Introduction
There are many challenges ahead on which managers should focus and be prepared to address in the area of gender and generation supervision. Different generations and genders have different attitudes towards work, loyalty towards employer, attitudes, respect and authority, supervision, training needs and styles and also desires among many others. The generations’ term is used for the group of people that share birth years, location and age and have different views. The focus of the paper will be on presenting different generations and their basic characteristics and examine the successful way management can handle diversity and promote nondiscrimination on the working place. Generational differences and diversity must be seen as a value not as a problem, since they can increase the efficiency of the organization by adding different values and productivity. When dealing with different generations and genders the stereotyping and generalization of profiling as will be present, is not the best way to deal with differences, since every individual is different, but can serve as the basics since there has been found statistically significant difference between diverse generation. The Families and Work Institute (N. d.) found real difference between generation of employee on actions, priorities and attitudes, which can result in disagreements, negative working climate and less productivity. The managers must know the weakness and strengths of every generation which enables to place the employees on certain positions inside the organization in accordance to their skills and abilities. The paper will examined the future challenges of the managers in working with different generations in the light of the gender and generational supervision.
Managing the work family balance
With different opening hours, schedules, working hours the challenges of finding the balance between work and family are growing. There are various different schemes across the globe with paid or unpaid paternally or maternally leave. Flexibility is the most important factor in creating the right balance. Business objectives for employee performance and shortage of skilled labor are issues managers are daily confronted. United States gave longer hours than workers in most other developed countries which creates even bigger challenges how to combine family with the patterns of worked schedules, large number of working hours, fragmented and unpredictable working hours and the long time spent on commuting. The work life balance policies are resulting in the gender gap in employment rates. The flexibility is very important in order to attain the skilled and experience workers. There are various benefits that managers must consider. With flexibility the absenteeism, employee turnover, costs of recruitment, retraining and induction of new staff are reduced. With the flexibility the motivation and productivity of employee can also enhance. The key challenge is to combine the job with family responsibility (Fagnani, 2012).
Working with different generation of workers
Currently on the working places four different generations can be found and hence Traditionalists, Baby Boomers, Generation X and Generation Y which is known also as the Millennials. For the future, it is also important to consider the Generation Z. Based on the Filipczack, Raines and Zemke (2013) all four generations seen in the work today have different values and ethical systems and they work in different ways. Different styles can result in problems that a good manager can overcome with managing to work different generations together and making a team to which everyone can contribute its share. Different generations have different values, ideas, different ways of getting things done and also different way of communicating, but there is no strict line between the years and no one can accurately described generations based on the general description. Further on the different generations will be presented and shortly described.
The traditional generation
The traditional generation is loyal and submissive. The generation born between 1925 and 1943 trusts in government and has a strict standard. They are committed and consistent to work. In this generation around 50 million are still found in the working area. They are patriotic, loyal and have faith in the institutions and are more inclined to one company and making carrier inside of that company. They are very loyal but do not like change since they want to build a legacy. They value discipline and logic (Filipczack, Raines and Zemke, 2013).
The baby boom generation
The generation was born between 1943 and 1960. They are very optimistic. They are competitive and seek ways to change the system. The group is the largest among all examined and were influenced by the people of the time that believed that anything is possible. They are hard workers that want to have the personal gratification for the work done. Growth and self-improvement is important to them. There are around 80 million of Baby Boomers. The generation can be described as idealistic, which questions the authority (Filipczack, Raines and Zemke, 2013).
Generation X
The generation X was born between the years 1965 and 1980. They grew up with higher divorce rates and have mothers who worked. They are practical and they work to live. They are less committed to one employer and have the ability to work independently. They are known to be resourceful and self-sufficient. They can be described as skeptical, aware of the diversity and globally orientated. They rely on themselves with the practical approach. They like to work with the technology and are highly adaptable to change and new technology improvement with the goal of building portable carrier. There are around 46 million of the generations X in the United States population. They are very flexible in changing jobs and they believe it is necessary (Filipczack, Raines and Zemke, 2013).
Generation Y or Millennial generation
The generation was born between 1980 and 2004. They are digital connected and multitaskers. They know how to collaborate and believe that the respect must be earned. They have the balance work and home and have very clear expectations. The generation is described as realistic. The collaboration is preferred for the orders. The strong morals and serving community matter, for around 76 million of US Millennials. The global concerns and their work must be meaningful. The career path does not need to be in a straight line (Filipczack, Raines and Zemke, 2013).
Differences among generations
All generations must be involved in the communication so that the difference between different generations can be better understood. The manager must have the knowledge to understand how differences in gender, age, culture and social values present challenges to effective interpersonal communication. The communication styles among genders and generations also differ and impact the working relationship with the supervisor. All generations were born in different time frame and they differ in business focus, the basic motivators, loyalty and the meaning of money. The Traditionalists are at work focused on the quality, Baby Boomers on long hours, Generation X on productivity and the Millennials on the meaningful contribution. There are different motivations among different generations. In the first generation the security is the most important for the second the money for the third and fourth the free time. Traditionalist are the most loyal where company loyalty does not mean a lot to the Millennials and Baby Boomers. There are also basic values prescribed for each. For the first generation the family and community are the most important for the second success, for the third time and the fourth the individuality. From this the managers can prescribe what motivates the employees and how to engage them to be the most effective. Traditionalists could be engaged as mentors, coaches and teachers, but should also change the roles with different generations’ employees. The cooperation is needed. Baby Boomers must have the necessary flexibility, respect and authority and they are known to thrill for the challenges. Millennials want fairness and direct management with the possibility of the individual development (Burcsh, 2014 and Filipczack, Raines and Zemke, 2013). Different values must be respected with decreasing the discrimination and increasing the employment diversity.
Promoting nondiscrimination of either generation
Work discrimination based on the generation refers to unequal treatment that arises from an explicit belief that members of a social group are inferior and it results in negative treatment of individuals based on their alleged group and not on their individual characteristics and merits. Unfair treatment that leads to the structural outcomes with unfair, inconsistent and unethical manner must be avoided. Age, gender and generation discrimination are harmful since it deprives the national economy of the productive labor of a vast number of workers with depriving workers of the opportunity to work in satisfying and productive occupations. The age, gender and generation should not be imposed as a limit upon employment. The age discrimination is based on motives of various discriminations such as national origin, racial or religious and is based on stereotypical assumptions of abilities and valued and does not represent the objective facts (Berret & Butler, 2011).
There are vast differences between different generation and that is why the promotion of nondiscrimination is very important. The discrimination among different generation could be erased with developing training programs that will achieve mutual understanding between different generations of employees. With the training conducted various challenges will be raised and with typical problems shown the solution could be found to resolve them. Management training must be periodical and regular with including all of the working force. With the training employees of different ages and genders will better understand each other and work on the mutual respect. The managers must improve the talent system for all employees with developing the opportunities for mentoring, networking and conferences. The mentoring imposed should be done for both sides elderly and senior to the young and the other way around. Those in the middle should also get attention while focusing on the talent of only the youngest and the seniors is incorrect. The managers who supervise must include rewards for increased competency, but focus should not be only on the supervised who the best performances are. The building of a culture of mutual responsibility for career development by providing sufficient information and assistance from managers is another important factor. Among the workers must be personnel for counseling and career monitoring on which employees can rely on with sharing their expectations, address the development, desires of new opportunities or cooperation. They can act as a problem solver and can enhance the desired development and receive diverse experience of which existence employees must be we aware of. Managers should also create the Flex-Career Programs with which the employees who left for caregiving would stay connected with the companies and the transition of them in the future back to the working place would be easier. Diverse career paths should be created with the appraisal performance that gives a real feedback with transparent criteria for advancement. Flexible work arrangements can help to tackle the issue of discrimination, by making the same visible rules for everyone regardless of their gender or age (Families and Work Institute, n. d.).
Creating diversity among working with either generation
Diversity in age, gender and national origin must be guaranteed in order to incorporate different talents that can contribute to the company with new ideas, rituals, cultures and different solutions. The company can profit the most from the employees and therefore none of the possible asset can be overlooked. With diversity the company’s goals are the most important factor on which applicants are going to be chosen. People of different perceptions have the potential to bring different ideas and thoughts to problems solving and create future competitiveness and opportunities. The management must deal with the difference to make them into an opportunity rather than conflict. The generations are defined by common taste, attitudes and also experiences. There are differences and misunderstandings at the work place because of different economic, social, demographical and sociological circumstances of employed. The generations share their experiences through history. Because, as shown in researches the employees are self-aware of differences between generations the conflict resolving and supervision must be carefully planned (Filipczack, Raines and Zemke, 2013).
An organization must adopt effective strategy to address the intergeneration challenges and focus of the specific needs of each with creating competitive advantage with resolving conflicts and increasing opportunities. There are many advantages in promoting the diversity such as competitiveness where with education about differences in generations the age discrimination is decreased the knowledge is being shared among different generations and can prevent the “brain drain”. Diversity can improve corporate culture by involving various professionals, which can only increase the intergeneration understanding, productivity and respect. With more diversified companies more diverse talents will be attracted to the firm. With the right management skills the engagements and moral will be increased. With more effective managing of different generations the employee morale and engagement will result in higher productivity. It is also assumed that multiple generations companies a more flexible than homogenous ones, and can maintain and gain more markets, with making better decisions from various perspectives and result in more creativity and innovation (Bursch, 2014 and Chung-Herrera et al, 2012).
Discrimination can decreased with honoring each generation’s unique contributions by rather looking for differences focusing on similarities. In order to overcome the issues the appropriate channels of communicating with feedbacks must be implemented. Creating the programs where different generations can work together and share their knowledge with building the diverse teams of gender, culture and age, will increase the trust and respecting of different values. Managers must be flexible with implying different management styles. Common grounds must be found by taking into account the different needs of diverse generations from recruiting, hiring, developing the opportunities and individual growth, different working habits and values to retirement (Bursch, 2014).
Conclusion
Key future challenges of management are vast and the contemporary manager must be aware of various differences of employees and workers that have different values, habits and working expectations. Flexibility in handling issues of generational and gender differences must be well improved in order to understand four and in the near future 5 different generations. With offering development opportunities, professional development, building mentoring, coaching and leadership skills the issues of different generations can be overcome. With the challenges of 5 different generations are also vast opportunities. Proactively addressing the different needs of generations can create competitive advantage by incorporating different talents across different generations. Multigenerational workforce can bring benefits if the right management is implied. There are various future managerial challenges ahead and two of the most important ones were examined in the paper with looking into the balancing of the job and family obligations and into the challenges arising from the various generations in the working place and the possible opportunities that can be achieved with cooperation, flexibility, non-discrimination and diversity.
Work cited
Berret, A. Beth, Butler, H. Thomas. 2011. A Generation Lost: Reality of Age Discrimination in Today’s Hiring Practices. Journal of Management and Marketing Research. Retrieved: http://www.aabri.com/manuscripts/11981.pdf
Burcsh, Dan. 2014. Managing the Multigenerational Workplace. Retrieved http://www.kenan-flagler.unc.edu/~/media/Files/documents/executive- development/managing-the-multigenerational-workplace-white-paper.pdf
Chung-Herrera, G. Beth, Dean, A. Michael, Ehrrat, Karen Holcombe, Jung, Don I., Shore, M. Lynn, Singh, Gangram. 2012. Diversity in Organizations: Where are we Now and Where are we Going? Human Resoiurce Management Review Vol. 19. Retrieved https://cbaweb.sdsu.edu/assets/files/iido/HRMR-Diversity.pdf
Fagnani, Jeanne. 2012. Work-family Life Balance: Future Trends and Challenges. OCDE Publishing. Retrieved: https://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/halshs-00663849/document
Families and Work Institute. Tips for Managers Generation & Gender in the Workforce. N.d. Retrieved http://familiesandwork.org/downloads/TipsforManagers- GenerationandGender.pdf
Filippczack, Bob, Raines, Claire, Zemke, Ron. 2013. Generation at Work: Making the Clash of Boomers, Gen Xers, and Gen Yers in the Workplace. United States of America: Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data.
