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Many sources from the popular press as well as the academic literature have postulated that there exist meaningful generational differences between individuals in today 's workforce. Better understanding of these generational differences of colleagues can lead to better recruitment, retention, succession management, communication, employee engagement and conflict resolution (Dencker, Joshi & Martocchio, 2008). The purpose of this conceptual paper is to review the literature on generational differences by discussing the importance of generational differences, theoretical implications, the cohorts in the current workforce, and to offer hypotheses that will retest the predicted stereotypes of the different generational cohorts.
INTRODUCTION
Many sources from the popular press as well as academic literature have postulated that there exist meaningful generational differences between individuals in today's workforce. Better understanding of these generational differences of colleagues can lead to better recruitment, retention, succession management, communication, employee engagement and conflict resolution (Dencker, Joshi, & Martocchio, 2008). Conversely, it is assumed that failure to recognize these differences can lead to negative organizational outcomes such as intergenerational workplace conflict, ineffective communication, negative attitudes toward colleagues, decrease in productivity, decrease in morale, and a decrease in citizenship behavior (Bradford, 1993; Dittman, 2005; Smola & Sutton, 2002). Demographic studies show that today's workplace includes employees with a wide range of ages and generational membership (i.e., individuals bom before WW П to individuals bom in the 1990's).
Although the popular press and academics have accepted the cohort generational stereotypes and definitions as fact, it is surprising that there is little empirical and theoretical research on generational differences (Twenge, Campbell, Hoffman & Lane, 2010) and the stream of literature that does exist is somewhat contradictory (Becton, Walker & Jones-Farmer, 2014). Researchers have speculated that perhaps these differences should be attributed to life cycle, age, or stage in life instead of generational cohorts. Since the inception of these generational cohorts, many world events have changed our cultural norms. The question arises as to whether or not the generational cohort descriptions will stand the test of time or will the cohorts evolve with the changing world. Therefore, the purpose of this research is to review the literature on generational differences by discussing the importance of generational differences, theoretical implications, cohorts in the current workforce, and to offer hypotheses that...