Special
Millennial children, unlike children in the GI generation, parents value and perceive their children as the most important in their requirement for them to live happy lives. The young Millennials are revered, praised, sheltered, befriended and carefully guided by their parents to lead a well-structured lives based on accepted rules, . The result is a generation of young people that is, by all standards, accomplished, self-confident, group-oriented, and optimistic.
Confident
The Millennials express willingness to take the challenge of change. However, the lingering question is whether the whole country would agree to do the same. Sadly, though, it is predicted that the decision of the American society on the direction on this issue can be read from its history. The role of the Millennial Generation in shaping the country’s destiny also becomes clear.
Diversity
Millennial Generation is a generation with the largest ethnic diversity. This is also mirrored in their attitudes. Unlike other generations, they embrace racial and ethnic equality and inclusion and always choose a level ground on issues touching the welfare of everyone. This culture is attributed to their parents who brought them up in that manner, . The traditions of the Millennial Generation spread rapidly so that by 1987, when Pew research was conducted on the topic of whether black should date whites in America, forty-eight percent of Americans voted in the affirmative, . Two decades later, ninety-two percent of the younger Millennial generation voted in the affirmative for interracial dating while eighty-one percent of the older members votes the same. The Millennial support for racial equality and inclusion is not a personal affair but extends to societal and governmental policy. Millennials are more likely to agree that every possible effort is necessary to improve the plight of blacks and other minorities, even if it means extending them preferential treatment. The chart below depicts racial composition of each generation.
Figure 1: Pew Research Centre
Millennials constitute the largest racially diverse group in the American society. They consist of forty percent African American, Latino, Asian, or mixed racial background. Compared to the last two generations, generation X and Baby Boomers, which have twenty-five percent, the number is certainly intriguing. Both Millennial and GI Generations were relatively larger compared to the generations that preceded each of them, . Currently, there are twenty-seven million more Millennials alive than members of Generation X and seventeen million more Millennials alive than Baby Boomers, . The gaps widen as the older generations age and die. During 1930s, two years before GI Generation was instrumental in voting Franklin Roosevelt to the presidency, the number of that generation, at the time, was greater than the number of the two previous generation combined. Similarly, now, the large number of Millennials voted President Obama into the White house. Then, just like previous generations, allows its beliefs, attitudes, and behaviors to dominate the American life and politics for the next four decades.
Ideal
Some critics hold that child rearing of Millennials produced a generation of self-important, entitled, and, indecisive young people. They pose that these are groups of vulnerable children, who may not survive in the tempests of life in a free, unregulated society. They, therefore, appeal to the government to create for them a favorable environment where they can easily find their way out, . In the brink of World War II, some commanders complained of softness due to too much pampering the recruits received. However, it has been proved that the theory that relates the nature of parenting to the individual is not exhaustively supported, . In any case, the Millennial generation has proved to be less associated with juvenile crime, teen pregnancy, abortion, and substance abuse. The occurrence of these social malpractices is lower in the Millennial Generation as compared to Baby Boomers and Generation X, . High moral and ethical values characterize the Millennial population. The table below shows moral and ethical values held by each type of generation. Generally, from the data, Millennials value family and social status as compared to other generations.
Accommodative, team-oriented and peaceful
Obama, a member of this generation, stated his reign by making the government flexible and responsive to change. Using the analogy of DNA strand, he regarded one part of the country as consisting of people, who believed in limited government and individual freedom, and the other as those, who recognized the need for a government that is flexible and responsive as well as varying for individuals’ needs. He advocated for the government that is democratic and is mindful of its citizen’s efforts to succeed. He wanted a government that does not guarantee results but tries every possibility nevertheless.
Moreover, he advocated for a civil, public discourse, which did not question the patriotism or motivation of those individuals from across the political divide. He believed problems cannot be solved by tearing down each other because of the differences in political, social, and religious background. He wanted an American society where people disagree on principles without making it personal. He also pleaded with his fellow millennia’s to keep to the Golden Rule and listen to all sided in order to work out a common ground when in a disagreement.
His final wish list, which further underlain the culture of Millennials was about peace, previously heralded by the late J.F. Kennedy. The latter was the first GI generation president. Obama wanted individuals to lead a public life, which enhanced a free society. Even though there little achievement of uniting the two strands of the American society the current president identified, his generation, the Millennial generation, depicts a characteristic uniqueness; the desire to serve, to create peace and harmony.
Social and technology oriented
Millennials are soon taking over the United States of America. They possess a collective spirit and act in a form of togetherness, which makes them thrive. They are at the center of today’s technology social networks and ability to reach out for friends from around the world, . This creates, in the process, community, which is far larger and more diverse than all the previous generations. There is an observed large number of Millennials united together by their belief and acting in a collective action by signing up for community service to help those in need. This reiterates their nature as explained in the previous sections of this document.
The millennial generation is associated with the use of information technology. They have the largest number of computer and cellphone use. They are the largest users of social networking platforms such as face book, twitter among others. The following statistics reveal some of the ways in which the millennial generation is associated with information technology.
The Millennial Generation is a group of individuals who are career oriented. They pursue career to high levels and are associated less with crimes and substance abuse among other social malpractices.
Population
Blacks, Hispanic, Asian, whites and other minor tribes, characterize the population of the Millennials. However, the use of the term minor tribe is dilute in the society of millennial generation because they treat each other with respect and value irrespective of the ethnical background. The charts below depict the composition of the millennial generation population. Majority are whites. Most critics comment that the free and brotherhood tradition of millennial generation is a consequence of their diversity. However, the large number of whites in this population cast doubt on such remarks because they would influence the culture of Millennials to a larger extent. The number of adults in this population increases with age.
Education
Millennial Generation is growing into a society with a larger percentage of educated individuals. The parents of the younger generation takes great care of their children, taking them to school and imposing strict rules and regulation on them. As a result, educated individual characterizes the population with high morality, ambition, confidence and good character. The statistics on education pattern of this generation support this argument.
Attitudes to work
The millennial generation consists of high seekers and high achievers. With their education background, moral and ethical values together with pride and confidence, this generation’s expectation from employment is high. Therefore, they seek high-ranking positions in any organization. This can be leant from the trend of work force indicated by the charts below. The charts point out that there is a low number of young individual in the work force. At such age, they are mostly preoccupied with developing strong academic backing of their professional qualification. The number of employed college students is also low, probably pointing out to the lack of rush to get employment until they obtain satisfactory academic training.
Impact on workforce
It is clear from the charts above that the workforce consists of adults who are quickly aging. Individuals that characterize the next workforce generation are at their mid ages. However, since this generation lacks the rush to occupy job positions without, according to them, satisfactory academic achievements, the job market may experience shortage of skilled labor. This could be a local phenomenon whereby the labor is force is present but the individuals are not in a hurry to fill vacant positions. The other likely scenario, which may happen in the job market, is the disagreement over the values held by the Millennial generation and the values held by their parents who are remnants of older generation. These disagreements could be about the matters related to job market standards. This is due to the fact that the two generations have different values in moral, ethical and even economic aspects. However, the Millennials have strong moral and ethical values and are likely to cause a lot of changes in the job market. The changes may include raising the standards of skilled labor force because they have a strong background for moral and ethical values. They, certainly, have respect, confidence, experience and expertise among other desirable qualities.
Self-employment
Millennials, as stated earlier, are high ambitious and high achievers. The employment environment may not offer them the value of their professionalism and return for their academic investment. This notion forms a recipe for self-employment drive. They are more inclined to get self-employment. In most generations individuals seeking for employment are usually young between the age of 20 and 35. Thereafter, any person feels more satisfied with self-employment than to work for somebody else. The millennial generation members are free to get to the job market at a time when they have advance age for employment. This makes them unsuitable for employment by existing organizations unless the organization is able to part with handsome remuneration. This is why this generation prefers self-employment to getting employment from current organizations. The following chart obtained from research statistics reveal this tendency.
Union membership
There are few millennials in the trade unions. The reason for this should be obvious from the previous discussion of the attitude of millennials to employment. Since there are a few of them in the job market, definitely their union membership is low. Also, vividly evident is the fact the millennials in the workers union are likely to be above 35-years old. This can be seen in the chart below:
Pragmatic idealism
The Millennial generation also believes in pragmatic idealism and need for the government to extend help to the country’s economic challenges. The GI Generation, on the other hand, support federal government to take responsibility in ensuing economic prosperity is driven by the deep and persistent poverty it experienced while growing up in 1930s. The Millennial Generation did not, however, suffered the same fate as the GI Generation during the recession. In spite of that, they still endorse the need for a greater level of economic equality and a wider range of economic opportunity. Millennials also favored unpopular government bailouts of financial institutions and auto companies. Over half of the Millennial Generation population supported government loans to banks, brokerages, General Motors, and Chrysler.
Right to make independent decision
In economic issues, like all other civic generations, Millennials disproportionately favor economic regulation of business and financial industry. Approximately eight months after the collapse of the financial industry, nearly seventy-percent of the Millennials, compared to sixty-one percent of older generations, agreed with the proposal that a free-market economy needs government intervention in order to serve the public interest. Most Millennials would agree that government regulation of business does harm than good, . Millennials also presented divided support for increased government spending to mitigate the problem of unemployment, . During the voting process over $800 billion Economic Recovery Act, two thirds of Millennials (65%) favored the plan while the rest of the population voted 53% in the affirmative. By October the same year, as economic sluggishness continued, Millennial Support for the same stimulus dropped to 57%. This was still above the 41% positive response from other generations.
Advantages and disadvantages of the Millennial generation
Advantages
Millennial generation individuals are technology oriented. Most modern organizations are adopting information technology to improve efficiency in their operations. Therefore, hiring members of this generation is a guarantee for successful of technology based management of the organization.
The unity culture in the millennial generation makes them perfect team players. Team players are good elements of any successful organization. Organizations prefer to split their objectives and assign to individual team. The teams should be corporative within the members and with other teams. This contributes to the realization of the overall objective. Therefore, millennial generation would provide good labor force to enable the organization implement this strategy.
Self-confidence, competitiveness, and high achiever characterize this generation. Such organizations will benefit from a variety of good qualities exude by the members of this generation. Most of them are learned and competitive. They are also mature as they seek to accomplish their academic undertaking before getting into the job market. They are employed at the age above thirty years.
Millennial generation consist of peaceful individuals. They are open and believe in dialogue and mutual settlement of disagreements. These are desirable qualities for working environment. They are likely to create peace with any person and, therefore, will facilitate a peaceful working environment. This quality also makes then suitable leaders especially with the strong academic, moral and ethical backgrounds.
Disadvantages of the Millennial generation
The background of this generation may make them perfectionist in political, economic, social, ethical and moral aspects. This may cause conflict with the remnants of other generations. Even, though, they are welcome to others, their beliefs and principles may not be compatible with the members of other generations. This conflict of values and beliefs may cause turbulent relationships with members of other generations in the work environment, social arena and political arena.
The Millennial generation also prefers self-employment to being employed. This belief can make their hiring process difficult as they may have present high expectations which may not be easy to meet. Since they have very high expectations, they are vulnerable to stress and depression resulting from challenges such as economic recession. Their high moral and ethical values certainly make their life stressful because they live with in a society, which is slightly challenged in ethical and moral values.
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