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The author stresses the importance and the challenges of working with a multigenerational workforce of employees from the five generations: Traditionalists, Baby Boomers, and Generations X, Y, and Z. Drawing on literature, she identifies specific attributes for each of these five generations and argues that workforce supervisors need to take these characteristics into consideration to maximize worker engagement, employment, satisfaction, leadership, and longevity.
Supervisors in all businesses and organizations are challenged daily to determine how to recognize, reward, and motivate workers from each generation in their workplace. To maximize effectiveness, they must strive to support and nurture an age-neutral workplace that fosters worker productivity, tolerance, teamwork, and a sense of valuing of all employees to be all that they can be for as long as they desire. The purpose of this article is to underscore the importance of all members of multigenerational workforces working together to accomplish identified workplace goals, even as individuals realize their professional goals and aspirations. It is very important to understand and implement practices that complement workers' and learners' generational preferences, differences, and similarities.
In a school setting, accomplishing this goal requires that school administrators and supervisors possess an understanding of generational similarities and differences and are able to talk with people in a manner that resonates with the individual(s) and the issue(s) at hand. Teachers are a unique group to lead, as each is already a leader in his or her own right. Accordingly, a teacher-leader or supervisor must respect the teacher's unique authority and expertise while keeping the individual working toward the larger and overarching plan for all school stakeholders, including students, parents, staff, and community members.
Generations Referenced
Categorically speaking, each of the five generations currently found in workforces and schools include Traditionalists; Baby Boomers; and Generations X, Y, and Z. Each of these groups is profiled in this article, which also summarizes similarities and differences to enable workplace administrators and supervisors to work effectively with individual workers and teams of workers comprised of individuals from the different generations.
Traditionalists. Clause (2015) defined Traditionalists as people who were born 1900-1945 and comprise the oldest generation in American culture. Traditionalists have generally aged out of the workplace through retirement and thus constitute a mere 5% of today's workforce....