Issues & observations-Debunking generational differences

✍ Scribed by Renn, Michael T.

• Book ID: 102448815
• Publisher: John Wiley and Sons
• Year: 2008
• Weight: 78 KB
• Volume: 28
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 1093-6092
• DOI: 10.1002/lia.1238

✦ Synopsis

ately it seems that everyone has been labeled, categorized, or even stereotyped based simply on his or her date of birth. It has become commonplace to attribute closely held views, values, and behaviors to generational differences. People may, for example, belong to the Silent Generation, the Baby Boom generation, Generation X, or Generation Y. Warren Bennis and Robert Thomas wrote a book about the leaders they call Geeks (ages twenty-one to thirtyfour) and Geezers (ages seventy to eighty-two).

Research has indicated certain generational attributes. In comparison to Baby Boomers, for example, Gen-Xers tend to place more importance on autonomy, independence, variety, excitement, and challenge; want to be promoted faster; and are less loyal and more self-focused. Baby Boomers are more likely to feel that work is one of the most important parts of a person's life.

Although the existence of generational differences in the practice of leading is often taken for granted, Jennifer J. Deal, an enterprise associate and researcher at CCL, in her book Retiring the Generation Gap: How Employees Young and Old Can Find Common Ground (Jossey-Bass, 2007), describes these differences as "largely myth" and has ample survey