Essay Example on the Multigenerational Workplace

In todays workplace people of different age, limits are working together. The old and the young are being combined. The graduates are entering the job market while those who are supposed to retire are still working. Different values and as well as the style of communication is being experienced in the workplace. Everyone tend to have a different life experience, skills and as well as values which are of great importance to a company. An organization may experience various challenges in the process of managing such a team. The team composes of four main generations that are the veterans, the generation x, and the millennials (Abrams & Von, 2014).

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Challenges

Maintaining the culture of the organization by the employees may be a bit demanding. This is because especially the young generation and those fresh graduates will expect the business to be run in a way that mostly fits their needs. The management must ensure that the working environment is favorable for everyone this is because if the employees are happy they tend to be more productive in their duties.

The other challenge that an organization faces while dealing with a multigenerational team is the communication style that the employees use amongst themselves. It is becoming difficult for communication to take place between the older people and the young ones. The young generation prefers tweeting while communicating and texting while the old prefer to make phone calls. Understanding what the employees in the organization value will make it easier for the management to communicate the job expectations to their employees and also be able to group them in a way that they can easily communicate with each other so as to increase their productivity (Burke, Cooper, Antoniou, & A.-S, 2015).

There is a challenge of negative stereotyping in a multigenerational group. It is experienced because people from different cultures, different languages, age, and religion come together in the name of work. What people tend to view as right another person will firmly believe that it is wrong. Such stereotypes will lead to increased misunderstanding in the workplace which will lead in turn to conflict. The older workers in an organization will tend to view the millennials generation as one that is addicted to technology and also one that is determined to challenge various values. On the other hand, the Millennials will tend to view the other generations as people who are difficult to train and believe that they are stuck in their ways.

When dealing with a multigenerational team, it becomes a challenge for the organization to use some of the new technology. The old are getting outdated by the new technology, and only the young are in a position to operate some new technological machines. We find that the Generation X and the millennials prefer learning new skills independently and will prefer using computers and the internet during their training in the workplace. The veterans as well as the Baby Boomers prefer using the traditional way of learning and mainly through the paperwork in their training and also while in their line of duties (Bell, 2000).

Characteristics of these Generations

Veterans refers to the people of the traditional age, and the people under this bracket were born between 1922 -1945.It is an age that is considered to be so silent. They believe in adhering to the rules very strictly. They think one should respect the authority. These are people who are loyal to an organization.

The baby boomers were born between the year 1946 and 1964.This generation is increasing rapidly in the workplace. They tend to be the ones taking most of the positions of management in an organization and also have a greater influence on the organization's culture. The boomers while in the workplace will tend to promote the value of hard work by other employees; they greatly value work. They work towards having a high quality of work through giving value to education. They work towards promoting teamwork in the workplace and regularly hold meetings which are in most cases a situation of face to face communication in the workplace. This generation finds it hard to adapt to the changing technological environment. For example, two-third of the people in this age tend to view the use of a laptop in a meeting as a distraction. These people bring the skill of determination and hard work in the organization they believe they should work so as to achieve various goals.

Generation X refer to the people who were born in the year 1965-1980.It is a generation which tends to be very skeptical. They do not respect other peoples status while in the workplace. They want a work environment which is fun and also has an informal setting. They want to be independent, want to concentrate on their individual projects and also dont want to be supervised much. They want to perform their duties faster so that they can create more free time for themselves and are never interested in holding of meetings. These people appreciate the value that technology offers to the world. Generation X consist of people who are very talented and hence they are in high demand. They prefer working for big companies and view the large enterprises as not being loyal this is because they have seen their parents being downsized by these big companies after working for them several years.

The Millennials are the people who were born between 1981-2006.It is considered as the most diverse generation in the workplace as compared to all the other generations. These are young people and are therefore optimistic and concerned about the ethical and their moral principles. They wanted communication done to them fully, and information passed to them immediately. This generation wants decisions made quickly. These generations prefer communicating with other people through emails and other social media networks. They can easily use the new technology while at ease. These generations tend to be very innovative while at the workplace. They tend to be optimistic in their work and ready to face challenges.

Types of Conflict

The first conflict that could appear in a multigenerational team is the interpersonal conflict. It is the conflict that occurs when one person or one generation is different from the other. It could be caused lack of clear definition of responsibility. This is when it is not known by the employees who is supposed to be in charge of a particular task, and this leads to conflict since some people will want to take that opportunity to show superiority over others in the workplace.

The other type of conflict is the intrapersonal conflict. It is the conflict that arises within an individual. It involves one's thoughts, one's values and also emotions. When the interests of a person collide with the goals set by the organization, it will tend to make conflict to arise between an individual and the enterprise. An individual in the process of conflict may be forced to fight towards achieving his personal goals. Personal prejudice could lead to causing conflict in a workplace.

The third type of conflict in an organization is the intragroup conflict. It is the conflict that comes up within a given team. The individuals in the group may be incompatible and hence making conflict to arise. It may be caused by the team members having different personalities, and this makes tension to arise in the team leading to conflict. This type of conflict could be due to the different opinions of the team members.

The last type of conflict is the intergroup conflict. It is a conflict that arises when there is a misunderstanding between the various groups in an organization. For example, there could be disagreement between the sales department and the customer care department, and this could lead to conflict arising in the enterprise or workplace. Competition in an organization could also lead to intergroup conflict. In an organization, there may be the dispute of lack of enough resources. It could result in conflict between departments as well. Such resources include materials and as well as money.

Strategies for Building a Cohesive Team.

As a leader, he should understand how each generation should be motivated while at the workplace. While dealing with the veterans who are nurses, the leader should motivate them by promising them about their job security they will feel more motivated and ready to work for the benefit of the organization. The management should ensure that the employees help each other to grow they could hold team building events so as to create time for the employees to be in a position to socialize and also help each other know why the organization conducts its activities in a given manner and not the way they expect.

As the leader of the nurses, he should be aware that despite dealing with different generations he should make the employees realize that they are almost alike with each other. He should emphasize on their similarities so as to help them work as a team and also raise their morale of work when they feel motivated. The team leader should ensure that he makes it clear the role of each nurse and what each one is responsible for so as to ensure conflict does not arise (Roux & Halstead, 2009).

The team leader should make sure that he sets up strategies that are meant to motivate the nurses such giving rewards a hardworking nurse and the nurse who performs his duties well this could be through salary increase this could drive other nurses also to work hard so that they can have their wages increased.

The other strategy that the leader should employ is of seeking the input of the nurses and other employees in the workplace this will help ensure that all modes of communication are used when there is communication between the nurses as well as the patients. This will help increase understanding between the parties, and the patients will be well catered for since the nurses will be in a position of understanding their problems better. The modes of communication that are used in the health Centre should be flexible

The leader should also implement the strategy of training and coach the nurses. It will help them gain new skills and knowledge which they can use to solve problems that arise between them and also with the patients, and this will assist in improving the quality of their services.

Benefits of a Multigenerational Team

A multigenerational team will be of great importance since there will be the availability of diverse skills. Each generation possesses different talents and expertise which they bring into the work environment. It will be of great importance to the team members as they can learn from each other.

The young professionals and nurses have grown up in the technology world and hence they have more familiarity with using the new technological tools. It will help them be in a position to communicate with the patients effectively and also be able to take care of the patients needs in a more better way through the use of advanced machines hence this will be of great benefit to the patients.

The old bring their skills and experiences into the workplace this helps in the creation of diversity in the workplace.It creates a room and chance whereby people can learn, share knowledge with each other and also teach other new things. A multigenerational team creates continuity in the workforce of a place. The older workers help train the young nurse's on various issues related to health Centre and hence even after the old retire the young still perform their duties according to the policies of the organization. It ensures that even in future the business and enterprise still exist and its values and mission still maintained.

References

Abrams, J., & Von, F. V. (2014). The multigenerational workplace: Communicate, collaborate, and create community.

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