This is the last official week of class for the winter quarter. Yay! I can’t say that I have learned all that much about management from this class. I think you can study theory all you want but in a real life situation I am not going to go to put my dollar in the vending machine and push the button for whatever one looks best. The best way to learn about management is by doing it and by being mentored by other managers.
It is nice to wind up class with a discussion of generational differences in the work place. I have had quite a lot of experience with it in my previous job in IT for a nonprofit. I fall into the GenX generation, and if you want to butt heads with someone try being a GenX talking to a Baby Boomer about technology. But that is only one place differences show up. They pop up other places too. Like Boomer therapists with their advanced degrees. Some of them think they deserve respect because they have a masters and a license to practice therapy. They have expectations of being served by others on staff who they perceive as not as educated. Toss a GenX into the mix who has an advanced degree of her own and who is unimpressed by LICSW or LMFT and feelings get hurt on both sides.
You can’t throw the blanket “all” over everyone in a certain generation, but you certainly can talk of tendencies. I had to read four articles for class. The most interesting one came from the Harvard Business Review July-August 2007 issue (citations at the end of the post).
The folks that wrote the article have been studying generations for a long time and they discovered something very interesting. In taking a Jungian perspective and assigning each generation a dominant archetype based on the beliefs and behavior patterns exhibited, they found that in the U.S. there have only ever been four archetypes and they repeat themselves in a regular pattern. Prophet to Nomad to Hero to Artist and back to Prophet again, over and over. The only time when this didn’t happen was in the mid 1800s. There was no Hero archetype. But then everything got back on track again.
They also found that it is not the previous generation that has the most influence on the newest generation but the one prior to that. Therefore the Boomers are most influential to the Millennials and the Xers will be most influential to the generation following the Millennials (tentatively called Homelanders in the article).
Us poor GenXers are rather caught in the middle of two very huge demographics. The number of Millennials is almost equal to the number of Boomers in population. GenXers are a significantly smaller group. We are a generation alienated and disaffected who resents generational identity. Nonetheless, we are a group who values efficiency and innovation. Work-life balance is important and we will walk away from a job if we aren’t getting what we want from it.
Millennials, born from about 1982-2005, are like herd animals in a way. They have a desire to always be in touch and connected with friends and parents. Being alone often seems like a terrible thing. They like to work in teams and they like to work with friends. To older generations their pop culture will seem bland and mainstream and unoriginal. They tend to need constant encouragement and feedback from their superiors while at the same time they feel supremely confident in their abilities. While they believe that they can be good leaders, they want someone else to do it first.
I could go on and on. I find this stuff fascinating. Here are the promised citations in case you desire to do some reading of your own:
- Howe, N. & Strauss, W. (2007). The Next 20 Years: How customer and workforce attitudes will evolve. Harvard Business Review, 85, 7, 41-52.
- Markgreen, S., Dickinson, T., Leonard, A., & Vassiliadis, K. (2007). The Five-Year Itch: Are Libraries Losing their Most Valuable Resources? Library Administration & Management, 21, 2, 70.
- Young, A., Hernon, P., & Powell, R. (2004). What Will Gen Next Need to Lead? American Libraries, 35, 5, 32-35.
- ____________________________. (2006). Attributes of Academic Library Leadership: An Exploratory Study of Some Gen-Xers. Journal of Academic Librarianship, 32, 5, 489-502.
This sounds fascinating! Thanks for the citations, I am going to look these up. I’ve certainly had the experience of Gen X/Baby Boomer struggles over technology, among other things. I’ve never heard of Jungian archetypes being assigned to generations, but now I must read about it.
Totally fascinating. So what archetype are Gen-Xers?
That *is* interesting! I’ll have to look up that article. (I’m still reading stuff by Saenger from yesterday!)
P.S. How about Dancing With the Stars…? All the geeks are rooting for Woz.
How very interesting! I’m particularly intigued by the thought that it’s not the next generation but the one after that is most influenced by an ideology. Makes sense – I read that it takes a generation to talk the talk (but find it hard to put principles into practice) and then the next generation can act out those changes. I shall have to follow up on some of those articles, I can see!
You labeled the “poor GenXers”, but I feel even more alone. When the term Generation X was first coined, it officially started in 1965, which included me; however, every couple years the start date seemed to shift and I got left out in the cold. Not a Boomer, not an X; I hope I have some identity regardless.
Prophet to nomad to hero to artist? Hey, I think I periodically go through the same transition.
Melanie, I was a bit skeptical about the Jungian archetypes but it added an intriguing dimension to the generational differences.
Daphne, GenX is the Nomad archetype. I am sure Terri knows all about what that means!
Sylvia, so you found the Saenger book? Cool. Woz was funny, wasn’t he? He can’t dance but he seems like such a nice nerd. But I think he did better than the cowboy.
Litlove, I think you might find the articles interesting especially since you enjoy psychoanalysis so much. I bet you’d dig some good stuff out of them.
Bikkuri, lol, I hope it is a smooth transition. And don’t feel left out. They move the GenX dates around, some say 1961, some say ’64 and others ’65. It is not hard and fast. There is a sort of cusp group as generations change over so that they have some characteristics of both but are neither one or the other.
I find this fascinating too. And boy am I SUCH a GenX-er! (although I prefer that nobody stereotype me, please
) I see the millennials in my classrooms and don’t get their need to be on their cell phones all the time. I don’t feel bad asking them to do group work, as apparently they enjoy it!
Oh ya, Mr. Rodeo was stiff as a board, and way too worried about what his buddies would think. So much for the free-and-independent cowboy ideal. Yes, Woz is the quintessential nerd!
Dorothy, heh, yeah give the millennials group projects they love them, I don’t know why, but they do. I don’t get their need to be on their cell phones all the time either, it concerns me that they don’t know how to be alone. Have you had a millennial parent come talk to you yet about why you gave their child a bad grade? I’ve heard stories. I hope it never happens to you.
Sylvia, maybe he’ll get better with the ballroom dance next week. One can only hope.
I finally got around to reading that article by Howe and Strauss. I hate to admit it but I am a Gen-Xer. Apparently hating to admit it is part of it! Here’s hoping the Millenials go more in the direction of “solidarity forever” and not “Hitler Youth.” :S
I love how we have the desire to classify people and how creatively we do it.
Help! I’m technically a Millenial (just; born 1983) but I feel more like a Gen-Xer. Can I be an honorary member of the previous generation?
Sylvia, heh, I know. All the GenXers in class complained about having to admit we were GenXers. Supposedly Millennials are idealistic so I am with you in hoping their idealism is of the good sort!
Carrie, lol, there is no escaping a box, everyone must fit into one!
Victoria, oh yes, you can be a GenXer. There is actually a transition period between generations where those born in that period have characteristics of both generations but generally feel more affinity to one over the other.