MIHM301 Generation Gap as Issue for Leader in Workplace Assessment 2 Answer

Generation gap as the issue for a leader in a workplace

Introduction

The purpose of the report is to focus on the generation gap and how leader plays a vital role while coordinating with the different generation, identifying problems and finding solution to it,  in a workplace. By background, the generational differences has been identified as one of the challenges, which has to be overcomes, as there is a wide gap in the education, thinking, acceptance, in the attitude, behavior and how to approach a problem while being part of the organizations (Standifer, 2020). 

Generation gap

The generation gap is described as how the workforces from the different generations are working collaboratively within the one frame of the workplace (Rudolph, 2020). The generation can be divvied as, firstly, as how the different generations have the different values, holding the expectations related to the work which would not be easily compatible. Secondly, it would  reflect,  how the people can also hold the different generation that has to work in sync to the large period which they have been doing since the past (Dust,  2019).. Lastly, the problem of the situation can be thought of as the discrepancies due to the large management practices of companies (Costanza, 2020).

How many generations are there?

Baby Boomers

The baby boomers are the one who belongs to the era of 1940s to the mid1960s and they are also called as the one who has higher high birth rates in America (Becton, 2014). This is because during the 1945 and the 1960s  the population was densely populated (Costanza, 2020).

Moreover,  the generation is more independent and hold its own destiny. Further, they hold respectful authority values, are loyal, committed, and attached, and even are more declined to their job (Lyons, 2019).  Moreover, the Boomers are also known to be competitive and even hold success material. The generation supports the stereotypical values and is more self-reliant, than any generation (Boström 2019).

Generation X

The generation born between 1965 and 1979, is known to have high command due to bearing the age of economic turbulence, further facing the recession, suffered the inflation, downsizing, high personal issues and even faced the highest divorce rates. The generation is called the product of generation of the compulsive workers who have more advanced attitudes and values (Dust, 2019)

They are the ones who are also the school-age children that have spent a majority of time within the home, alone and are far independent, as they have stayed in the nuclear family and without the support of the parents. The generation is known as the individualistic, distrustful of corporations, and further lacks loyalty, has to focus on the work-life balance. They are the more financially independent, self-reliant, and even high entrepreneurial risk-takers.

Millennial

This is the generation that has just entered the workforce, who are called the Net Generation and Generation Y whose career has peaked recently. This group belongs between 1980 and 1983 and has even described as the “cutoff” date for inclusion (Saba, 2013). The Millennial is known to be the first “high-tech” generation,  and have experience the globalization of society along with the marketplace, which can have significant values and are advanced technically, while working within the wide racial and ethnic diverse generation. The generation is known to have a less value diversity and can change with time. They hold the common stereotypes and have disrespectful for the organizations (Hughes, 2019).

Leader’s difficulty and solution for the generation in the workplace 

The leaders while handling the different generation in the same work would have to face different problems such as the-:

Baby Boomers

The baby boomers would have more experience loyalty and the integrity factor, but they would not possess the advanced knowledge and further would not hold the new set skills and techniques. The challenge lies for the leader to understand the baby boomers' experience and help them understand the new advanced process and how to fill the knowledge gaps (Standifer, 2020).

The solution to fill the knowledge gaps and the technical gaps is to focus on upgrading the knowledge with the advanced course, certification, and training (Zopiatis 2012). 

Generation X

Generation X is the people who have the experience, are aware of the new techniques in the market, but are disloyal and hold low values and morals (Zopiatis 2019). The leadership challenge is to make them loyal and establish long term goals with them. 

The solution lies, in understanding their personal and professional motivation and rewards them appropriately, timely, and even share new skills, techniques, and he process knowledge. This would keep them engage.

Millennial

As the millennial are new and are not experienced, the problem lies in less working knowledge and more technical knowledge. The leadership challenge is to make them more adaptive as per the on the job learning and applied skills set.

The solution lies in the timely intervention, updating the millennial, and even assigning the experienced mentor who can help them to understand the gaps and applied knowledge (Standifer, 2019).

Conclusion
To conclude, the generation gap is also identified to be a major course of the problem, as to how the people should be engaged within the one workplace and there can be better ways to handle the generations. This would further help to attract and retain new talent, and would even help to retain the experienced workforce who can have the positive attitudes and behaviors while working with the younger workers.