Product Description

No doubt about it: The newest diversity issue in the workplace is age diversity. Many organizations have finally figured out how to recruit young talent only to watch them drive down a collision course with seasoned employees over issues like work ethic, respect for authority, dress code and every work arrangement imaginable. And they're not sure what to do about it. The fact is, generational conflicts are not merely a matter of young versus old. They mirror critical business issues every organization faces as it transitions from the workplace of the past to that of the future. Managing the Generation Mix will help you place your multi-generational team on the course to collaboration.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #513706 in Books
• Published on: 2001-01
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 112 pages

Customer Reviews

Help with Gen Y-ers
As a Boomer in charge of a bunch of entry-level Yers, a lot of what Martin and Tulgan had to say about this generation really hit the target. I find my Yers incredibly impatient about getting training and having more responsibility. It seems like they all expect to go from college grad to CEO in their first year! On top of it all, I have several that are pains in the neck about all kinds of things--pay, dress code, scheduling, you name it, they want to change it. I bought this book to see if I could find a way to rein my Yers into our work culture. Martin and Tulgan showed me that I was thinking about all these things as problems, when they're really solutions. In the book, they give fourteen ways of being a better Gen Y manager, along with tons of ideas on how to achieve each one. Some of the ideas are better for me in my position in my company than others, but there's something there for everyone at every level in every company.

Please read this book - skeptically
Most of what is written about the Generational Personality and its impact in the workplace is just no good. It fills this purpose: it entertains Human Resource managers who are made anxious by more relevant diversity concerns and provides a niche for a new group of consultants and writers. These books are also usually written in an extravagant style, claiming that there are immutable differences between generations and that "dealing with these differences" is a vital diversity concern. A roster of books along these lines includes "Generations at Work" by Ron Zemke, Claire Raines and Bob Filipczak; "When Generations Collide" by Lynne C. Lancaster, and David Stillman; and (slightly better) "Bridging the Boomer Xer Gap" by Hank Karp, Connie Fuller and Danilo Sirias. To this list, we must add "Managing Generation Y" by Carolyn A. Martin, Ph.D. and Bruce Tulgan.

Martin and Tulgan follow the typical approach: They define a generation as the people born between two selected years. Then they describe a few events occurring in the years that those people were coming of age. From this, they concoct a generational personality that they say describes this age cohort and which will describe them throughout life. Audiences and Human Resource practitioners usually miss the signficance of the last seven words in the proceeding sentence. It is possible to have a useful discussion about the differing needs of younger versus older workers. Martin and Tulgan and their colleagues are selling something considerably more radical: a notion that a distinct generational personality is formed that can characterize millions of Americans born between two selected years and that this personality will stick with them throughout life. Thus, some group of Americans will, in general, be cynical until they die, whereas another group will have the dominant trait of optimism throughout life. Of course, in so doing, they have indulged the very modern workplace practice of dividing people into more and more groups.

Martin and Tulgan are writing about what they call Generation Y, limited to those Americans born between 1978 and 1984. One reality that undermines any objective basis for a generational personality is that definitions between the experts vary. For Martin and Tulgan, Generation Y is birth years 1978 - 84; for Lancaster and Stillman it is 1981 - 1999 and for Zemke et al it is 1980 - 2000. The years picked to describe a generation are arbitrary and lead to idiosyncratic results. So, Martin and Tulgan feel free to describe a six-year "generation"; other theorists such as Lancaster and Stillman, in one case identify a 45-year generation.

Here is a short list of what is wrong with this book

1. Setting up phony arguments

Martin and Tulgan begin by criticizing those who would label Generation Y as "lazy, self-interested, kids constantly at risk, for drugs, sex and violence." There is no identification of who these narrow thinkers are other than a reference to the mainstream media. Does it really represent any kind of consolidated opinion or are the authors just pretending outrage as a prelude to creating their own stereotypes?

2. Extravagant language.

This, too, is common to the genre. Whereas Zemke describes the 1980's as a time when "the layoff craze struck like a radioactive lizard in downtown Tokyo" and Lancaster writes of that time as one in which "children mysteriously disappeared from neighborhoods and showed up frighteningly at the breakfast table on milk cartons", Martin and Tulgan have their own excesses. They speak of Generation Y growing up in a " 'war' (that) was fought on native soil. Their 'enemy' appeared in their homes, in their neighborhoods, on their playgrounds: in adults who sought to abuse them; in schoolmates who might suddenly shoot them." They insultingly aver that in the light of these experiences, Generation Y didn't need a Second World War or a Viet Nam to feel terrified. I guess Martin and Tulgan would understand a twenty year-old telling an eighty year old in 2002, "O.K., I didn't have to go fight Germany, Italy and Japan, but do you realize that just two states over from me there was a school shooting my sophomore year?" (Note to my Human Resource colleagues: I know these people can be entertaining speakers at our conferences, but do we really want to be associated with this nonsense?)

3. Ignorance of the normal life cycle

Martin and Tulgan don't seem to realize that the characteristics of the young that they identify may be a feature not of having been born between two arbitrarily selected years, but just a matter of being young. Most of the trends they cite are not compared with how young people may have been twenty or forty years ago. If they looked, they might find some similarities. On page 4, they describe the young as optimistic. Fine, but according to Gallup, in 1968, eighteen to twenty-four year olds were more optimistic, at least about the country's future, than their counterparts were in 2000. The authors quote David Gergen to the effect that today's young people could make this country an immensely better place. Archibald Cox said similar platitudes about young people over thirty years ago.

The notion of a generational personality is an entertaining distraction. In the end, it does a disservice to those companies that spend time and resources on it.

A field guide for managers to understand younger workers
I have recommended this book (with rave reviews) to dozens of older managers who want to do a better job of managing young talent. Like it or not, the latest "generation", commonly called "Y", (and yes, most sources have varying dates for each cohort)had a very different experience growing up and comes into the workplace with different expectations and demands than previous groups of workers. This viewpoint can cause really damaging misconceptions as to the cause of certain behaviors. I have heard first hand a number of managers refer to young workers as lazy, spoiled, hyper-active, etc. Hyper-active? Gen Y tends to be great at multi-tasking, particularly with technology. Lazy? Most of my students have stated that they won't work the long hours of their parents - family and free time is more important. Demanding? Yes, they want constant feedback on their performance and want constant challenges. And they want to be paid for their performance. This can all drive a manager nuts.

What is helpful about this book is that it provides SIMPLE tips and tools to help manage younger workers better. Are there more exhaustive models and frameworks? Yes. Does the typical manager have time to read them and have most HR departments provided this training? Sadly, too often no.

This is a book you will actually read and use. A great book to start thinking about being a better manager of any generation of workers.