Generations in the Workplace Essay

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Generations in the Workplace:

A Sociological and Psychological View: Can’t we all Get Along?

Scott Moses

Table of Contents
Abstract ………………………………………………………………………. 3
Summaries and Critiques …………………………………………………….. 3
Analysis ……………………………………………………………………… 10
Application of Findings ……………………………………………………… 13
Conclusion …………………………………………………………………… 15
References ……………………………………………………………………. 16

Abstract
Within the past few years, an interesting phenomenon has been taking place in the workplace. This is the mixing of three different generations, Baby Boomers, Generation X, and the Millennial Generation or Generation Y. Never before have three different generations with such different values, expectations, and societal and psychological differences been thrust together to work as a team and forced to get along with each other. This paper will attempt to explain these differences and how to possibly overcome these differences.
Summaries and Critiques

1st Article: Young workers’ work values, attitudes, and behaviors.
According to Loughlin and Barling (2001), young workers are the workforce of the future. This paper focuses on 2 major influences on their work values, attitudes, and behaviors; the influences of their families and their work experience. Most of the emphasis is directed toward their work experiences and how these experiences shaped the workers values, attitudes, and behaviors.
As of 2001, 67% of Austrian youths, between the ages of 15-24, were in the workforce. In Denmark, the percentage is 75%; Sweden 63%; and North America 80%. Parents and teachers have traditionally supported this employment. They think that this will decrease teenage alienation, increase responsibility, and ease the transition from adolescence to adulthood (Greenberger & Steinberg, 1986).
In the past, it has been difficult to research the work habits of young workers for 2 reasons. The fist is the tendency of industrial/organizational psychology to only study full-time workers in large organizations. This can give incomplete and unclear analysis because these studies do not include part-time employees. The second is the overemphasis of family influences. While this is important, the study of early work experiences, and their influence on a young workers’ attitude, values, and behaviors, can be just as important as early childhood experiences on the same factors. Early work experiences can also be called “the impressionable years, on a young worker.
This report separates the young workers in age groups and generations. The older group, (20-24) are part of Generation X. The younger workers, (15-19) are considered Generation Y. Most research up to this date had not separated these two groups. It is important to do so because the different demands and experiences may have different repercussions and provide different lessons.
The report uses 2 fields of research for family experiences. The 1st is using development and industrial/organizational research from the late 1980’s on to explain how young people’s work attitudes, beliefs, and values are influenced by their families. The second uses generational research into how these new generations of workers might be influenced by family experiences.
The stream of research this report uses for work experiences extends from research done in 1999. This research primarily focused on full-time or non-permanent workers. This report will expand on this by looking at the long-term influences of young people’s early work experiences, especially the quality of these experiences. The report separates these influences into: employment quantity, employment quality, practical applications, non-standard work, leadership, and workplace safety, health and labor unions.
The main strengths of this article is the focus it gives to the importance work experience in
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