Across THE GREAT DIVIDE
“Baby Boomer and Generation X workers must bridge the generation gap, learning to manage, and be managed by, each other”. By Catherine S. McGowan. Available here.
This feature was originally featured in the 3rd Quarter 2000 issue of Today’s Engineer. Engineers are being heavily hit by generational issues. There is a perception (which maybe reality) that engineers are old, white men, and that the industry is not open to young people, women and non-whites. This perception may not be entirely accurate in reality, but it is certainly the perception. And the reality is that in most countries in the world, and across most engineering discplines, the average age of the profession has been increasing dramatically over the past 10 years or so. My understanding is that most engineering disciplines in South Africa, Australia and UK (at least) have average ages of nearly 50 years old!
The same is true of other professions (except lawyers, for whom TV drama has been fantastic in the past 2 decades, and accountants, who are seen as a the quick route to the top ranks of management).
It is therefore critical to understand generational issues in these professions.
Across the Great Divide
By Catherine S. McGowan. Available here.
Employees at both the technical and management levels today span more than two generations, rather than just a few years, as they did 20 or 30 years ago. Baby Boomer workers who are closer to retirement than to their career starts are managing and being managed by those who fall into the group commonly known as “Generation X”— men and women in their early 20s to early 30s. No longer are the traditional positions of manager and subordinate based primarily on chronological age and experience. Today’s multi-generational workplace has forced businesses and employees alike to rethink employee and management roles and practices.
Formally, Generation X is one of several monikers assigned to men and women born between about 1964 and 1977. As a group, they enjoyed less family stability and presence, and endured two working parents and more frequent divorce. They often spent more time with less supervision, and had fewer rules and role models.
Because Gen Xers grew up practicing teamwork concepts in school and on the playground, they are typically comfortable with collaborative work, and are highly motivated to contribute to team accomplishment and success, say experts. They don’t fear today’s new and emerging technologies; they grew up in the computer age, after all.
Many Gen Xers entered their careers driven to succeed on their own terms. In general, they tend to eschew rules and authority, believing that “getting it done, done right, and done well” is more important than following a specific process. They strive for building balance between their work lives and their personal lives; they are dedicated, but they won’t sacrifice their life outside of work for the sake of attaining “success.” They are also less concerned with titles or lines of authority; they aren’t driven by the status of being promoted to “manager,” say generational authorities.
Many Baby Boomers, on the other hand, enjoyed stay-at-home mothers, a more carefree lifestyle, and a more relaxed pace of life. Routine was big; dinner was served promptly at 6 p.m. when Dad got home from the office. As children, Boomers watched their role models spend entire careers with the same company, and grew to expect to give the same loyalty to their own employers.
In general, Boomers are more process-oriented and answer far more readily to the orders of authority, avoiding actions that might make waves whenever possible, experts say. Teamwork was introduced after they began their careers, and some still haven’t embraced the concept. Boomers’ careers began during a time when technical professionals conducted their work more individually and almost always behind the scenes.
“While some of the core management aspects have not changed, the importance of interpersonal and intra-professional dynamics becomes paramount when traditional roles are reversed when managers are younger than their subordinates.”—Sean Lockhead Prophet 21 Inc.Yardley, Pennsylvania
While Boomers have accepted such advances as computers and other technology as being necessary tools for getting their jobs done within today’s truncated project cycles, they likely didn’t gain computer skills in the natural course of growing up. They had to learn quickly how to transfer drafting and manual calculating skills to CAD and supercomputers.
The two generations, “have some subtle but critical differences,” mostly borne out of the environments in which they grew up, writes Claire Raines in her newsletter Generations (Issue 6, Winter 1999, www.generationsatwork.com). “Bringing the differences to the surface is a move toward resolving them.”
These differences can present challenges and even conflict. Because they view their work from different perspectives, some professionals find themselves faced with the inability to communicate with, lead, and even take direction from their older or younger colleagues, simply because they don’t see things in quite the same light.
Many of the differences tend to be rooted more in perception than in actual characteristics, and are promulgated by stereotypes. Unfortunately, rather than coming to value diversity in the workplace and allowing the differences to complement rather than detract, stereotyping can break down communication, create misunderstanding, and turn the workplace into an unproductive battleground, say generational authorities.
Although you can’t always tell them apart by how they look, their attire, or their lifestyles, Gen Xers have developed a reputation among their older colleagues. Likewise, the younger coworkers have pegged Boomers with a very different set of characteristics.
In her newsletter, Raines says Gen Xers assert “Boomers are too political; don’t practice what they preach; are workaholics; need validation; and are self-righteous.” On the other hand, Boomers believe Gen Xers typically “aren’t loyal; have no work ethic; are not committed; are self-focused; and have no respect.”
Both Gen Xers and Baby Boomers are quick to point out the shortfalls of the other. But these shortfalls often cry “stereotype” and affect the way colleagues approach, respect, and respond to and supervise one another. The characteristics may be true of some, but age really has nothing to do with it.
Both groups must find ways to reach mutual understanding, give and command respect, and communicate.
New Workplace Dynamic
Individual generational characteristics aside, career steps, the business environment, and management practices have changed as well. The traditional roles are gone; seniority no longer correlates directly to position.
Increasingly, companies are moving Gen X workers into management slots earlier. Many mid- and late-career technical workers and managers are managing and being managed by much younger peers and colleagues.
Project cycle times are quicker, too, adding to the stepped-up pace engineers experience in the workplace. “Everything has to be done so much faster today, and that requires us to step up the pace at each and every phase of the process,” says Ken Owens, a senior technical staff member for Tellabs in St. Louis, Missouri.
Some experts say Gen Xers are gaining valuable experience that can be measured more accurately in terms of work accomplished rather than years in the business, because so much more work is getting done in so much less time. Others share the opinion that Gen Xers are taking on supervisory responsibility without the necessary skills to manage effectively.
“While some of the core management aspects have not changed, the importance of interpersonal and intra-professional dynamics becomes paramount when traditional roles are reversed when managers are younger than their subordinates,” says Sean Lockhead, product manager at Prophet 21 Inc., a software and services company in Yardley, Pennsylvania. “In today’s workplace, it is critical for young managers to be attuned to this circumstance and learn to manage older subordinates—both as resources and as individuals.”
In the end, bridging the generation gap comes down to two simple ideas: understanding and respecting differences, and learning how to communicate effectively.
Owens believes businesses have recognized this need and have taken the steps necessary to address it. “It is the mark of a change in business process more than anything else,” he comments. “The process most companies are following is to divide employee training into a management and a technical track immediately. The skills a manager needs are completely different than the skills an engineer needs, and great engineers are not necessarily great managers.” Beginning the skills training early on is important, he says, because it prepares the engineers who want to be managers with the skills and knowledge necessary to manage effectively.
Learning From Each Other
Whether managing or being managed, both older and younger workers have much to gain by accepting and learning from their colleagues’ differences, rather than fighting them or using them to blame for failures or shortfalls. Such acceptance will lead to more effective communication, which will nurture and support continued employee and company success.
“I enjoy different mind sets and approaches. These differences help everyone learn and build from more experiences and varied perspectives,” says Owens, adding that his colleagues, both older and younger, share this view.
Fitting chronologically into the Gen X age group but not necessarily buying into the generational differences argument, Owens looks beyond the age and experience, turning instead to getting the work done. “I try to determine how a person thinks and responds to different situations before I even think about anything else,” he says.
Owens reports to a group manager, but plays lead roles on many cross-functional teams. “I don’t require supervision, but I look to my manager for support to accomplish the tasks and duties I’m responsible for,” he says. “I don’t consider my role to be a supervisory one, but I lead teams and mentor both younger and older engineers.”
His take on the role of managers is one typically shared by Gen Xers: Hierarchy is secondary to support and collaboration. Owens places priority on being able to do what he needs to do with some measure of autonomy, and guides those he leads and mentors to do the same. It’s the way he was taught, he offers. “A very good engineer mentored me after I graduated from college, and I have followed his lead. As a mentor myself, I give people a challenging goal to achieve in a short time frame, along with the resources they need to accomplish the task. I then let them make the decisions and drive the project.”
He also looks to older colleagues continually to gain from their knowledge and wisdom. “I learn as much as I can from the things they do well as well as the things they do not do well,” he comments. This sound practice considers individual strengths and weaknesses, rather than stereotypes, and places value in diversity.
In the end, bridging the generation gap comes down to two simple ideas: understanding and respecting differences, and learning how to communicate effectively. Embracing diversity—learning from it and working with it—means more to achieving career success and satisfaction than the generation labels attached to the players.
Catherine S. McGowan is a writer and editor in Ashburn, VA.
This article has been reprinted from 3rd Quarter 2000 issue of Today’s Engineer with permission from IEEE-USA. Copyright © 2000 by the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, Inc.
Related posts:
- Don’t treat all the Boomers the same I recently had a chance to have interact with Warren...
- Mind the Gap in Fairlady magazine Graeme Codrington was recently promoted in the South Africa Fairlady...
- Wisdom from Katherine the Great Katherine Garrett-Cox sounds like superwoman. She is one of...
- Drive to break down age barriers From the BBC News website, 20 April 2009. Drive to...
Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.
Recent Comments