Managing with Generations X and Y: Communication, Conflict and

Rewards

Chantal Westgate & Suzanne Gagnon

Desautels Faculty of Management

La fin d'une génération: les baby-boomers à la retraiteThe End of a Generation: Baby Boomers into Retirement

In our private lives, generational diversity plays an important role….

It typifies our families….

It structures our institutions …

We are used to living with generational diversity.

Why, then, should it be a problem for life in

organizations?

Four propositions:

1. There are now FOUR generations in many organizations : ‘war for talent’, plus people are working longer…

2. The four have different life histories & to some extent, different attitudes towards work, careers, success

3. Seniority, hierarchy and inequality no longer define the way we work in many cases

4. With group differences comes the potential for conflict – judgmental attitudes, stereotyping, ‘in-group/out-group’ behaviour

The Challenges and Promise of Working with Gen X and Y

• The different generations

• Communication, Conflicts and Rewards

• How can you help build collaboration across the generations?

Generational Differences

• How we view the world is shaped in part by watershed events and conditions that each of us experience during our formative years.

• Generation of origin is one aspect of diversity.

• Helps determine individual values, motivators and needs, in much the same way as culture, gender.

The Generations1 - ‘Greatest’ or Silent Generation/Veterans

(born 1922-1945)

2 - Baby Boomers (born 1946-60’s)

3 - Generation X (born 1960’s-1980)

4 - Generation Y/Echo/Nexters (born 1980-2000)

Representation in the room?

Key common life events that distinguish each group?

‘Greatest Generation’: some key influences

• The Great Depression• The New Deal• World War II• The Holocaust• Urbanization• Rural Electrification• Radio and the movies

Baby Boomers: some key influences

• Economic Boom • Women’s Liberation • Trudeaumania• Rise in Civil Rights Activism• Quiet Revolution• Rock & Roll• Race to Space• Vietnam War• Watergate

Gen X: some key influences

• Demolition of the Berlin Wall• 24-hour live remote news coverage• Dot-com economy• Hi-tech start-ups• Challenger disaster• Abundant

economy in the80s; recessionearly 90s

Gen Y: some key influences

• Internet – communications explosion• Y2K• Iraq War• Columbine Shootings• September 11th

• Corporate Scandals, e.g. Enron• Video Games• Instant messaging + + +• Global awareness

– Volume of information available

Each generation can be associated with different values, assets,

liabilities and motivators for the workplace

Greatest Generation – Core Values: dedicated, disciplined, respectful of

authority, prefer hierarchy, sense of personal organization – Assets: stable, loyal, detail-oriented, thorough, hard

working– Liabilities: discomfort with conflict, coping with

ambiguity, reluctance to buck the system– Motivators: being valued for their experience, wisdom,

knowledge– Leadership Style: more directive, command/control,

make the decisions and delegate

Baby Boomers (born 1946-1964)– Core Values: optimism, teamwork, personal gratification,

growth, youth, hard work, involvement, prestige and status– Assets: service oriented, willingness to go the extra-mile, desire

to please, team spirit, good working relationships– Liabilities: conflict avoidance, process over goals, sensitivity to

feedback, judgmental, self-centered [The Me Generation]– Motivators: being valued for their unique contributions; personal

achievement, wealth acquisition – Leadership Style: collegial, consensual, passionate, concerned

about fairness but may also be directive or lack supervision skills-

Gen Xers (born 1960-1980)– Core Values: balance work and home, self-reliant, casual about

authority, pragmatic, egalitarian, global awareness– Assets: adaptable, technological, independent, voracious learners,

financially savvy, not intimidated by authority, team players– Liabilities: impatient, poor people skills, cynical, low expectations

about job security, less willing to make personal sacrifices at work

– Motivators: new technology and doing it by their own rules– Leadership Style: less comfortable with traditional chain-of-

command, bureaucracy, procedures

Gen Y ( (born 1980-2000…)

– Core Values: sense of civic duty, confidence, achievement, optimism, sociability, street smarts, appreciation for diversity

– Assets: multi-tasking, tech savvy, optimistic, tenacity, collective action, want to work closely with senior people

– Liabilities: need supervision, cocky, inexperienced with interpersonal issues

– Motivators: working with people like themselves, making change happen, goals

– Leadership Style: resiliency, combine teamwork ethic of Boomers with tech skills of the Xers and a can-do attitude

Stereotyping• Stereotyping =

Assigning identical characteristics to any member of a group regardless of his or her individual differences. Can be unconscious. Can lead to bias, prejudice.

Ethnocentrism• Ethnocentrism = tendency to

think one’s own group or race is superior to other groups or races.

Generational Differences: Management Issues

• Stereotypes of each generation, based on your experience or impressions -- How did you arrive at the stereotypes?

Characteristics of Inter-group Conflict

Stereotyping

Overvaluation of one’s own group

Devaluation of the other group

Polarization on issues

Distortion of perceptions

Escalation

Inter-group Conflict• In-group/out-group dynamics may help explain

our tendency to stereotype: We want to feel good about the group we belong to, and one way is to think less well of other groups.

– Research shows tendency to see members of own group as individuals….but members of other group as undifferentiated.

Can learn to manage stereotyping through conscious awareness and control.

HOW TO COLLABORATE MORE

• Get curious – ask questions

• Express own concerns unemotionally

• Keep to issues on the table and in the present

• Take responsibility for your own ‘part’ in conflict

• The Platinum Rule rather than Golden Rule (others may not want or value the same things as you…)

Motivation/Rewards

Expectancy Theory• Work effort is directed toward behaviors that will lead to

desired outcomes• Emphasizes the important role of perceptions of

probability that:

1. One’s effort will lead to ‘performance’; 2. The performance will lead to a particular outcome; 3. That the outcome will be valued.

In rewards, look for valued outcomes. Beware that these may differ significantly from your own.

QUIZSome Valued Outcomes

– New technology and doing it by their own rules?

– Working with people like themselves; making change happen; work to live?

– Being valued for their experience and knowledge?

– Being valued for their unique contributions; personal achievement; live to work?

Exemplary employers proactively seek generational diversity: Why?

Wisdom and experienceFresh ideas and fearlessness

Individual skillsNeed for best talentReflection of the

marketplace

(Hankin, Harriet (2004): Boomers

and Echoes and Nexters)

HOW TO BUILD COLLABORATION, 2

• Awareness

• Adjustment– Long-standing norms and policies allowed to change

– Includes face-time expectations, leave, rewards – Meeting challenge of internal equity

• Cross-generational mentoring– Nursing, healthcare

• Building ties – Multi-age teams, expectations of synergy, mutual respect

Challenges

• Recognize groups, see people as individuals.

• Manage (your own) resistance

to change.

• Ensure that segregation and

tokenism are minimal, and

integration is the principle.

Thank you for your attention…