It has actually been for the first time in management history that four essentially different generations find themselves working in one workplace together. The issue is prominent since every generation of these four – Traditionalists, Baby Boomers, Generation X, and Generation Y – has different values, beliefs, desires, expectations, and learning styles. All this leads to a pronounced tendency for the generations to adopt differing working habits. Supervision of such diversified workforce comes as a challenging task these days (Knippel et al., 2012). It requires practical application of knowledge of generational characteristics and use of different learning styles for different generations. This paper provides an overview of most distinct generational characteristics, comments on preferred learning styles and identifies a series of learning strategies that will address each of the learning styles mentioned with reference to a particular generation.
The United Nations Joint Staff Pension Fund distinguishes between the following generations co-working in a workplace: Traditionalists (those born between 1925 and1945), Baby Boomers (those born between years 1946 and roughly 1964), Generation X (those who were born between years 1965 and roughly 1980), and, finally, Generation Y, also known as Millennial, who were born between years 1981 and 2000 (UNJSPF, 2014). One more group that is identified embraces those born after 2000 and is known as Generation Z or Nexters (UNJSPF, 2014).
If to consider that at a given XYZ Company, the workforce consists of the four aforementioned generations their particular characteristics need to be discussed. In particular, Traditionalists (or the Silent Generation, Veteran Generation) are characterized by a focus on organizational loyalty, hard work, financial conservativeness, and cautiousness. They consider seniority to be essential in advancing in an individual’s career. This generation does not like change, respect the authority, are not very tolerant to risk, and obey/set the rules. Next, Baby Boomers are thought to be an egocentric generation since, unlike the Silent Generation, they were born in abundance and “saw the world revolving around them” (UNJSPF, 2014). Moreover, they center their whole lifestyle around work and prefer to work long hours and expect others follow their work ethic.
Their workaholic attitude to work is a point of tension between newer generations and themselves. At the same time, those who belong to the earlier part of the Veteran Generation prefer to obey the rules set by the latter (Johnson & Romanello, 2005). Further, Generation X , was the first one to grow up in blended rather than nuclear families. Born and raised in comparative affluence, the Generation X do not live to work as Baby Boomers do but work in order to live. Viewing the world with some cynicism and with certain level of distrust, they are more independent, adaptable, and resilient than the previous generation. Finally, the Generation Y were born and raised during the so-called empowerment times, are those who are focused on transformation, question authorities, consumer economy relationships, and also possess problem-solving skills not typical for the previous generations, because this generation “is the first to grow up with computers and the Internet as a significant part of their lives” (UNJSPF, 2014). The Generation Y is largely dependent on interactive media and put off by the rigidity of working schedules. The next section will define a learning style and specify which learning styles are deemed appropriate for each of the four generations in question.
The concept of a learning style has evolved from the scientific works on psychology that attempted to create a plausible classification of learners’ psychological types. Back to pre-war research, the psychological term that was used as preceding that of the modern term “learning style” was that of a cognitive style. It was originally utilized by Allport, who defined the concept as “an individual’s habitual or preferred way of processing information” (1937 in Tilly, 2008, p.6). Later, Allport used the term in a series of his works on experimental psychology to describe individual differences in the patterns of learners’ habitual perceptions, organizations, ways of analyzing and recalling earlier experience as well as information (Johnson & Romanello, 2005).
Now let us discuss which learning style fits each of the four generations. The Veteran Generation prefers the auditory learning style; the Baby Boomers prefer visual; and Generation X and Y prefer kinesthetic learning styles. The next section will explain which strategies fit each of the four groups (Johnson & Romanello, 2005).
Learning strategies for the Silent Generation include informational, formal, task specific, knowledge and experience, and face to face. Specifically, the Silent Generation are known to prefer informational learning style, to prefer traditional settings and benefit from lectures mostly. As for Baby Boomers, these are characterized by their preference of the transformational learning, with traditional setting of a classroom being extended to learning via active participation, feedback, and employing critical reflection skills. The strategies include discovery learning, problem-solving, individual and group work, knowledge and experience. Further, Generation X prefer self-paced or self-directed approach to learning, with integration of media and technology in the educational process, and opportunities for e-learning, with easy access to information and various industry processes (UNJSPF, 2014).
They benefit from the use of case studies and games, real-world assignments, direct communication, and clear instruction. Finally, Generation Y (and Z) prefer informal and incidental approach to learning, due to their short attention span (Johnson & Romanello, 2005). They require integration of media and digital technology into the learning process (just as Generation X), benefit from personalized learning within their customized environments, so need to work in a multimedia environment, connection to other learners through a variety of social media, work by clear standards and objectives, and have the group work opportunity (Griggs, 2015). Now if to consider the question of the differentiated instruction, the differentiation for each of the learning styles will focus on the content (the Silent Generation), process (the Baby Boomers), product (Generation X), and learning environment (Generation Y) (Tomlinson & Imbeau, 2014).
This paper has provided a brief overview of the four generations with reference to their characteristics and learning styles. It has specified the learning strategies and differentiation for each of the Generations. In this way, the paper contains useful information to be included into the XYZ Company’s management toolkit.
