The Generation Gap Comes of Age-In Your Office - Review

In this article by Poskaitis (1999), inside most businesses today, there is an illusive tension raging between management and staff that can slow company’s growth and retention to a slow grind. Boomer managers are not alone, as Generation X hit the workplace and show upstart attitudes; the stage was set for a new battle of the generations. Generation X (a.k.a. baby busters-the 38 million Americans born from 1965 to 1975) differs from the baby boomers (the 78 million born between 1946 and 1964) in significant ways. Busters face more serious problems in young adulthood than boomers including AID, crime, violence, divorce and shifting sex roles. Young women already outnumber men at college and are making substantial headway in professions traditionally dominated by men. Busters are more independent in workplace, as they often assumed adult responsibilities at an early age because of working parents. According to recent study by Towers Perrin, companies with highly loyal workplace have superior customer retention. Unfortunately, staying power doesn’t hit the top ten lists of small business attributes for he younger workers.

Many boomers in executive management view busters as disloyal, arrogant employees with a hopelessly naive and impatient approach to career advancement and work ethics. The baby bust generation is entering the workplace with infinite opportunities and only half as many competitors than boomers. Busters are energetic negotiators with technological savvy with ‘I can do anything’ attitude. In this view, gray hair is not necessarily credential for leadership. Also busters are playing the hierarchy game as dumb-too much politicking and not enough real work, comfortable with unpredictable career paths and fast-changing assignments and easily bored with repetitive duties and structured job descriptions.

The irony of this battle is that boomers experienced a similar gap with their parent’s generation. But the groups approach the gaps differently. Boomers blew institutions apart, publicly defied authority and collectively railed against conformity. Whereas, busters will simply leave if they don’t like their experience, dismiss authority behaviour as inauthentic and express individualism as a birthright. Busters are the first generation to accept mixed races, non-traditional families and gender-binding sex roles as mainstream.

There are ways to reach across the generation gap and combine the perspective and discipline of maturity with the energy and enthusiasm of youth for the betterment of organisation. This can be achieved through knowledge share and recognize the importance of an informal work style and loosen company rules. Find a handful of young leaders who can grow quickly and are willing to be mentored. Form a contract with them and help them move along faster. Also coach a different rising star every quarter or so and help them gain real-time exposure to senior business associates. Most importantly, give them direct, sustained and honest feedback. Challenge them to achieve their personal goals and when they fall short, let them know why. Give them an opportunity to run a meeting and deliver feedback also give them homework. Thus its clear, environments with the least restrictions create the most innovative thinking. Genuine interest in understanding how others approach work and life help engendering a productive staff and retain customers.

Spanning the Generation Gap in the Workplace - Review

In this article, Wood (2005) states that in many organisations, multiple generations are arguing together besides working together that resulted in a level of generational conflict. Multiple generations were polluting all levels of the corporate, which was a slow process. No longer were the “Old timers” in charge. The young “Upstarts” were also part of the management team. Generational diversity became the “New Diversity”. When trainees list difference in the workplace, rarely is generational diversity mentioned.

The technical, Social and economic changes of the twentieth century gave birth to five generations: the GI Generation (1901-22), Silent Generation (1923-42), Baby Boomers (1943-64), Generation X (1965-81) and Generation Y (1982-2003). GI stands for “Government Issue”, who respect for structure, rules and regulations also belief in teamwork. The Silent Generation is stoic, who are kind, gentle and their social consciousness framed the Civil Rights and Women’s movements. Baby Boomers, the Silent’s children were spoiled by their parents and developed a “me consciousness”. Their intent is to make the world a better place. Generation X was the first generation in which the members raised themselves. They are called “latchkey kids” since they were left home alone also called Hip Hop Generation, Slackers and Endangered Generation. They are characterized as self-centered, authority-adverse and motivated by personal gain, poor listeners, disloyal to the organization and focused on having fun. Generation Y has followed in the footsteps of Generation X and have added gang violence, youth killing youth and parenteen to their generational profile. So, older the generation longer is the list of positive stereotypes and younger the generation longer is the list of negative stereotypes.

Stereotyping older generations as the “good generations” and younger ones as “bad” is the root cause of generational conflict at work. In workplace, generations are segmented into two generational camps, the “Generation Together” (GTs) and “Generation Alone” (GAs). These generational camps evolved because of two factors: (1) the number and intensity of technical, social and economic experiences also milestones they shared, (2) how closely they followed the accepted rights of passage during their developmental stages. These two factors created ”Cross-Generational Common Sense” (CGCS).

To eliminate generational conflict, these two camps need to determine the reason (cause) for their separation as the first step toward reconciliation (effect). There are four steps the generation at work must take to become the generations united: (1) each camp must identify the mistakes they have made to develop their wisdom and then share the wisdom with one another, (2) the elder generations must assume their roles as teachers and mentors as the upcoming generations, (3) the younger generations must accept their role as followers. They must be willing to show that they are trainable, flexible, self-motivated and able to express their needs without rancor and (4) all generations must acknowledge and respect each other’s differences as opportunities for self-growth. So Generational diversity provides a significant opportunity for organisations that are committed to a diversity-conscious and harassment-free workplace.

Psychological Change in the Human Aura: How We Know - Review

A balanced view recognizes the benefits of personal observation and the scientific method (Seeman, 2010). These exemplify two primary ways of knowing, qualitative and quantitative, each with its advantages, and they can be used in combination.

In qualitative knowing, we first learn through personal experience that reaches us through our senses. Personal experience has the advantage of being immediately accessible without relying on anyone else. But, it is difficult to compare personal experience with that of other people. So, the case history method was invented to make up for some of these shortcomings. It accumulates the experiences of many people to form a boarded, deeper and less biased view than what most people can observe individually.

Quantitative methods further enrich our observations; we can measure them and compare quantitative findings. This is done through applying statistical reasoning to our observations and controlling conditions to facilitate more conclusive statistical inference.

A balanced approach applies qualitative and quantitative ways of knowing where each is best suited. It uses the findings of each to inform the other. Thus, The author believes in balanced research orientation.

Fingertip Aura and Interpersonal Attraction - Review

Murstein and Hadjolian (1977) believe that fingertip auras (Kirlian Effect) might be associated with interpersonal attraction; four hypotheses were advanced to test this assertion. It was hypothesized that individuals would respond with bigger auras to (1) opposite-sex photographers as compared to same-sex photographers, (2) to seductive opposite-sex photographers as opposed to normally behaving opposite-sex photographers, (3) to opposite-sex unknown peers as opposed to same-sex unknown peers, and (4) to liked as opposed to disliked same-sex persons. All hypotheses except (2) were supported. The subjects consisted of white under graduate student volunteers at a small catholic liberal arts college (110 and 30 women) and at a small nonsectarian liberal arts college (10 men, 60 women) in the Northeastern Seaboard. The measurement device used in the study was high-frequency electrical field photography. It differs from ordinary photography in that electricity rather than light serves as the photographic medium.

The results of the experiment have strongly supported the notion that fingertip auras are strongly associated with attraction. That men responded more strongly than women to opposite-sex photographers may be related to sex-role learning. The reasons are, men often view other men as potential rivals and competitors, but are much more open with women in interpersonal situations. This notion receives support in the work of Rubin (1974) who reported that male subjects are more likely to refuse to participate in a personal disclosure situation with male experimenters than with female experimenters. The only hypotheses not supported also turned out to be as significant as the other hypotheses. The fact that the female subjects showed only a slight, nonsignificant decline from the “seductive” to the “normal” probably reflects two factors. First, it is more in keeping with the socially accepted sex-role behaviours for men to pursue women rather than vice-versa. Second, the female subjects, unlike the male subjects in the “seductive” condition, came from a relatively sophisticated campus in which heterosexual interaction on the basis of short acquaintance was probably much more acceptable than was the case with the catholic school

In addition, photographers graded for attractiveness, of the same age as the subjects and less forward in their “seductive” behaviour might be used in a future replication. Future research also might concern itself with the relation of auras and physical attractiveness. It would likewise be of value to study different kinds of relationships.