Companies tend to believe stereotypes when it comes to how Baby Boomers and Generation Xers work, according to a study by the University of Illinois published earlier this year in the Academy of Management Review.
“Our message is the problem isn’t that simple and there are no one-size-fits-all solutions,” said one of the study’s authors, Aparna Joshi, a professor of labor and employment relations at the University of Illinois. “Just as we don’t want to take simplistic approaches to race and gender issues, we shouldn’t automatically assume that a gray-haired man isn’t on Facebook or good at technology. Assumptions based solely on age can lead to some very faulty conclusions and missteps.”
The study found that age is just one factor that may contribute to generational difference. In addition, age isn’t as all-defining as one might think, with individuals being defined more by their common experiences than the year they were born. For example, someone born in 1957 would have a very different experience of the Beatles than another Boomer born in 1951. While both are Baby Boomers, their life experiences actually can place them in sub-groups within a generation.
Another faction may be multi-generational, such as when employees started working at a firm. Younger and older workers may have more in common with each other than their same-age peers who started at the company after a defining event, such as a merger or acquisition, the death of a beloved executive, or even the memo when the company allowed “reasonable” use of the Internet during the work day.
The study suggested that reducing these factions and divisions will enhance efficiency and productivity. This will allow institutional knowledge to be passed on (instead of seeing it lost through retirement) and new employees will be more engaged (reducing turnover and its costs).
“It human nature that workers interact with their cohorts, seeking out their own,” Joshi said. “Figuring out ways to bring them together will allow companies to tap into all of those knowledge silos and reach full potential.”
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