As workers begin to stay in positions longer, businesses are experiencing more generation gaps among their employees. Most of the "Matures" born in 1945 or earlier have retired, but the "Boomers" born from 1946 to 1964 are working alongside "Generation X" born from 1965 to 1976 and "Generation Y" born from 1977 to 1991, according to birth rates during those times (Sago, 2000). At SWC, we have a young employee base along with older staff. Some of our employees are recently hired, where others have been with us for 10 to 15 years. Our younger staff members have a different set of values than our older staff members, and it is our goal to promote cohesion among the groups. Younger employees desire individual attention from managers, especially when seeking feedback to improve their performance. These employees also desire exposure to new skills and work areas, and they are driven to achieve excellence in everything they do. These are admirable qualities which need to be addressed as a work-team dynamic. We achieve this by focusing on intrinsic and extrinsic motivational methodologies to determine which is the most effective for SWC, by examining conflict-resolution and conflict-stimulation techniques to select an appropriate conflict policy, and by adopting a consistently effective global negotiating model involving integrative bargaining (CTU Online, 2007).
[...] Bringing in outsiders and restructuring the organization work best for the work-teams at SWC because we have already done this through global expansion. Besides, using ambiguous or threatening messages in our communication may not come across as we would expect with our cross-cultural colleagues due to colloquialisms and words which do not necessarily translate into the other language and appointing a devil's advocate to purposely argue with the majority of the group could very well lead to our international failure if it conflicts with the host country's norms. [...]
[...] Regular feedback in all areas helps to maintain or improve supervisory satisfaction and conducting market research helps to monitor pay satisfaction. Across the generations, it is important to make employees feel valued in the organization. Looking at Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs, pay is a motivator because it allows the employee to provide the basic needs of food, water, and shelter. Feeling valued meets the safety needs of minimizing anxiety and stress, which helps to meet the needs for belonging, self-esteem, and self-actualization. [...]
[...] In order to mend the generation gap in the work place, we must first understand what the generations reveal. First of all, generational differences are real ideals, values, traits, goals, and characteristics are different from generation to generation. These differences affect communication styles and expectations, work styles, work and life attitudes, technology comfort levels, loyalty and authority views, and change acceptance. The differences also cause misunderstandings and strife, which must be handled in a manner that is sensitive to all parties involved in order to avoid the inevitable impact on the workplace as a whole. [...]
[...] The work-team dynamic must be addressed to meet the needs of everyone in order to make the company successful both globally and domestically. It is important to understand generational differences so SWC can deal with the changing expectations both domestically and across the ocean. Extrinsic motivators are potentially more appealing to younger generations who are interested in what they upon completion of a task, where intrinsic motivators bring the most benefit to members of all generations. Intrinsic values come from within, while extrinsic values satisfy greed or punishment avoidance. [...]
[...] We must thrive domestically first in order to improve our chances in the global marketplace. References Benson, S. G., & Dundis, S. P. (2003, September 1). Understanding and motivating health care employees: integrating Maslow's hierarchy of needs, training and technology. Journal of Nursing Management, pp. 315-320. CTU Online (2007). Task list: MGM604-0704A-07: Organizational behavior. Retrieved October from [...]
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