Transcript 2010 April Meeting Presentation - Society for Information Management

SIM
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Educate people about the differences in
generations
 What are generations?
 When did generations become an issue?
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Why should we care
 Relate better with each other
 Not working with generations properly will bring
your organization’s progress to a halt
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Primary value of generational analysis
 Makes actions of others more understandable
 Better able to position your own ideas and
requests
▪ Get positive results
▪ Avoid some of the frustrations of today’s workplace
 Shows areas where organization change may be
desirable/necessary
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Your generation affects how you view the
world
 Easy to form unfair and negative impressions of
someone from another generation
▪ Often leads to unintended consequences
 Challenges
▪ Misunderstood communication
▪ Loss of valuable input from talented associates
▪ High turnover
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Organization
 Many assumptions deeply embedded in the fabric
of how organizations work are product of a single
generation (Traditionalists);
 Many corporations remain largely the product of
policies and practices put in place by this
generation
▪ Assumption that money is everyone’s motivator and
preferred reward is one of the most common sources of
misunderstanding
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Demographics
 Generation (age)
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Economics
 Social class
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Cultural
 Culture
▪ Sense of time, urgency, deadlines
▪ Gender—how women are perceived and treated
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Age is one characteristic of populations
 Age is more than just a number
 Ways of thinking about age
▪ Life Stage
▪ Generations (cohorts)
▪ Physical
▪ Psychological
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Life Stage is an easier concept to accept
 Youth—childhood
 Teen years
 Young adult
▪ College student
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Young families
Mid career
Empty nesters
Retirees
Very old (85+)
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However, with long life expectancy, need to
envision life stages differently
 Conventional milestones are shifting upward (in
age)
 Life states are often milestones
▪ Milestones ground us
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What are generations?
 Biological (familial)
 Cultural
▪ Cultural generations are cohorts of people who were
born in the same date range and share similar cultural
experiences
▪ Location in history is what shapes a generation
▪ Idea as used today gained currency in the 19th Century
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As 19th Century wore on, several trends
supported the idea of society divided into
categories of people based on age
 Change in mentality about time and social change
▪ Enlightenment ideas encouraged idea that society and
life were changeable, and that civilization could
progress
▪ Change in economic structure
▪ Young men particularly less beholden to their fathers and family
authority
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19th Century (cont.)
▪ Greater social and economic mobility
▪ Skills and wisdom of fathers often less valuable due to
technological and social change
▪ Breakdown of traditional social and regional
identifications
▪ Spread of nationalism
 National press, linguistic homogenization, public education,
suppression of local particularities
▪ People saw themselves more as part of a society, this encouraged
identification with groups beyond the local
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Generations based on theory and supported by
empirical data
 1863—French lexicographer, Emile Littre defined a
generation as “all men living more or less at the same
time.”
 Auguste Comte (French philosopher) made first
serious attempt to systematically study generations.
In Cours de philosophie positive Comte suggested that
social change is determined by generational change
and in particular conflict between successive
generations
 Comte (cont.)
▪ As members of a generation age, their “instinct of social
conservation” becomes stronger, which brings them into
conflict with the “normal attribute of youth”—
innovation
 Other important theorists of the 19th Century
▪ John Stuart Mill
▪ Wilhelm Dilthey
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20th Century
 Karl Mannheim is the seminal figure in study of
generations (1928)
▪ Mannheim emphasized
▪ The rapidity of social change in youth was crucial to the formation
of generations
▪ Not every generation would come to see itself as distinct
▪ In periods of rapid social change, a generation would be much
more likely to develop a cohesive character
▪ Number of distinct sub-generation could exist
 Jose Ortega y Gasset another influential theorist
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Mannheim in summary
 Generations arise from critical events that affect
young people when they are most malleable (1725 years of age)
 “Early impressions tend to coalesce into a natural
view of the world.”
▪ Therefore, a generation is defined by its worldview
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Generations don’t neatly begin and end on a
specific date
 Always exceptions
▪ Individual personalities
▪ Background
▪ Immigrants versus native born
▪ Education/income
 Some overstatement
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Four primary adult generations
 Traditionalists (born 1945 or earlier)
▪ Composed of several cohorts
 Baby Boomers (born 1946-1964)
 Gen Xers (born 1965-1976)
 Gen Y or Millennials (born 1977-1995)
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Generations observed in:
 Workplace
 Media
▪ News consumption
▪ Newspaper reading
▪ Watching television news
 Voting
 Communication preferences
 Participation in civic organizations and social
clubs/activities
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Observed in (continued):
 Attitudes/behavior toward charitable giving
 Crafts/hobbies
▪ Sewing
▪ Knitting
 Purchase of selected consumer products
▪ Coffee
▪ Some makes of automobiles
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Most workplace conflict between generations
around:
 Attitude toward work
 Motivators
 Communication preferences
 Power (hierarchy)
 Technology (a big “divide”)
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Everyone wants respect
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Some conflict deep seated
 Gen X annoyed by all the coverage of the Boomers
and their offspring, Gen Y or Millenials
▪ See Boomers as leaving them a bleak inheritance. Boomers
had all the breaks
▪ See Gen Y as completely greedy, annoying
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Gen Y, children of the Boomers
 These two groups tend to get along well; like each
other
 However, in the workplace, some of Gen Y attitudes
and behavior annoy Boomers
KEY HISTORICAL EVENTS
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Great Depression
Pearl Harbor
World War II
Korean War
Cold War era
Cuban Missile crisis
TRAITS
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Patriotic
Dependable
Conformist
Respects authority
Rigid
Socially and financially
conservative
Solid work ethic
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In the workplace
 Key motivator was money
▪ Money equals security
▪ Security was very important
KEY HISTORICAL EVENTS
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Vietnam War
Assassinations of John and
Robert Kennedy and Martin
Luther King Jr.
First man on the moon
Kent State killings
Watergate
TRAITS
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Workaholic
Idealistic
Competitive
Loyal
Materialistic
Seeks personal fulfillment
Values titles and the corner
office
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Other experiences that shaped Boomers
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Came from large families; 3 or more siblings typical
Had stay-at-home moms
First suburban generation
Grew up in era of increasing affluence; upward
mobility; blue collar middle income
 Last generation to play outdoors; unsupervised
recreation
 TV generation
 First generation with high college graduation rates;
college was affordable (growth of state universities)
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In the workplace
 Key motivators are money and status
▪ Boomers like merit-based systems and use both money
and position to measure standing
▪ Value individual achievement and individual recognition
 For Boomers money equals competitive success,
i.e., winning
KEY HISTORICAL EVENTS
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AIDS epidemic
Space shuttle Challenger
catastrophe
Fall of the Berlin Wall
Oklahoma City bombing
Bill Clinton-Monica Lewinsky
scandal
TRAITS
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Self-reliant
Adaptable
Cynical
Distrusts authority
Resourceful
Entrepreneurial
Technology savvy
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Other experiences that shaped Gen X
 First generation whose mothers went to work en
masse
▪ Latch-key kids
 First generation to experience widespread family
breakdown (divorce)
 First generation to see parents downsized and
restructured out of jobs
 First generation to graduate from college with
significant loan debt
▪ 20% still paying college loans
 First generation of males to be highly involved fathers
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In the workplace
 Xers value the “right” job, i.e., one that fits them
 Xers value free time
 Competition does not appear to motivate Gen X
TRAITS
KEY HISTORICAL EVENTS
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Columbine High School
shootings
September 11 terrorists attacks
Enron and other corporate
scandals
Wars in Afghanistan and Iraq
Hurricane Katrina
Worst recession since the Great
Depression
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Entitled
Optimistic
Civic minded
Close parental involvement
Values work-life balance
Impatient
Multitasking
Team oriented
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What we don’t know:
 The effects of the current recession on Gen Y
▪ Bank of Mom and Dad shuts amid white-collar struggle
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Other experiences that shaped Gen Y
 Majority had few siblings; most never shared a
bedroom
 Trophy children
▪ Never denied much; given much praise; sheltered from failure
 Programmed life
▪ Play dates; structured recreation; no free time
 Pressure to achieve
▪ Postsecondary education very expensive; cheating in school
 Long time to become independent of parents
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In the workplace
 Optimistic, rosy outlook on long-term
 Sense of impatience (immediacy)
 Behavior appears inappropriate
▪ Fearless
▪ Blunt
▪ Offer opinions freely without regard for corporate
hierarchy and with no sense of “proper” business
protocol
▪ Seem to expect everyone to be interested in their point
of view
GEN X
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Accept diversity
Pragmatic/practical
Self-reliant/individualistic
Reject rules
Killer life
Mistrust institutions
PC
Use technology
Multitask
Latch-key kids
Friend-not family
GEN Y
Celebrate diversity
Optimistic
Selfinventive/individualistic
 Rewrite the rules
 Killer lifestyle
 Irrelevance of institutions
 Internet
 Assume technology
 Multitask fast
 Nurtured
 Friends = family
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2000
2010
2020
#
%
Age
#
%
Age
#
%
Age
Pre Boomers
(1945 or
before)
59,266
28
55+
40,229
17
65+
22,492
9
75+
Baby Boomers
(1946-1964)
78,310
38
36-54
76,512
33
46-64
70,932
27
5674
Gen X
(1965-1976)
48,256
23
24-35
49,651
21
34-45
49,741
19
4455
Gen Y
(1977-1995)
23,296
11
18-23
68,624
29
18-33
85,719
33
2543
30,817
12
1824
259,70
1
10
0
Gen Z
(1996-
---
---
)
Total Adults
209,128
10
0
235,01
6
100
Labor Force
(in 000’s)
2009
2016
Age
#
%
Age
#
%
64+
15,592
10
71+
3,938
2
Baby Boomers
45-63
49,761
32
52-70
47,551
29
Gen X
33-44
40,929
26
40-51
37,298
23
Gen Y
16-32
50,009
32
21-39
67,059
41
Gen Z
---
---
16-20
8,385
5
Total
156,291
100
164,231
100
Pre Boomers
Source: Bureau of Labor Statistics
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One implication: Gen X and Gen Y will
dominate the workplace for the foreseeable
future
 Gen X are often the first line supervisors today
and will dominate the management ranks in the
next decade
 Some Gen Y are supervisors
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Attitudes toward work (Gen X and Gen Y)
 Work not the most important thing in their life
▪ Work/life balance
 Line between work and personal less defined
 Want freedom to manage time and work
 Skeptical about job stability
 Free-agent mindset
▪ Walk away from any unsatisfactory employment
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Communication preferences
 Gen Y: texting, cell phones and IM
 Gen X: e-mail, IM and cell phones
 Baby Boomers: e-mail, cell phones and face to
face
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Gen Y and the workplace
 New message for employers
▪ Strong bond with parents
▪ Bring-your-parent-to work week
 On the phone to parents so might as well meet parents
▪ Parents advising their kids on
 Benefits
 Pension plan
 Promotions
▪ Sheltering huge
 “I’m special; you want to protect me”
 See it in every institution dealing with young people
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Gen Y (cont.)
 Ethic of teamwork and community
▪ Higher rates of community service and volunteering
▪ For Gen X volunteering was a punishment
 More like you did something wrong so you have to volunteer
 More inclusive
▪ “We should all have a place”
 Individualized sense
▪ Even some resistance to the way multiracial and
multiethnic training is done in corporations
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Gen Y
 See change as coming from small groups of
people getting together to do things
 Make the world a better place
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Power
 Who makes the rules
 Problem solving styles
▪ Gen X more individualistic
▪ Gen Y more team oriented
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Baby Boomers say they plan to defer
retirement or not retire
 Creating work “modules” that allow for more
part-time work
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Very large population
Represents young people for another decade
or more
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A polarizing generation
 Have many fans who admire their optimism,
intelligence, ambition and commitment
 Have many critics for their inflated expectations,
deficit in common sense
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Exhibit a number of contradictory attitudes
and behaviors
 “It’s all about me” yet also demonstrate strong
concern about social and environmental issues
and tend to be active in community service
 They want structure and clear direction in their
work assignments but also expect flexibility to
decide when and where they complete the tasks
 Although crave individual praise and recognition,
they can also be terrific team players
GEN X
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Casual, friendly work
environment
Involvement
Flexibility and freedom
A place to learn
GEN Y
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Structured, supportive
work environment
Personalized work
Interactive relationship
Be prepared for demands,
high expectations
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Management of Gen Y
 Need praise
▪ Performance feedback and acknowledgment
 Want to be heard
▪ Formats for discussion, teamwork and idea generation
 Want challenge
▪ Cross train, develop projects, new responsibilities
 Want meaningful work
▪ Build ways to give back to the community
 Unite with technology
▪ Access to new technology, technical equipment
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Boomers and Gen Y both see themselves as
special
 Boomers as a special generation
 Gen Y as special individuals
▪ Special in the eyes of the media, politicians, their
community and, above all, their parents
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Shared preferences about the workplace
 Flexible work arrangements
▪ Accountable for results not hours they keep in the office
 Opportunity to give back to society/community
▪ Support favorite causes
▪ Time for volunteering
▪ Matching funds
 Progressive policies
▪ Integrity
▪ Green or environmentally conscious
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Challenges
 Older workers don’t understand how to use new
technology
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Many organizations will change:
 Innovation—key organization capability
 Strategy and long-range planning—disappear
 The notion of chain of command breaks down
▪ Titles reflecting status disappear
▪ Many decisions made through participative or
democratic processes
 Role of managers: design and orchestrate
systems
 Work expressed and measured in terms of tasks,
not time
 Flexible arrangements replaced by individual
discretion
 Providing feedback will mean teaching, not
evaluating
 Careers neither continuous nor linear
 Retirement no longer occurs at a specific,
common age
 Career paths lead down as well as up
 Older workers work in entry-level jobs
 Short tenure expectation rather than the
exception

While the focus has been on the young, the
population and workforce are aging
Median Age of Labor Force
Years
1978
34.8
1988
35.9
1998
38.7
2008*
40.7
•Projected
Source: Bureau of Labor Statistics
Annual Rate of Labor Force Growth
1950-2025
Percent
1950-60
1.1
1960-70
1.7
1970-80
2.6
1980-90
1.6
1990-00
1.2
2000-15*
1.0
2015-25*
0.2
* Projections
Source: Bureau of Labor Statistics
Hazel H. Reinhardt
[email protected]