In harmony: managing a multi-generational workplace.

• Author: Vanek, Jeff

Today's workplace is a multigenerational mix. As many as four different generational groups can be found working side by side. Additionally, significant economic structural changes are taking place as our economy evolves from being industrial-based to worldwide and information-driven--with the newest generation of workers leading those changes.

Understanding how employees from different generational groups think and what they value can help a company attract and manage its employees, no matter their age.

An important caveat: When looking at generational groups, or any other demographic for that matter, it is important to keep in mind that although a person's birthday may include them in a certain generational group, individuals remain individuals with their own experiences, set of values and worldviews. Just as generalizing characteristics and traits about a certain racial group can lead to prejudices in action and thoughts, so can making assumptions about individuals based on the generational group they belong to.

The Times They Are a-Changin'

The Millennial generation, made up of those born between 1981 and 2000, is the harbinger of significant economic structural shifts taking place in a global economy. Millennia's do not just represent another age group in the workplace--they are the generation that is coming of age and entering the workforce at a time when digital technologies are transforming the world economy itself We are no longer in an industrial age and the social, industrial and educational structures that supported that economy are now at odds with the emerging changes taking place.

Pamela Perlich, Ph.D., senior research economist in the Bureau of Economic and Business Research at the University of Utah, points out that there is a tension in today's workplace, "not just because of age differences, but because these age differences coincide with the bigger economic structural differences taking place between the older generations and the Millennials."

The generations previous to the Millennia's went to work in an industrial-age economy, with all the societal structures and values that supported that economy. In his famous 2001 essay, Digital Natives, Digital Immigrants, Marc Prensky pointed out that there was a significant shift taking place in the structure of our economy, beginning with those who were, at the time, students in grade school.

"Our students have changed radically. Today's students are no longer the people our educational system was designed to teach. Today's students have not just changed incrementally from those of the past, nor simply changed their slang, clothes, body adornments, or styles, as has happened between generations previously. A really big discontinuity has taken place. One might even call it a "singularity"--an event which changes things so fundamentally that there is absolutely no going...