Organisational Behaviour - Generations of Modern Day Employees - Term Paper Example

Running Head: ORGANIZATIONAL BEHAVIOUR Student’s Name Subject Professor University/Institution Location Date Organizational Behaviour Introduction There are currently four major generations of working age people in the modern world a generation being described as a cluster that is peculiar in attributes such as age, the period of birth or years of birth, locality and notable events that those belonging to these groups have experienced during critical growth stages in their lives according to Kupperschmidt (2000). At least two main outlooks have been advanced by scholars that relate to generational differences in the modern place of work. The first outlook is that the four generations are each subjective to the specific shared experiences that describe them. The second outlook that has been advanced concerning generational differences is that individual persons of each of the four groups though miscellaneous nonetheless adhere to similar definite beliefs, values and behaviors due to the influence of the experiences that they share (Smola & Sutton, 2002). Additionally, the attributes that the individuals in each distinct group share, in terms of ideals, responses and manners are most probably different across the four generational groups. An optional outlook has also been put forward to the effect that even though the above mentioned differences may actually be true to the entire life cycle or to a certain career stage of a member of staff in an organization, in due course employees will possibly always be common in terms of what they want from their jobs. This paper will look at the four generations of modern day employees, their age group differences and values and an application of the topic to a real workplace situation. The paper will carry out this task in two main stages namely; a literature review which will be covered in the first part of the paper and an application of the topic reviewed to a workplace example in the second part. Part I - Literature Review The available literature related to this subject seems to be largely subjective or based on the opinions of their writers. This literature review will seek to establish whether generational differences in the workplace truly exist and clarify the types of differences. Several publications have materialized within the past ten years regarding the subject of generational differences in the modern place of work. They include those that have been advanced by Lancaster & David (2002) and (Zemke et al, 2000). The main assumption that these publications make with regard to the subject is that there are significant differences amid the younger age groups of employees (Generation X) and the older (Baby Boomers) when it comes to their beliefs and manners at the place of work. Various arguments have also been advanced to the effect that these differences have considerable impacts when it comes to effective employment and in creating incentives and maintenance of workers in organizations because organizations are finding it hard to “find and keep” newer generational workers when the old generation ones retire (Deal, 2007) (Underwood, 2007). According to Underwood (2007), individuals born in dissimilar chronological eras who experience different unique societal and chronological circumstances in the seminal years of their lives that characterize these periods are likely to have different outlooks of the world. The different generational groups possess conflicting convictions and mindsets (Tobilze, 2008). Convictions or widespread ways of life for instance about advantages when it comes to a variety of features of work such as self-sufficiency, recompense, etc,and results such as achievement and accomplishment at the place of work have been said to differ considerably from group to group (Marston, 2007). Marston goes on to say that the workplace has changed and the accomplishment of duties in the modern workplace in particular has significantly changed and is much more tougher due to the generational differences that exist within (Marston, 2007). Four generations of individuals have consistently been mentioned in literature as comprising the modern workforce namely; the older generation also referred to as Matures (Born before 1945), the Baby Boomers (Born between 1945 and 1964), Generation X (Born between 1965 and 1979) and Generation Y or the millenias (Born after 1980) (Tobilze, 2008 ; Marston, 2007 ; Lyons et al, 2005, etc). Below is a Table of some of the chronological systems commonly used to allocate people born in any given year a generation which are defined by their sources: Howe & Strauss, 2000 Silent Generation, 1925-1943 Boom Generation, 1943-1960 13th Generation, 1961-1981 Millenial Generation, 1982-2000 Lancaster & Stillman, 2002 Traditionalists 1900-1945 Baby Boomers, 1946-1964 Generation Xers, 1965-1980 Generation Echo Boomer, Generation Y, Baby Busters and Generation Next 1981-1999 Martin & Tulgan, mix, 2002) Silent Generation, 1925-1942 Baby Boomers, 1946-1960 Generation X, 1965-1977 Millenials, 1978-2000 Oblinger & Oblinger, 2005 Matures 1946 Baby Boomers, 1947-1964 Gen Xers, 1965-1980 Gen-Y, NetGen, Millennials, 1981-1995 And Post Millenials, 1995 to present Zemke et al, 2000 Veterans, 1922-1943 Baby Boomers, 1943-1960 Gen-Xers, 1960-1980 Nexters 1980-1999 Most of the literature provide different sets of work related beliefs or values that have been associated with each of these generational groups in the modern workplace as discussed below The matures group comprises individuals born before 1945 and their experiences which include the end of World war II and the Great Depression have been acknowledged as having given them a robust sagacity of obligation and appreciation of the importance of work (Kupperschmidt, 2000 ; Lancaster & Stillman, 2002 ; Marston, 2007). In the words of Marston, they were coorporate managers who always gazed ahead with blazing visualization and they recognized the importtance of glancing back, learning from their mistakes and applying the lessons learned from those mistakes (Marston, 2007). According to Kupperschmidt (2000), they pledge to a long-established and time honoured psychological convention whose main beliefs lie in good pay for work done and the recognition of the powers that be as the basis of their rewards (Kupperschmidt, 2000 ; (Lancaster & Stillman, 2002). Zemke et al (2000) describe them as people who believe in an authority and power based outlook of management and the recognition of leaders as an integral part of work related performance. Baby Boomers (Born between 1945 and 1964) are said to have grown up in an era of prosperity when having children was one of the highly held family ideals and therefore, as children they were highly appreciated and this led to their high conviction in privilege (Kupperschmidt, 2000 ; Marston, 2007 ; Tobilze, 2008). They have also been depicted as “workaholics” whose persistent pursuit of success and achievement is unremitting (Zemke, Claire, & Bob, 2000). They have also been described as extremely competitive in nature as a resultant factor of the populations when they were growing up as having pushed them to become highly aggressive for resources prospects and consideration all through their lives. (Lancaster & Stillman, 2002). They are also said to place a high value on their profession as their spring of importance and personal accomplishment. (Kupperschmidt, 2000) Generation Xers (Born between 1965 and 1979) grew up during a time where birth control, divorce, monetary constraints, recessions and increased rates of unemploymment were becoming the common features in society. It has therefore been widely taken that these hardships that they experienced during their formative years have turned them into cynical and extremely independent people (Lancaster & Stillman, 2002). When it comes to work related matters, they have been seen as very entrepreneurial and as people who have a readiness to be loyal to companies that don’t seem to value them. They are also said to be great admirers and pursuants of intellectual development and great learners when it comes to work as well as being desirers of promotions in respect to their performance at work (Lancaster & Stillman, 2002 ; Zemke et al, 2000). Generation Xers are also said to be seekers of acquaintances and amusement in the place of work (Lancaster & Stillman, 2002). Generations Yers or millenias (Born after 1980) are the youngest of the workplace generational groups and they are said to have been bred in an era typified by financial affluence progress, technical know-how and globalization. According to Zemke et al, this generation of worker’s beliefs have exceedingly been influenced by the power of the internet and other developments in IT giving them lots of new ideas but there is very little opportunity in the workplace that can be used to comprehensively study them (Zemke et al, 2000). Zemke et al also advance the argument that Millenias are highly oriented towards attainment and are willing to work longer hours at the cost of their social lives to achieve success. Additionally, according to Lancaster & Stillman (2002), their definition of success in their careers is to a great extent money-oriented with a specific interest in social standing and stature. The general outlook of Generation Ys on life has also been described as tilted towards constructive change and as what causes them to quicly get bored with routine making them unwilling to stay in the same job for a long period of time (Lancaster & Stillman, 2002 ; Smola & Sutton, 2002.). Additionally, millenias are also said to be optimistic and people who easily adapt to change (Deal, 2007), more autonomous, independent and self reliant than the other three generations (Karp et al, 2002), not too loyal to their employers (Bova & Kroth, 2001), but very loyal to their friends and families (Karp et al, 2002), as possessing high technical skills and as goal oriented (Zemke et al, 2000), as seekers of flexibility at the work place (Martin, 2005), as desirers of a more balanced life (Crampton & Hodge, 2006), as “multi taskers” and people who are very demanding, (Martin, 2005), highly confident as compared to the other groups and also as less focused on processes (Crampton & Hodge, 2006). Part II We are all special in terms of desires, beliefs and knowledge and the things that inspire us are also different and we need to be treated as such in the workplace. Being a Generation Y or a Millenia, means that i fall into a group that is generally described as being unavailable and unconstrained with high technlogical know-how. This however is not completely true. I would for instance expect my employer to understand me as an individual and to find out what motivates me indivudually without generally categorizing me as a member of Generation Y. Well. To some extend I do agree that I belong to GenerationY, probably because that’s where my age places me and also because I possess some of the behavioral characteristics that are associated with Generation Y such as my belief in maintaining simplicity in my life both at work and elsewhere. This characteristic makes me prefer to take on just the challenges that I feel I can accomplish properly and that’s what gives me a sense of belonging. This should not be for instance be likened to being unloyal to my employer for instance or being less unfocused. The idealization of the perfect world is such that organizations should accumulate enough resources to be able to pay their employees at a regular basis and to enable everyone to have a meaningful opportunity at his or her place of work, but the reality of the matter is that as a person I want to feel that what I do actually makes sense and that it is not being taken for granted and that is the feeling of every person not just me or the generationYers but the difference lies in what realy motivates each person as an individual and that’s where organizational behaviour comes in because what motivated me a year ago is not going to be same thing that will motivate me a year to come. As younger generation worker I am more keen on achievement or development opportunitites and this is one of the most imprtant values to me when it comes to my personal as well as profesional goals while an older worker might be motivated by gaining a sense of security and being able to make use of his or her experiences, which makes me more likely to leave one organization to go to another in search for greener pastures or a better environment where I can grow both as a person and professionally as well. Possibilitties as also such that I might seek a more flexible environment in terms of work because I intend on pursuing a PHD so I might decide not to quit employment completely to pursue this goal but instead to seek a company that will allow me time and flexibility to work and attend to my school work at the same time. Generalization and the tendency to classify everyone into the four categories is a very dangerous practice because it can at times be misleading as organizations try to treat people considered to be from the same generation the same way and most of the time it is the bad that is likely to be generalized rather than the good as society tends to always assume that the bad is always more powerful. Generalizations emanate from our thinking and as Mark Twain put it, “all generalizations are false including this one” – the one on categorizing people according to their age cohorts. For instance, many Generation Yers are considered to be unavailable as people that lack direction and commitment or passion. But I consider myself passionates and passion always dictates what I do and what I spend my energies on. This helps me to focus on whats important and this always enables me to excel and develop my capabilities. Aside from the above factors, I am also grateful for every gift that I possess and I am always honest: something that always enables me to be true to myself and to others and to build relationships something that is needed in an organizations for team building. I would therefore say that most generalizations are based on social, economic, educational and cultural differences that exist between different age cohorts and how they have been affected by technological development, the economy and cultural changes over time as opposed to distribution of personality traits and interests. It is true that we are products of our genestics and the environment in which we grow up but it is also true that groups are not stationary and that all of the generations in the modern place of work are at one point exposed to the same influences and this means that the dissimilarities that they display are likely to grow fainter with time. For instance, many older generation people are becoming more and more technology savvy and it is not weird to find a fifty or sixty year old person texting or participating in online social interactions. The difference is that Generation Xers and Yers have benefitted more from technology and adapted faster to technologies which were invented by previous generations and the same has hapenned before to other generations with the invention of the telephone and personal transportation for instance, among other inventions. Each group is therefore a product of its experinces but every member of the group is not exactly similar to the other and managers need to begin to find ways of correcting this generalization and begin to deal with employees each depending on his/her personal capabilities. Conclusion Research has not found any differences in the distribution of personality traits and interests that can only be attributed to a certain group alone Every generation has introverts and extroverts for instance, there are those who like working on one task after the other and there are those who prefer to multi task, and there are those who are honest, passionate and honest like myself across all generations. List of References Bova, B., & Kroth, M. (2001). Workplace learning and generation X. Journal of Workplace Learning Vol. 13 , 57-65. Crampton, S., & Hodge, J. (2006). The supervisor and generational differences. Proceedings of the Academy of Organizational Culture. Communications and Conflict Vol. 11 , 19-22. Deal, J. (2007). Retiring the generation gap: How employees young and old van find common ground. San Francisco: Jossey Bass. Howe, N., & Strauss, W. (2000). Millennials rising: The next great generation. New York: Vintage Books. Karp, H., Fuller, C., & Sirias, D. (2002). Bridging the boomer Xer gap. Creating authentic teams for high performance at work. Palo Alto, CA: Davies-Black Publishing. Kupperschmidt, B. (2000). Multigenerational employees: Strategies for effective management. The Health Care ManagerVol 19 , 65-76. Lancaster, L., & David, S. (2002). When generations Collide: Who They Are. Why They Clash - How to Solve the Generational Puzzle at Work. New York: Harper Collins. Lyons, S., Duxbury, L., & Higgins, C. (2005). An Empirical Assessment of Generational Differences in Work-related Values. Toronto, Ontario: ASAC. Marston, C. (2007). Motivating the “What’s in it for me” workforce: Manage across the generational divide and increase profits. Hoboken, NJ: Wiley. Martin, C. (2005). From high maintenance to high productivity. What managers need to know about Generation Y. Industrial and Commercial Training, Vol. 37 , 39-44. Martin, C., & Tulgan, B. (2002). Managing the generational mix. Amherst, MA: HRD Press. Oblinger, D., & Oblinger, J. (2005). Educating the Net Gen. Washington, DC: Educause. Smola, K., & Sutton, C. (2002). Generational differences: Revisiting generational work values for the new millennium. Journal of Organizational Behaviour Vol 23 , 363-382. Tobilze, A. (2008). Generational differences in the workplace. Minnesota: University of minnesota. Underwood, C. (2007). The generational imperative: Understanding generational differences in the workplace, marketplace, and living room. Charleston, SC:: BookSurge Publishing. Zemke, R., Claire, R., & Bob, F. (2000). Generations at Work: Managing the Clash of Veterans, Boomers, Xers, and Nexters in your Workplace. Toronto: Amacon. Read More