Abstract
Many research studies look into generational differences and their impact on organizational behavior. Since most of these studies entail representative samples from USA and european countries, with their society-specific history and culture, they are of little use in countries with different cultural backgrounds. This study identifies generational groups in Iran, by using interviews and qualitative methods that assess the collegial opinions of academic and professional managers. Its findings show that there are five separate generations with different characteristics in Iran. Considering the similarities and differences of these generations helps academicians and practitioners benefit from business diversity and creativity. Also, it provides the capability to develop personnel strategies for the recruitment and retainment of employees from different generations.
Introduction
Humans Diversity has a long history, but the type and amount of differences are not alike. The issue of diversity in organization relates to differences in age,sex, race, religion, etc. But today more and more attention is paid to some kind of diversity that results from generational differences [1]. Diverse generations have different values and norms based on their life experiences. Communicating with these groups needs managers who can adapt with various environmental factors and can activate the abilities of each generation to achieve organizational requirements. Paying attention to this point that human resources have different interests and perceptions is of considerable importance in organizational science.
Generations and generational groups
Mannheim (1953) defined generation as a group of people that born and grown up at a specific time, with similar social and historical conditions [2]. Sociologists consider age cohorts as a generation when they have common experiences and interests, or a group of people who have some common things, like year of birth, age, place and significant events occurred in the serious stages of life. Fitting in a generation, creates a personality in person that affects his feelings toward organizational issues, what he intended to do and how to plan it to meet them [3].
Based on the causes of differences in generations, there are various groupings for generations [4]. Presently, there are four major workforce generational groups: Traditionalists, Baby boomers, Generation X, and Generation Y. The precise definition of these groups, in terms of the years in which they were born, exhibits some variation between studies. However, in each case the grouping of individuals within these four generations is motivated by the belief that they each share a different set of values and attitudes, as a result of shared events and experiences [5].
Traditionalists/veterans/silent generation (years of birth: 1925–1942)
This is the oldest generation in the workplace, although most are now retired. Members of this generation were influenced by the great depression and World War II among other events and have been described as being conservative, as having a sense of obligation, and as observing fiscal restraint [6]. They are also likely to be stable, detail oriented, thorough, loyal, and hardworking, although they may be inept with ambiguity and change, reluctant to buck the system, uncomfortable with conflict, and reticent when they disagree [7].
Baby boomers (years of birth: 1943–1960)
They live to work, and respect authority and hierarchy in the workplace. Findings indicated that the Boomers are willing to wait their turn for promotions and rewards. They are also very loyal. Seniority is more important than merit for them. They expect their loyalty to the company to be rewarded through promotions based on seniority. However, because of a rapidly shifting workforce and corporate restructuring, many Boomers have changed jobs much more frequently than they hoped. That is why job security is crucial for them. Basically, they are very loyal to the company, and they expect the company to be loyal to them [8].
Generation X/baby busters/lost generation (years of birth: 1961–1981)
They work to live. Their job provides the means to enjoy their life. Their life outside of work is very important for them. They are not likely to sacrifice their life for the company. They want to work as many hours as they have to, not a minute longer because they want to go home and play. Seniority is not important for them. They are not willing to wait their turn for promotion and raises. Whenever they do a good job, they expect the company to reward and recognize them. They expect immediate recognition through title, praise, promotions and pay [8]. They tend to distrust big institutions and assume that every job is temporary; every job is a stepping stone. They are not very loyal to any particular company. They are very skeptical, self-focused and self-protection at work [9].
Generation Y/millennials/nexters (years of birth: 1982–now)
They believe in collective action, are optimistic about the future, and trust centralized authority. They are great collaborators and favor teamwork. They are also very independent, self-confident and self-expressive. They like to be recognized and respected because they believe that they put so much of themselves into their work. They expect their supervisors and managers to, at least, know their names and acknowledge their good work. This generation believes managers should try to get to know everyone and give personal attention to each employee. Even though the Millennials believe in collective action, they have a tendency to question every rule because they believe rules are made to be broken. They simply reject the notion that they have to stay within the rigid confines of a job description. They are likely to challenge workplace norms such as dress codes, inflexibility of the standard workday and employee–supervisor relations [8].
Generational differences
Generational difference is a concept that means the lack of cultural adaptation between two successive generations, it explained by the separation or the continuity of the culture from generation to generation. The generation gap is known as the natural differences in beliefs, values and norms among generations. It should be noted that the generational difference relates to a group of people were born between two specific years and is quite different from age diversity.
There is a potential conflict in the workplace due to generational differences. This stereotype is possible that Boomers consider Xers as lazy generation and Xers consider Boomers as too cautious or obsessive. Managers can overcome the problem by finding ways to interact between generations taking into account the values and experiences of each one. The imperative point in review of generations is to consider their cultural differences. The argument involves a range of changes and mental variations cause changes in the consciousness of each generation in their personal and social identity. Generational differences are on the opposite side of impossible generational conformity, and are a desirable and inevitable necessity that changes human life in different aspects.
Generational differences in organizations
Employees from different generations are working together in today’s organizations. There are many employees in the workplace who work alongside their children and their parents at the same time [7]. In these circumstances, it can be concluded that generational differences exist between staff [10]. These differences are visible in several factors such as career prospects, causes of work, work ethics, work methods, the obligation to work, and definition of quality of work.
Generational differences between workforces can lead to a lot of conflict and opposition in the organization [9]. These differences are valuable due to making a variety between employees, but they can also increase the complexity and make the decision-making process more difficult. Study by the Society for Human Resource Management in 2004 shows that 58 percent of human resource professionals confirmed the conflict between employees as a result of generational differences [11]. So, identifying differences in interests and incentives of generations should be considered as an important part in developing effective recruitment methods, training procedures, and employee benefits packages [12].
For example, when managers do employee recruitment from different generations, they should note that different generations use different channels and perhaps interested in different kinds of brands. Also, different generations prefer various methods of training. A generation may wish to attend in traditional classrooms and learn lessons with paper-based training, while another generation may have more emphasis on independent learning, often using computer-based training or Internet.
Different generations may prefer to be managed in different ways. Thus, managers should consider generational differences in the selection of management styles.
Some people consider social opportunities at work. They wish to do independent works and to be lead other than controlled, also may want to receive immediate and frequent feedback to enjoy their job. Meanwhile, others may have a greater tendency to appreciation of their experiences, efforts and performance within the organization.
Physical reward motivates all generations, but other types of rewards have different values in different generations. For example, while for some generations incomes may have greater importance, newer generations have a special emphasis on work-life balance. Generational differences also exist in attitude to career path. Some generations believe that a job is for a lifetime while others may often change their jobs want to develop more skills. In addition, flexible work is more important for younger generations.
Many studies have inspected effects of generational groups in organizational variables. Table 1 shows the most important organizational factors which change with generational groups.
Literature review
Guillot-Soulez and Soulez in a study named “On the heterogeneity of Generation Y job preferences” studied the preferences of Generation Y French graduates for the proper job and their desirable organization. They use a sample of 592 people with the same age, career stage, generational group and nationality. They found that although the young graduates of Generation Y prefer job security and a quiet work space, these are not generally accepted favorites among them [13].
Khalid, Md Nor, Ismail & Mohd Razali in a study titled “Organizational citizenship and generation Y turnover intention” examine the role of organizational citizenship behavior in determining turnover intention among Generation Y employees. Survey questionnaires that contained measures of OCB, turnover intention and demographic information were distributed among a group of 159 employees working with a Malaysian multinational corporation. The levels of OCB among respondents were above the midpoint of 3 on a 5-point Likert scale. The mean of 2.54 on a 5-point scale for turnover intention indicates that most of the Generation Y employees are neither bent on leaving nor staying. Analyses conducted using multiple regressions indicated that sportsmanship and civic virtue significantly and negatively related to turnover intention [14].
Raineri, Paillé & Morin In a study entitled “Organizational citizenship behavior: An intergenerational study” use social exchange theory to investigate whether membership in the Baby Boomers versus the Generation X group influences the relationships of the organization and colleague-directed support and commitment with organizational citizenship behavior. By means of a multi sample analysis, they show that both cohorts ultimately share more resemblances than dissimilarities. However, findings support the popular belief that Generation X is less willing to exchange desirable work outcomes for employer support [15].
Kralj & Solnet in their research paper “The influence of perceived organizational support on engagement: a cross-generational investigation in the hospitality industry” studied the impact of perceived organizational support on engagement. This research considers generational differences in the hospitality industry. The purpose of this paper is to investigate the perceptions of engagement and perceived organizational support of Gen Y and non-Gen Y employees and to determine if significant differences exist in either the levels of, or the relationship between, the two constructs. Based on a survey of 914 hospitality employees, it is found that although Gen Y respondents have significantly less positive attitudes regarding their current work environment, the influence of perceived organizational support on engagement is quite strong for all employees surveyed [16].
Twenge, Campbell, Hoffman, & Lance in a study titled “Generational differences in work values: leisure and extrinsic values increasing, social and intrinsic values decreasing” examine the work values of a nationally representative sample of US high school seniors in 1976, 1991, and 2006 representing Baby Boomers, Generation X, and Generation Y. With data collected across time, these analyses isolate generational differences from age differences, unlike one-time studies, which cannot separate the two. Leisure values increased steadily over the generations and work centrality declined. Extrinsic values (e.g., status, money) peaked with GenX but were still higher among Gen Y than among Boomers. Contrary to popular press reports, Gen Y does not favor altruistic work values (e.g., helping, societal worth) more than previous generations. Social values (e.g., making friends) and intrinsic values (e.g., an interesting, results-oriented job) were rated lower by Gen Y than by Boomers. These findings have practical implications for the recruitment and management of the emerging workforce [17].
Parker and Citera in an article called “Changing roles: are millennials redefining the balance between work and life?” presented to the Annual Conference of the Society for Industrial-Organizational Psychology, examined generational differences in organizational citizenship and work-life balance. For this study, 543 survey respondents, of whom 272 were Baby Boomers, 171 were Gen Xers, and 89 were Gen Yers replied to the questionnaire. Results showed Boomers and Gen X’ers engaged in more individual initiative behavior than Gen Y’ers and generation interacted with individual initiative behavior to predict work-life imbalance [18].
Twenge in a study named “A review of the empirical evidence on generational differences in work attitudes” reviewed some evidences in other studies related to generational differences in work values. Generational changes are important when retiring older employees and replace them with newer generations. Most of studies confirmed that Generation X and Generation Y put work to a lesser extent in their life center, they pay more attention to leisure time and demonstrate weaker work ethics than other two generations. The value of external work (including wage, salary) is higher in Generation X and Generation Y, no difference between generations in altruistic values (such as wish to help others). Conflicting results obtained for other variables such as the tendency to job stability, intrinsic value (such as job significance), and social values/dependence (such as find friends) [19].
Kowske, Rasch, and Wiley, in a study named “Millennials’ (lack of) attitude problem: an empirical examination of generational effects on work attitudes” tried to contribute to the sparse empirical literature on generational differences at work by examining the effect of generations on work attitudes (e.g., job satisfaction, job security and turnover intentions) and how Generation X’s work attitudes differ from prior generations. Data were collected from a diverse sample of US employees (N = 115044) obtained from 18 years of repeated administrations of the KenexaWorkTrends™ employee opinion survey. The data were analyzed using a hierarchical age-period-cohort regression model which has been recommended for the analysis of generational effects using repeated cross-sectional data. Findings show that work attitudes differed across generations, although effect sizes were relatively small and depended on the work attitude. Compared to Boomers and Gen Xers, Gen Yers reported higher levels of overall company and job satisfactions, satisfaction with job security, recognition, and career development ad advancement, but reported similar levels of satisfaction with pay and benefits and the work itself, and turnover intentions [20].
Gursoy, Maier, and & Chi, in a study titled “Generational differences: an examination of work values and generational gaps in the hospitality workforce” identified generational differences and similarities among hospitality employees and managers in order to develop leadership strategies and management styles that can be utilized to increase employee morale and productivity while enhancing recruitment and retention rates of highly qualified workers. Data for this study were collected through a series of in-depth focus group discussions. Findings indicated significant generational differences in world views, attitudes toward authority and perspectives on work. Findings suggested the Baby Boomers respect authority and hierarchy, while the Gen Xers rebel against authority. Findings also suggested while Baby Boomers live to work, Gen Xers work to live. The Baby Boomers are willing to wait their turn for promotions and rewards, and are very loyal. On the other hand, Gen Xers expect immediate recognition through title, praise, promotion, and pay. They also want a life outside of work, they are not likely to sacrifice theirs for the company. The Gen Yers believe in collective action, with optimism about the future, and trust in centralized authority. They like teamwork, showing a strong will to get things done with a great spirit [8].
Twenge and Campbell, in a research entitled “Generational differences in psychological traits and their impact on the workplace” reviewed data from 1.4 million people who completed personality, attitude, psychopathology, or behavior scales between the 1930s and the present and to discuss how those differences may impact today’s workplace. The data were gathered from research reports using psychological scales over the last eight decades, primarily those using college student samples. Findings indicated that Generation Y demonstrates higher self-esteem, narcissism, anxiety, and depression; lower need for social approval; more external locus of control; and women with more agentic traits. So, managers should expect to see more employees with unrealistically high expectations, a high need for praise, difficulty with criticism, an increase in creativity demands, job-hopping, ethics scandals, casual dress, and shifting workplace norms for women. Organizations can respond to these changes with accommodations (e.g. praise programs) or with counter pressure (e.g. dress codes), and it is imperative that managers consider the best reaction for their workforce [21].
Westerman and Yamamura in a study named “Generational preferences for work environment fit: effects on employee outcomes” presented that the examination of generational differences is an important area of inquiry for management research. Firms must recognize the influence of the values and work preferences of the next generation on organizational outcomes in order both to retain staff and to groom future leaders. They proposed to examine the theory that firms’ lack of success in employee retention may be impacted by the extent to which they understand and address generational differences in values, goals, and preferences. They used survey methodology to examine generational and gender differences amongst the work environment preferences of 234 accountants in accounting firms. The results indicated the importance of goal orientation and system work environment fit for younger generation workers on satisfaction and intention to remain; and relationship fit on the satisfaction of Baby Boomers. Baby Boomers also experienced higher levels of overall satisfaction than younger generationemployees [11].
Smola and Sutton in a paper named “Generational differences: revisiting generational work values for the new millennium” addressed the issue of generational differences and reasons for such differences. Data gathered from more than 350 people across the US. The current generational differences in values were analyzed and the results compared with a similar study directed in 1974. The results showed significant differences between work values of different generations, but no change with aging workers. Also, the results show a growing tendency for employees to balance work and personal goals [10].
An experimental research: Identifying generational groups in Iran
Different regions of the world and even different countries have experienced various events over the time, since these events and changes play a major role in generational separation, it is impossible todevelop a unique classification and apply it everywhere. In Iran, due to special social conditions and cultural differences with western culture, the conventional classification of generations into Traditionalists, Baby boomers, Generation X and Generation Y cannot be used.
This study attempts to find generational groups in Iran. In this regard, previous researches and former literature reviewed to get information about the generational groups and characteristics of each in other countries. The study directed with an investigation of specialists’ opinions, including academic experts and experienced managers as well as look at existing documents to define different groups of generations in Iran and providing an acceptable and perfect grouping for generations.
Research applications
Understanding and managing generational differences can bring a set of benefits and perspectives to the workplace, such as improved talent attraction, retention and engagement, enhanced workplace productivity, increased competitive advantage that keeps customers loyal and an expanded view of succession planning and building leadership bench strength, reports another research of relevance [22]. This study goes on to note that Asia Pacific region has the most positive view about generational diversity in the world with 44% confidence that it contributes to workplace productivity.
It has been arrived at that the individuals across generations differ in their value sets and beliefs which consequently impact their approaches towards work [17]. The social, cultural, economic and political contexts defining their formative years have a long lasting impact on individuals and their approach to work, in terms of work-life balance, work ethics, work rigor are all impacted by these. In order to address this diversity and obtain maximum benefit out of it, it will help Iranian employers to know of the defining life events of each of the generations and shared characteristics created as a result. Also, it can help to achieve more exact planning processes of growth and development for each generation through identifying characteristics of each generation.
Research method
This study uses purposive sampling as a technique of sampling. In this method, samples are selected from the people who are in the best position to offer the required information. In this study, samples are chosen from two groups of experts: Academic specialists who have already worked in the research field and have published some results. Professional managers of industry/service sectors who have lots of years dealing with employees of different generations.
There is a two-sided relationship between data collection and data analysis in qualitative researches such as this study. The reason is that collecting more data makes the analysis more reliable, and on the other hand, the nature and depth of analysis will lead the researcher to collect more data or not. This point should be considered for the sample size. So, in such cases the analysis phase begins immediately after the first interview and continues as long as new information becomes available to researchers. Finaly, when the research reaches to the saturation point, it means that the sample size is enough and the data collection process can be stopped. In this study, saturation point got with the opinions of 13 persons.
Research findings
The main purpose of this study is classifying groups of generations in Iran. Table 2 displays the results. Each row of this table shows one expert’s opinion. In each row the ages between 15 years and 80 years divided into sections based on related expert opinion. Each group had shown with one of the letters A, B, C, etc. Since this study was done for the first time, famous and well-known titles for each new introduced generation are not exist, so future researches should assign them proper names upon their features and characteristics.
Research analysis
Summarizing the views of experts, as presented in the Table 3, specifies five different generations in Iran. The characteristics of each generation are as follows.
•Generation A
This generation, represents two generations that have been earlier in the literature, namely Traditionalists and Baby boomers. This suggests that no significant event was happening within these years in Iran that convinces us to keep the two groups separated. So it can be one of the main differences between generational groups in Iran and western countries. Members of this generation are now between 55 and 80 years old. One of the common features of these people is that they pass socialization process in the years before the Islamic Revolution in Iran.
•Generation B
This generation, represents a part of Generation X. The results confirm the presence of one generation in Iran with nearly the same characteristics as Generation X in western countries. This generation has a shorter period than Generation X and terminated earlier. Thus Iranian society began a new generation earlier than what happened in western countries, with different characteristics related to the earlier generation. Members of this generation are now between 40 and 55 years old. They pass socialization process in the period of the war between Iran and Iraq.
•Generation C
This generation consists of two distinct sections, a part of the period of Generation X and a part of the period of Generation Y. This fact suggests that maybe this generation has several features of both Generation X and Generation Y simultaneously. The members of this generation are now between 30 and 40 years old. The common feature of these people is that they pass socialization process during the post-war reconstruction period and the dominance of welfare values.
•Generation D
This generation is completely placed in the period of Generation Y. These are young people who entered the labor market in recent years. They have some important differences in behavioral and psychological characteristics with the other generations. Perhaps one of the most important reasons for this, is that they are highly exposed to globalization and its results. Now they are between 20 and 30 years old. They pass socialization process in the period of extensive political and social reforms in Iran.
•Generation E
This generation is placed in the period of Generation Y too. It comprises people who have not entered the labor market yet and thus they are outside the scope of organizational studies. But due to their specific characteristics, should be considered as a separate generation. They are now under 20 years old, so they still stay in the beginning phases of socialization and in the face of globalization much more than former generations.
Conclusion
Employees from different generations are working together in today’s organizations. Understanding similarities and differences of these generations help managers to attain the benefits of their diversity, creativity and energy. So, it is essential to consider the workforce generational based diversity for analyzing the behavior of generational groups that can affect the success of an organization. The results can be used as key components of policies that support organizational goal achievement.
Experts and researchers in the field of human resource development need to study generational differences and their effect on organizational behavior variables to understand how to build and execute strategies planned to improve personal and organizational performance.
Generation makes differences between human resources in an organization that affects their learning styles, expectations and needs, same as other characteristics such as gender, race, and culture. Thus, managers can increase productivity, morale and staff retention by understanding the characteristics of each generation of employees and providing what they need to grow and develop.