was able to highlight a proper understanding of Sheraton Hotel and the HR policies of the hotel. In addition, I was also able to build strong relationships with the senior employees, despite of their gender, and supported them to overcome challenges. Moreover, I gained experience in receiving training relating to Voice, Brand names among others. When I joined the organization as a HR trainee, I received experience in property exposure in Sheraton Hotel, and gain experience from the senior level managers (Riley, 2014). Furthermore, I was able to enlarge my knowledge about the HR structure, learn the responsibilities and competencies that must be possessed to be essential for becoming future manager, and perform accordingly. I utilize my experience in organizing and supervising various HR events. All these job responsibilities helped me to achieve experience and sharp my competencies such as creativity, use of Information Technology (IT), proper learning skills and orientation towards different people. Furthermore, the experience involved creation of interest in future HR jobs, development of appropriate written and oral communication competencies, orientation towards people, and compliance with travelling whenever required by the senior managers. I also learned the tactic to manage gender biasness and fulfill the generation gap, as my position required establishing relationships between the two. Additionally, I learned how to maintain confidentiality and respond in a sensitive manner to alternate situations. The major tasks from which I extracted experience were the various policies such as customer and employee safety, security standards, performance appraisal of the people amongst others. Furthermore, I was provided with an opportunity to watch instructional videos along with attending conferences. Furthermore, I assisted the female HRD director with her daily tasks involving paperwork. Additionally, I gained vital experience through placing advertisements regarding various job positions, apart from carrying out interviews with the eligible candidates (Ahammad, 2013). Moreover, I gained experience through counseling and coaching received from senior employees, particularly the baby boomers. Therefore, I was able to receive training and make efficient communication with bartenders, waitresses and waiters of the hotel. I was able to make performance appraisal of these staff members as well as motivate my peers. Furthermore, I improved my communication competencies by interacting with the service personnel (Tanke, 2000). Conclusion & Recommendations It can be derived from the above report that senior level managers in Sheraton had been successful in coping with the issues of gender and generation management in the workplace by providing adequate training to employees at the initial stages. The report outlined the work experience gained by me and described the importance of the training imparted by the senior managers. The report outlined the various steps that can be taken by managers to deal with gender-based issues such as anger management and how to manage the choices set by different generations of people working in an organization. It was further observed that different generations have different needs and expectations from the organization they work with. Hence, hotels and other organizations can adopt a number of techniques to fulfill and satisfy the personal as well as the professional needs of varied genders and generations of people in a workplace. As per the report, it was found that an organization could establish certain job roles while imparting training to employees. However, the hotel has a high scope for future development if it includes a number of additional steps while imparting quality training to its HR trainees. The staff members involved in the management of the hotel must be able to provide a brief overview of the training to the trainees and make them able to recognize the importance of training. As a trainee, I was associated with the HR department. Thus, the department can clarify the objectives and the benefits of training that are to be conveyed to the trainees. Secondly, the organization must foster the feedback receiving process that would enable the hotel to receive feedback from the trainees like me. Furthermore, in my opinion, feedback from the HR trainees will help the hotel to know the needs of the trainees like me and implement changes in the organization. Based on my experience, I believe that trainers can observe the trainees who find themselves hesitant to feature their problems in front of management by adopting a personalized approach. Moreover, the senior generation Y employees can participate in the training process and evaluate the training offered by the trainers that will help them to identify and clarify the faults in the training process, if any. Establishing a comprehensive understanding between the senior employees, trainers, and trainees will derive achievable job roles and fulfillment of objectives. The hotel management can also guide the HR trainees by making them realize that the main purpose of the training is to enhance the personal as well as professional lives of the trainees, rather than just clarifying their job roles. Apart from defining the job responsibilities, the hotel must focus on improving the customer service and self-development of trainees by leading them towards the organizational vision. The hotel management staff must recognize that every individual has his own needs based on gender and generation diversity and hence, they must not force training on the employees and must provide the training as per their requirements. In addition, the hotel managers involved in imparting training can also provide recognition to the trainees like me that will enable the trainees to strive towards the accomplishment of the established goals. References Ahammad, S. (2013). Importance of training in hotel industry. A case study of Hilton Hotel, Cyprus, 1-36. Dow Jones & Company, Inc. (2014). How to manage different generations. Retrieved from http://guides.wsj.com/management/managing-your-people/how-to-manage-different-generations/ Flewelling, J. (2014). From boomers to millennials: managing different generations. Retrieved from http://www.bizjournals.com/houston/blog/2014/04/from-boomers-to-millennials-managing-different.html?page=all Jerris, L. A. (1999). Human resources management for hospitality. Prentice Hall. Martin, C.A. (2005). From high maintenance to high productivity. Industrial and Commercial Training, 37(1), 39-44. Riley, M. (2014). Human resource management in the hospitality and tourism industry. UK: Routledge. Saleh, K. L. (n.d.). Managing to manage across generations at Work. Retrieved from http://www.psychologyfoundation.org/pdf/publications/GenerationsAtWork.pdf Tanke, M. L. (2000). Human resources management for the hospitality industry. US: Delmar Thomson Learning. Tesone, D. V. (2008). Handbook of hospitality human resources management. UK: Routledge. The Economist Newspaper Limited. (2013). Winning the generation game. Retrieved from http://www.economist.com/news/business/21586831-businesses-are-worrying-about-how-manage-different-age-groups-widely-different Weiss, K. K. (2008). Managing gender diversity: five secrets for a manager’s toolkit. Soft Skills, 13-17. Read More