Generations in the workplace
July 1, 2009
At K&F Global, a new technology initiative has been implemented, and roll-out is under way. The implementation will transform how workers will communicate with one another, how information will be collected, managed and accessed, and ultimately how workers will need to change day-to-day nuances of their roles.
The new initiative involves the implementation of Microsoft’s SharePoint portal application. From this platform, all company information will be stored and accessed, and email and messaging communications will be done through the application. As such, training sessions have been scheduled across the organization to introduce the new process system, including description of the realized benefits of the implementation: significant increase in information capture for knowledge management; efficient, single-platform for corporate information, communications;
With a remarkably diverse workforce, K&F Global is facing remarkable challenges in what amounts to a paradigm shift in internal business operations with the new portal. Among the addressable challenges; integrating information systems (of all mediums) to the new information architecture, integrating email and messaging functions, new governance and management scopes; K&F Global is expecting a variety of response from the workforce, to which management is planning to address responses and focus adoption in part along general generational attributes within the workforce.
It is determined that the most engaged generational segment for the portal application for internal communications and information capture/distribution will be the youngest of the workforce, within the Millennial generation. The adoption objection will look to further engage this group to advocate the new change, with the group’s affinity for technology in communication and social interaction, ambitious and hopeful inclinations, and polite and civic-minded disposition. This group will be tapped to act as mentors providing on-going assistant in the various organizational teams, along with an informal engagement process via a selected Portal Ambassador.
The anticipation is there will be considerable resistance from the WWII and Gen X age groups. In between are the Baby Boomers, who will play an effective role in the advocacy of the new change. Coordination of the efforts from the Millennials and the Baby Boomers will need to be thoughtful with respect to formal internal outreach into the teams to gain mindshare. The Boomers will contribute to the Millennial’s involvement as advocates with specific attributes: team and consensus-orientation, driven work ethic with optimistic outlook. In addressing the WWII group resistance, efforts to address concerns and engage in acceptance will focus along the general attributes associated with this generation: practicality of outlook, dedication in work ethic, and a sense of citizenship in the corporation. Likewise, the Gen X group will be engaged along the attributes typical of this group: skepticism, reluctance towards commitment, and valuing competency in leadership. What is convenient, and interesting, is there is an apparent match of personality attributes assigned to the four generational groups which pairs the groups along commonalities; Millennials & Boomers; WWII & Gen X. These pairings are expected to utilize the synergies created by pooling the resources of common attributes to achieve successful adoption.
Under this pairing, the advocacy executed by the Millennial and Boomer groups as a synergistic group will provide the engagement inherent in the two group’s inclinations towards both adoption and promotion throughout the organization. The WWII and Gen X groups are expected to resist the change, and efforts will need to speak to the practical, reason-minded inclinations which need persuaded and buy-in, and successfully combat the apprehension the two groups have with respect to decision and impact of the portal implementation.
As diplomacy is a recurring topic in managing a workforce diverse with generational groupings, the intent of tasking the Millennials and Boomers to act in roles of mentors and advocates accomplishes two primary objectives: 1) achieve buy-in critical mass, and 2) affect change via internal peer norms of behavior. From our reading of Burke, “behavior is followed by cognition,”; leveraging the Millennial group’s inclination towards immediate acceptance and adoption of the new technology will provide a behavioral footprint on the organization from which to capture critical mass with engagement of the Boomers along their inclinations towards commitment and success-driven ambition. From a strategic perspective, one may view this as “winning half the battle.” However, the two out-group generational groups MUST NOT perceive themselves as such. On the WWII group engagement, senior leadership must be actively involved in communicating importance of the initiative to the organization to effectively, successfully gain acceptance and adoption among this group. The Gen X group will truly be the last to convince, as this group will hold out on commitment and final buy-in regardless of the critical mass of organizational support.
