Get Ready for the NET GENERATION.

• Author: ALCH, MARK L.

Well-versed in computers and the new electronic media, those born between 1977 and 1997 are expected to revolutionize the workplace.

THE GROUP following the baby bust (or Generation X) has been named the net or echo-boom generation, consisting of people born between 1977 and 1997. They are different from previous generations, so managers and senior executives will have to take account of the new realities of their culture, values, and what they want from work to retain employees and align them with corporate goals. As they enter the workforce, they will easily displace the baby boomers, since they are 80,000,000 strong, the largest generation ever.

This is in comparison to 77,000,000 baby boomers (those born between 1946 and 1964) and 44,000,000 baby busters (born between 1965 and 1976). Members of the net generation, like their parents, the baby boomers, will define business as they enter the corporate world in increasing numbers.

The oldest members of the net generation--those who are turning 23 years of age this year--are starting to slip quietly past baby busters to occupy history's center stage. Not only is the net generation more populous than its predecessors, it is the first to grow up exclusively in the digital age.

During the 1960s, a generation gap existed, with large differences over values, lifestyle, and ideology between parents and their offspring. The current generation gap between baby boomers and the net generation encompasses children having a huge edge in information technology. Informed and media savvy, the newest generation displays a strong work ethic and has grown up understanding the electronic economy. It is comfortable with changes brought about by the technology and e-commerce just starting to come into its own on the Internet. More than any previous generation, it is becoming conversant with a communications revolution that is transforming business, education, health care, entertainment, government, and every other institution in American society.

Rather than rejecting the lifestyle choices, values, and outlooks of the previous generations wholesale, they are seen as accepting some of the old with the new. The "netters" exhibit several major differences from the previous two generations. First, they have displayed more responsibility by holding part-time jobs in high school and college. They have not been given handouts or overindulged to the same extent as baby busters. In fact, members of this generation have been asked to help defray the high cost of college expenses in the 1990s.

Second, today's youth culture has more of a global orientation. They grew up understanding the need for an interconnectivity to the growing worldwide...