The acceptance of change and the willingness to embrace it is largely dependent on the experiences that employees have had in the past. No one generation is more or less likely to resist change and it is fair to anticipate resisters to change from all four generations.
In a Traditionalist’s world, change only happened when there was a good reason for it. The old adage ‘if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it’ was often applied. Change was not undertaken lightly and, if things were working, they remained the same. For change to be accepted, it must be linked to how it will benefit the organization and must fix an existing problem.
Baby Boomers tend to be cautious of change. Their reluctance isn’t a result of not wanting to seek improvements, but as a result of the fact that many Baby Boomers lost their jobs during the recessions of the ‘80s and ‘90s, which made them wary of broad organizational changes. They also had to endure “flavour of the month” leadership changes and shifts back-and-forth in strategy which translated into a lack of enthusiasm for new changes. In principle, Baby Boomer employees may not resist the change but they may be less excited about
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They want to know the benefits of change, most notably to them, and what they will gain by adopting a new approach. Resistance occurs if they believe the change will hinder their ability to achieve results. If involved in the planning process, Gen Xers will focus on setting targets for how performance can increase as a result of the change.
Gen Ys have grown up in a world where change is constant and where technology changes every 3-6 months. This has translated into a culture where Gen Y employees expect organizational change to occur quickly and frequently. Resistance to change happens if the initiative is entirely driven from the top or if there is a sense that the change is too minor and insignificant to make an
This is experienced as a result of the desire to maintain status quo. In some organizations, a minor change to the responsibilities of the organizations requires much time and resources (Want, 2006). Change can lead to conflict. Individuals become attached to things they consider as the norm of their workplace. When change occurs the employees have difficulty of letting go of the status qou.
The study found Gen Y are tech savvy but not great team player, Gen X are entrepreneurial thinking but rank low on executive presence and boomers are team player and loyal but do not adapt so well (Giang, 2013). 78% of the responders agree member of Gen Y are believed to be the most tech savvy who know how to utilize social media to leverage opportunities. 68% of the responders agree that this young workers are most “enthusiastic” about their job. In contrast, Gen Y scored lowest on being team player, hardworking, and productive part of an organization. More Gen Y were interested in how to get a promotion compared to Gen X or Baby Boomers (Giang, 2013).
HBCU alumni from the Silent Generation, also known as Silents or Traditionalists, were born between 1925 and 1946, and according to Fogg (2008), were influenced by the Great depression, World War II and the Korean War. As stated in the 2015 Pew Research Center report, “Most Millennials Resist the 'Millennial ' Label, Time Magazine coined the name, “Silent Generation,” in 1951 because this generation worked hard without saying much. Howe (2014) noted that Silents were very cautious, worked within the system and rarely talked about changing the system. Fogg (2008) explained that this generation is known for valuing loyalty, recognition hierarchy and are resistant to change (Fogg, 2008). The Pew Center Research report explained that a large
Companies will also need to anticipate and assess which new skills and training older employees will require, particularly in the realm of technology where they may feel less comfortable than many of their younger colleagues. The federal workforce is building toward a potential retirement wave in coming years, with more than a third of career federal employees projected to be eligible for collecting their end-of-career benefits by September 2017, compared to just 14 percent at the same time in 2012. The dynamic of this workforce is the wealth of knowledge, skills, abilities, and experience that will be walking out the door never to return. Millennials will make up 50 percent of the U.S. workforce by 2020 and 75 percent of the global workforce by 2030. At issue is how to attract and retain
Businesses have reported challenges in integrating the Generation Y employees into the Baby Boomer culture. The Generation Y, also known as the Millennials form the latest generation of workers entering the job market. However, dealing with them is quite complex, which means managers balance both the expectations of the millennials and company objectives to achieve optimal performance and productivity. This report seeks to provide insight on recruitment, management, and retention of the Generation Y employees to Baxter Electronics, a Chicago-based software manufacturer. This report will also discuss the characteristics of the Millennials and provide recommendations for managing and retaining them in the workforce.
Chapter 7: A Dedicated Organisation Organisations are sacred cows. To suggest changes to organisation is a risky enterprise. That is why the preceding chapters have limited themselves to recommending changes to staffing, training, and minor process changes, which would wily-nily bring about some organisational changes. In his book “The Rhetoric of Reaction: Perversity, Futility, Jeopardy”, theorist Albert O Hirschman, writes about change. He argues of a ‘reactionary narrative’ when it comes to social change, that is conservative in nature and opposes change.
BABY BOOMERS Why was the amount of births increasing quickly after the war? -About 9 months after World War 1, more children have been born due to the men coming home from the war -Many couples postponed having children due to the great depression and World War 1, so they decided to wait until the war was over, these couples began having children the same time as other couples that were getting married at a young age (paraphrase) -Couples were able to produce more children due to the fact that there was a good economy (paraphrase) -This caused a large population change as there were 76.4 millions babies as of 1965 hence the name “Baby Boomer”. The babies alone made up 40% of the population.
Change is something we go through everyday throughout our lifetime; your life doesn’t get better by chance, it gets better by change. Often when change occurs, individuals will resist it because the change will threaten their established way of life. However, once people see the other benefits change brings, they will often learn to accept and even embrace it. Pleasantville suggests that everyone need change in their life, or else things would just keep repeating like if you’re acting as a role for a movie. In Pleasantville, everything is perfect because everyone has a role, and always know what to do and what will happen in the future.
”Change is the law of life. And those who look only to the past or present are certain to miss the future. ”(John F. Kennedy). Changing is a very hard and tiring. No one likes to change, no one likes to be told what to do.
Some of the people are rejecting new things because they do not want to start all over again. Some people will still accept the innovations because of their jobs need or the interest of the new things around them. According to the article the ordeal of change written by Eric Hoffer, the author states that a workingman will do his job leisurely because he is sure about his skills. However, when things change totally different, the workingman must to do the job and unwilling to work in the new environment. The workingman needs to adjust in a new situation for a period of time and get used to the new working environment.
A business undergoes the process of converting to an environment that does not only teach millennials how to be their best, but how to look back on past generations and learn from their mistakes. The millennials need more exposure to more fulfilling and old fashioned times, so that they can fix themselves and work more efficiently in a corporate
Hence, leaders need to be prepared and manage readiness to the alteration by making an environment of honesty and transparency for their team as a successful implementation of the change is unlikely. Employees must be part of the change hence, they must to be told about the requirement of the change and be given a reward to motivate to embrace the change. If change be accepted by all recipients it can be implemented quickly and effectively. The leaders’ attitudes and behaviors have both positive and negative alterations on the change success. Therefore, leaders of organizations need to try and develop a more framing and shaping behavior, adding skills on themselves to change and motivate the subordinates towards the embracing the change.
As the trend towards a more liberal workforce dynamic continues to grow the millennial generation will have a comparative advantage against previous generations. As a manager it is key to provide a work environment with a clear picture on the values of the organization. In order to create a work environment that will provide a productive work it is essential to provide a clear picture to differentiate from competitors. Different strategies could be implemented to maintain motivated employees by providing training sessions, job mobility, and competitive salary. Keep in mind, that work flexibility is not only a millennial work preference but has also been seen in the Generation X’s, and Baby Boomers.
Intergenerational issues in the workplace can cause tension between the employees and employer. Millennials feel that it is harder to grow and develop their careers in organizations because of this problem due to an absence of guidance from other generations in higher positions. Where Millennials feel lack of guidance, Baby Boomers and Generation X feel that Millennials entering the workforce are directly after their positions, therefore causing a strain on workplace relationships between employees. If intergenerational problems in the workplace continue to remain unsolved, it can and will cause disruption within the organization. Productivity can decline due to low cooperation between multigenerational employees resulting in lower efficiency and completion objectives leading to disruption within the organization.
Generation X are often considered the “slacker” generation. They naturally question authority figures and are responsible for creating the work/life balance concept.