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Abstract
Literature from 1965-1975 and 1998 through March 2008, was explored to determine how young workers entering the U.S. workforce during each period were characterized. The Boomers, who began working during the first period and the Millennials, who began entering the workforce around 1998 are portrayed as very different and in conflict with each other. However, five similar themes emerged that characterized both generations: educational level, parenting, the impact of technology, commitment to employers and meaningful work.
Before the term Boomer became the popular moniker for the generation of workers born between the end of World War II and approximately 1965, major workplace initiatives in the United States were being tested and adopted in order to meet the perceived needs of this generation at work. Indeed, one might say that the many of the changes implemented in the workplace in the 1960s and 1970s were in response to early organization development (OD) efforts aimed at helping organizations adjust to the new worker. Job enlargement, job enrichment, flexible work schedules, participative management and group development were just a few of these initiatives (Beach, 1975). Today, much is being made of the entry into the workplace by the second largest generation, the Millennials (Trunk, 2007).
In The Intergenerational Workforce, Revisited (Spring, 2008), Johnson and Lopes conclude that stereotypes associated with the four generational cohorts currently in the workplace fail to hold up to closer scrutiny and that the motivation of workers, no matter the generation they belong to, has been remarkably stable over time. The small number of empirical studies makes it difficult to argue with their conclusions. The need still exists, however, to address the needs of workers, both young and mature in today's workforce.
In this paper, the authors explore some of the similarities in descriptions of the two largest generational cohorts by examining the literature from two distinct decades, 1965-1975 and 1998-current 2008. The first decade studied represents the decade when, what we now call the Baby Boomer (Boomers) generation was entering the U. S. workplace in droves. The second decade represents recent times when the newest generation of workers, referred to as the Millennials, began entering the workplace. The Millennials generation represents those born roughly between 1978 and 1999 (Tyler, 2007).
In...