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Generations at Work: Managing the Clash of Veterans, Boomers, Xers, and Nexters in Your Workplace Hardcover – January 1, 2000
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- Print length280 pages
- LanguageEnglish
- PublisherAmacom Books
- Publication dateJanuary 1, 2000
- Dimensions6.25 x 1 x 9.25 inches
- ISBN-100814404804
- ISBN-13978-0814404805
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From the Back Cover
"The sounds you hea--young people voicing their frustrations with the over-the-hill gang, seasoned executives disparaging the impatience of the kiddie corps--are the sounds of generations colliding. This book teaches you and your company how to reach across the generation gap, and into the new world of business and work." --William C. Taylor, Founding Editor, Fast Company
"A quick, insightful read...full of humor and practical tactics that can be applied to daily situations immediately." --Deidra Wager, Executive Vice PresidentRetail, Starbucks Coffee Company
"Generations at Work provides creative insights and solutions to issues of recruitment and motivation of the workforce, one of the biggest challenges in our industry today. It is clear that there is a new face to workforce diversity which organizations must recognize and respond to if they are to be successful in the new millennium. Generations at Work will give you a tremendous advantage."--Neil Gulsvig, Senior Vice President, Organizational Development and Training, Beverly Enterprises
"This is truly one of the most unique times in the history of the American workforce. With four different generations converging upon one place, everyone needs to be equipped with practical ways to deal with all the differences. Generations at Work is a great tool to get you up to speed on this important issue. Ron Zemke, Claire Raines, and Bob Filipczak offer simple and practical hands-on advice to turn the promise of this diverse workforce into success for your organization." --Ken Blanchard, co-author, The One-Minute Manager
"With the aging of America, every workplace will soon be coming to grips with the challenge of managing 'age diversity.' In Generations at Work, the authors do a wonderful job of clarifying the needs and values of all working generations while offering invaluable guidance on how to maximize productivity among them." --Ken Dychtwald, Ph.D., author, Age Wave and Age Power, President, Age Wave LLC
"Generational conflict in the workplace isn't new and it isn't going to go away. Generations at Work sorts through the stereotypes and delineates the strengths and weaknesses of Veterans, Boomers, Xers, and Nexters. This book provides the practical advice managers need to turn conflict into harmony." --Susan Mitchell, author, American Generations: Who They Are, How They Live, What They Think
"The definitive guide to understanding what makes other generations tick. An on-target blend of theory and practice." --Bradley Richardson, author, JobSmarts for TwentySomethings
"The best book out there on generations in the workplace--a book not just to be read, but put into practice." --Neil Howe, historian and coauthor, The Fourth Turning and Generations
About the Author
"""Ron Zemke (Minneapolis, MN) is senior editor of Training magazine, president of Performance Research Associates, and author or coauthor of 23 books, including AMACOM's bestselling Knock Your Socks Off Service series.
Claire Raines (Denver, CO) is a nationally recognized expert on generational issues and author of Beyond Generation X: A Practical Guide for Managers.
Bob Filipczak (Minneapolis, MN) is a writer and an ""honorary member of Generation X."""
Product details
- Publisher : Amacom Books; 1st edition (January 1, 2000)
- Language : English
- Hardcover : 280 pages
- ISBN-10 : 0814404804
- ISBN-13 : 978-0814404805
- Item Weight : 1.3 pounds
- Dimensions : 6.25 x 1 x 9.25 inches
- Best Sellers Rank: #3,043,465 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #7,755 in Human Resources & Personnel Management (Books)
- #22,852 in Business Management (Books)
- #40,226 in Sociology (Books)
- Customer Reviews:
About the author
Ron Zemke is co-author of the original Service America, and is also the key author in Amacom's successful Knock Your Socks Off Service series. Knock Your Socks off books have sold over one million copies worldwide.
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Now, with the growth of e-commerce, more business and economic models are being developed and published faster than ever before. The result: it seems impossible to place into perspective the vast amount of genuinely good business insight. This is where Generations at Work is an invaluable resource. Penned by three members of the American Management Association, Generations does what many writings aspire to, but fail to accomplish -- clearly and concisely suggest a linkage between widespread social and economic trends, organizational behaviour and people's behaviours on the job.
The premise of Generations is neither new nor complicated: people resemble their times more than their parents. However, in demonstrating their point, the authors extend the work done by other social demographic specialists, such as David Foot, and combine considerable research into fairly digestible chunks. In so doing, they provide a reference from which anyone can gain a meaningful glimpse into the generations that have shaped and will continue to influence our homes, workplaces and social institutions.
The authors begin by ordering our society into widely recognized groupings based on dates of birth. Their careful attempts to guard against making stereotypes while providing some typical demographic profiles more than makes up for their reliance on terms that we are all too familiar with, including Veterans, Baby Boomers, Gen Xers and Nexters (Gen Y).
After `sizing-up' each segment, the authors go into painstaking detail to help us better understand the mind-set of each of these groups at home, at work and with one another. For each segment the authors describe the following:
Work ethic, Core values, Preferred work environments, Seminal events
Messages that motivate, Cultural memorabilia, Leadership style, Heroes
Team member style, Sense of humour, preferred readings, spending style, Follower style, What other generations think of them, Principles for recruiting and orienting, An average Day in the Life, Guidelines for developing careers, Common myths
Because Generations appreciates that most people's lives consist of work and non-work, their analyses are particularly relevant. So, whether you're mission in life is to supply or to demand, this text will add value. It is worthwhile if you need to make a prediction about or understand the individuals, organizations or social institutions of our society. Generations provides insight into the heart and personality of your colleagues and teammates, your clients, your business partners and yourself.
Generations does however suffer from some flaws. First, you can quickly detect an American bias. For example the authors did not address the different demographic segments in other areas of the World that have seen more drastic inter-generational schisms and considerably more growth. Second, the parallel structure of the book's core is terrific for comparison purposes across chapters but often makes you feel like you're reading a textbook. Finally, the authors, no doubt recognizing how static their structure, realigned some of the information in a question and answer format. This might have been their attempt to make much of the information more palatable for popular business journals. However, the questions and answers alike come across as forced.
Combine Generations with the works of Tapscott, Senge, Foot and Mougayar along with a model of how people process information and you'll have a strong foundation of how our workforces, businesses and institutions are currently evolving.
Andrew Brown and Robert Gold, co-hosts of the BusinessCast Podcast (Insights and Practical Tools for Entrepreneurs). [...]
I've changed some of my positions on the next generation--the ones we call Nexters, but we even got some of those predictions right without a lot of research and knowledge about their work habits.
So all in all, this has been a very interesting book to write, to watch, and to re-read from time to time.
If you remove the stereotypes all that remains is stuff that ought to be obvious. It may be that some CEOs with large numbers of disgruntled employees are unaware of even the most blantant trends and conflicts in the workplace but the lesson there is to fix the workplace, not the employees. All generations will be cynical if they are contstantly in danger of being laid off.
From my own experience, 3 examples that are completely the opposite of what this book describes. (1) People in my age group are supposed to be driven overachievers. How I wish that were true. Must have come from astrology or something. (2) I worked for a company that hired two young "golden collar" tech experts. These kids were outstanding. There were no personality conflicts. There were no generational conflicts. And the fact that they were so knowlegable made us worship them! So what if they preferred rock climbing to golf? (3) Speaking of stereotypes, the company shut down and we all got laid off. According to this book, young IT professionals can write their own ticket, right? False, again. Four months have passed and one of our young geniuses has a boring job with a long commute and big pay cut. The other has refused to take a crummy job and remains unemployed.
The book is not without humor, perhaps unintentional. Apparently Lucent is a good example of how waring generations can make peace. But I wonder how many managers want their company to perform as Lucent has.
In the end, the key to a productive harmonious workplace is for people to have jobs they enjoy, pay well and are reasonably secure. In a lesser work environment all managers can hope for is to tap into the stereotypes in this book to try to keep the dust down.