The New Workforce: Generation Next (Generation Y) in your Organization

1. Introduction

Fifteen years ago a new employee with the federal government was in the office break room and found an interesting note on the union reading board. The note was in response to an intern questioning the union's emphasis of supporting management-union agreements favoring promotions based more on an employee's time in service and less on the employee's competency. In the note, the union representative rebuked the intern's comments and stated that "younger employees need to wait their turn and pay their dues because that's the way the world works".

The young employee's initial response was that neither management nor the union was likely to look for his best interest as well as he could do for himself. The rules he would follow and the pace he would advance his career would be of his own choosing. The employee's attitude of taking charge of your own career was pretty much typical of the generation entering the workforce in the late 1980s and 1990s; now identified as Generation X (Zemke, Raines, & Filipczak, 2000, p. 104). Fast-forward back to the present and the same not-so-young employee that was in the break room fifteen years earlier is finding himself no longer the "new employee".

Members of Generation X are now at the midpoint of their careers and are increasingly being placed in management and supervisory positions. Xers are realizing that today's newly hired employees are no longer members of their generation but of a different and younger generation. This new generation of employees entering the workforce has been given such labels as Generation Next, Generation Y, Echo Boomers, and Digital Natives. Members of Generation X who not long ago were shaking their heads at the attitudes and viewpoints of the older employees are now finding their own perspectives being questioned by a new and younger generation, Generation Next. Nexters and Xers, like previous generations before them, are finding at times difficulty to work side by side because their experiences, goals, and expectations differ (Kogan, 2001).

Observations from various researchers and authors will be used to discuss what uniquely defines Generation Next and their potential contributions to organizations. A couple organization scenarios will then be given as examples of the influence Generation Next is having in an organization's culture. The discussion will then focus on how understanding differences between the Nexters and previous generations can improve an organizations ability to manage the new workforce.

The New Workforce: Generation Next (Generation Y) in your Organization

1. Introduction
2. Working Generations Compared
3. Impact on the Workplace
4. Dealing with Nexters (includes References)