Generational Differences in Teams and Related Managerial Challenges - Case Study Example

Running Head: GENERATIONAL DIFERENCE IN TEAMS A Study of Generational Differences in Teams and Related Managerial Challenges Overview When people of different generations operate in the same work environment, the managerial team needs to work out an understanding on the basis of which, it can handle and bring out the best from the members of different generations working with them. The same applies to when different teams are working together in a collaborative manner and there are members of different generations in both the teams. While identifying work ethics, values and performance graphs of baby boomers, Generation X-ers and Generation Y-ers is important to achieve this balance, one also knows that the basic requirement of keeping the focus on project goals is very crucial to the success, motivation and performance of the teams. The present study deals with different characteristics seen in these generations and how they can lead to managerial challenges. The process in which misunderstanding and conflict arise in such teams and how it leaves an impact on the team, the management and the project is the main focus of this study. The research also attempts to bring out solutions by keeping focus on company initiatives and project goals, and creating a situation to which members from multiple generations can adhere without too many differences. It can be understood from the study that using a collaborative and cycling model is very important to increase team efficiencies and reduce challenges in human resource management within a firm, especially in cases of generational differences within the work force. Background : Multi-national companies have people of different ethnic and national backgrounds work in homogenous environments. While challenges in creating a balance in cultures are important, distinct similarities have been seen in members of the same generations even when they hail from different backgrounds. The adjusting ability of baby boomers, the work ethics laden approach of Generation X-ers and the extreme expectations and failure as of Generation Y-ers are commonly reported in all firms. However, there are also cases, where the clever use of strategy in placing profiles and allotting tasks have helped companies achieve extra-ordinary results from members of all generations including the Millennials who like to have everything big. The paper has been split into the study of understanding the process in which collaborative success can be obtained from a dynamic team building approach amongst members of different generations in a company into the following sections. Each section handles and brings forth suggestions pertaining to a certain capability or feature of the team situation that is under study. Section I deals with baby boomers and how they are favorable members in the team in terms of buffer action between two extremely motivated groups namely, the Generation X and the Generation Y. Section II deals with how group effort and success can change the mentality of the millennials. There are reports of high depression and high expectations in this generation and the only way their extreme outlook can be toned down is by showing how previous generations have succeeded in the current work environment, following the values and work ethics that the millennials are so less aware of. Section III deals with how managerial teams must study their workforce and distributes tasks between individuals and teams. A lot of effort in creating harmony between different generations is lost when the tasks allotted are not complementary to the profile of the doer/s. This section understands moral boosters and motivating factors amongst team members. Section IV deals with how conflicts arise and spiral into HR problems creating challenges for the management and other employees. Understanding attitudes and what can cause a conflict situation is crucial for the managerial team to handle and avoid challenges. In most cases, experience and a positive attitude is required to handle these conflicts and can lead really positive outcomes if the people handling the conflicting parties have a calm demeanor and keep the focus on performance goals. Reminding the performance goals and perks to all members within and outside the conflict helps regain their work efficiency. Section V handles the soft topic of how motivated employees can spread the germ of inspiration and high performance amongst the rest of employees. Inspiration and self-motivation are infective when the limelight is brought on the right people. Learnings : I. Are Baby Boomers Great Buffering Agents In Teams? It has been observed that team members from the baby boomer generations are more prone to adjusting to the situation and waiting for their promotions and perks. They understand that their focus at home and family might take away their time and attention from workspace demands. They are also aware that letting go of employment at any time would turn into a risky initiative since the responsibility of family and children that they carry, need to be fulfilled through steady income and creating a challenge at the job place that leads to loss of employment is not what can be entertained at this phase of life. This generation therefore, is on a second time learning spree wherein they easily take in morals from the stories of members in the work force who belong to previous generations especially those working since the early nineties (Macky et al., 2008, p.860). The main focus is on learning up factors, attitudes, and steps in which they can sustain their families and enjoy a successful work life. These members are best usable in positions where there is a conflict situation possible, especially where there are teams with members of Generation X and Y, and the project demands are high. Tasks have to be allotted giving baby boomers either a middle man position or a senior position in the project so that they can ably negotiate and prevent crisis arising from generational differences (Giancola, 2006, p.32). The key point in the positive attitude carried by baby boomers is that they have interesting learning capabilities, and share anecdotes that are inspirational, interesting, humorous and often insightful, with their team members and keep the interest of people with different attitudes existent (Parry & Urwin, 2011, p.85). Therefore, they are to be used as buffering agents by the managerial staff in any team building situation. II. Success Is An Important Cause of Unity In any company, there are successful projects and not so successful projects. Teams that handle and complete projects successfully are usually rewarded and considered an asset. However, the teams which fail to complete projects successfully are considered dispensable. What HR managers fail to notice is that members from the not-so-successful teams tend to feel de-motivated in spite of having put in their best. When one begins to identify the causes of failure, one finds different aspects like faulty management, incompetent strategy, failed mechanisms, lack of unity or motivation and stringent client conditions. However, members of these teams, belonging to any generation usually put in their best and have given it the same efforts that members of successful teams have (Lyons et al., 2007, p.342). Therefore, in order to avoid de-motivating experiences of failed projects to affect the performance of the team members, the managerial staff can adopt two measures. Firstly, it can reward for efforts done by the deserving members of the unsuccessful teams. Secondly, it can rotate placements of members in the different teams and place members from the unsuccessful teams in the successful ones and check the performance levels. This way, the new members learn the work culture of the successful teams and also have an enriching experience. The main focus of such a cyclic behavior is to keep the employee motivated and thoroughly involved in performing to the expectations of the company. III. Task Allotment, Project Allocations and More When problems are reported in the workforce and the cause of the problem is identified to be generational differences, it becomes important to have the right jobs go to the right people, in order to extract desirable performance. It is the responsibility of the managerial team to find out what is working and what is not with its employees. Using the SWOT test would help assess the efficiency of the employee. Allotting the right tasks gets the best out of employees no matter which generation they belong to (Cennamo & Gardner, 2008, p.899). If baby boomers are given senior roles or decision making tasks, they tend to perform in a manner that keeps the team motivated. Members of Generation X have a tendency to organize and move things forward and therefore, their inclusion in production centric teams helps (Beutell & Wittig-Berman, 2008, p.511). The role of Generation Y is essentially to add fuel to the spirit of the project, and this is best done when they are involved in operations. Satisfaction at work can help keep the generational cohorts away from conflicts arising from unsatisfactory work experience or wrong job allocations. In case of multicultural teams, employees from different generations find it hard to accept the norms of other team members no just because of the generation gap but also because of cultural differences. Creating projects and teams wherein people of similar or compatible generations of same cultural background are put together to interact with similar bunch of different generation employees from other cultures, is the best way to make things work in a intercultural set-up, usually seen in MNCs (Westerman & Yamamura. 2007, p.157). IV. Soft Skills At Workplace: Importance in Smoothening Generation Gaps The need to have training sessions in soft skills and performance enhancers is always important to the success of the projects in a company. This helps reduce chances of conflict and smoothens interactions amongst employees (Twenge & Campbell, 2008, p.876). Usually that while baby boomers are the ones most resilient to the administration, their experience and observation skills are equal to none. They tend to find faults before the others and while they may or may not be explicit about the fault that they find, the other generations tend to explode when criticism or negative comments find them. As a result, conflicts, ego problems, communication gaps and low esteem situation arise (Twenge et al., 2010, p.1125). It must also be noted that most of the experiences that have occurred in a person’s life between the ages five and eighteen shape his or her thinking. Therefore, members of different generations with different personal backgrounds have different expectations distinctly different work ethics, and sometimes, highly opposing perspectives. An incident considered minor to a member of one generation may cause a lot of emotions in another member in a team from a senior or a different generation (Wey Smola & Sutton, 2002, p.369). As a result, it is important to ensure that all communication is through a set proforma and does not entertain biases, emotions or break-outs within a team or in between teams. Usually ego problems spiral to managerial moves only when official complaints are made. This can be avoided by placing suitable buffers like team managers and members who understand situations faster than the rest, and help zero in on the problems. V. Motivated Employees and Ways to Place Them Motivated employee sharing is very important whenever there is a chance of revitalizing your workforce with a self motivated person (Westerman & Yamamura. 2007, p.156). Employees who consistently do well and are able to cross generation or communication barriers within a team and get their work done are an asset to the company (Glass, 2007, p.99). Shifting these employees to teams that are low or simply sharing them with other teams is a great way to have more motivation in your firm. Such employees are examples of getting across the communication barrier and other employees learn from them immediately. This approach works greatly in favorable directions when used in multi-national companies. The task of the HR manager is to ensure that whenever there is generational gap and cultural differences in new teams created with members from overseas, a motivated employee is introduced into the team to inspire high performance and keep team members’ minds off differences. Main Implications: From the above study, one may conclude that there are different aspects of generational differences in teams and while one can work out a way to reduce differences, managerial staff has a tough time balancing the different generations during differences of opinions. As a result, team performance suffers to the hilt. In this study there is a way out of generational differences in company workforce in the form of dynamic team and project allotment and a cyclic allotment of employees in different projects, where permanent teams are absent and fresh teams are created using new combinations of employees. Other modes of creating homogenous situations in the workplace is by placing baby boomers in key positions where they can mediate between employees and negotiate differences and not allow them to spiral to the management or threaten performance. The overall focus is on receiving the best services from a team that can perform despite generational differences amongst employees. This study has a few limitations in the form of lack of empirical data and background information of people working in a company. It is usually not possible for the managerial team to acquire exact details of the backgrounds of each of its staff members. The use of cross-sectional designs also fails to study all aspects of generational differences in one go (Sullivan et al., 2009, p.289). Often, many differences and changes arise due to aging and have nothing to do with generational differences. Studying this is a major challenge for scholars who want to define the barriers in communication that arise with time. The most beneficial implication of this study is that understanding the different ways in which generational differences can be handled in workforces will help company owners design the best applicable human resource practices and enhance performance levels in the firm. A huge literature has built up in this field of operations management using different generations and while this study uses results and conclusions from all these studies, many studies are needed to further define differences between aging factors and generational differences as causes of conflict. Also, the extent to which millennials expect, perform or react is not yet measured in a relative value and need further study to be better defined. Summary and implementation: In order to keep a vibrant team atmosphere in a company, it becomes highly important that the managerial team recognizes the different generations in the workforce, factors that affect the performances of these different generations and modes in which possibilities of conflict and misunderstandings can be avoided in different teams. Using a collaborative and cycling model is very important to increase team efficiencies and reduce challenges in human resource management and this is best done through the use of a multi-dimensional recruiting and placement strategy. References: Beutell, N. J., & Wittig-Berman, U. (2008). Work-family conflict and work-family synergy for generation X, baby boomers, and matures: Generational differences, predictors, and satisfaction outcomes. 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