America is likely to face an economic crisis due to the increase in attitude problems among the aging baby boomers. The developing age of the baby boomer is creating a problem that even corporations are projecting a decrease in employee numbers due to a large number of people with eye problems. The attitude and perception issues create a problem for workers because it reduces their competence at work. It illustrates aging generation of the baby boomer and how this health issue is creating an issue in the boomer workforce (Paludi, Paludi, and DeSouza, 2011). The baby boomers were born between the year 1946 and 1964; they are the largest number of people in the workforce currently. This generation is known as the generation of workaholics; therefore they become the most stressed out generation in history due to their attitude towards work. Since this generation represents a significant number of workers, they have expected to be accommodated at all levels even in their old age (Paludi, Paludi, and DeSouza, 2011).
Hypothesis
The baby boomers represent the middle-aged people in the workforce plus the old people in the workforce; therefore their competence becomes lower because they are not as active and fast learners like the young generation. This fact makes them slower to adopting change, and they can derail an organization due to their reduced contribution in making contributions that add to the growth of the company.
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Hypothesis one is the measurement of the young generation and the baby boomers.
Theory 1 employees falling in the younger generation category show more positive perceptions and attitudes towards work as compared to baby boomers.
The literature on this indicates that the younger generation is more enthusiastic regarding, promotions, training, and other aspects of career advancement more than the baby boomers. The young generation is open to new ideas on technology, economic growth at the workplace more than the older generation who feel comfortable in their positions especially because they have fewer years to work (Zemke, Raines, and Filipczak, 2013).
Methodology
Participation
To gather information from the younger generation, we recruited college students who were taking psychology courses; they had to be 25 years and below. Their participation was a way for them to earn extra credit as recommended by their professor. All the students had to do is to fill a research form that was posted on their noticeboard near the study hall.
The other group of participants was the workers who fell into the category of baby boomers that is those between the age of 50 years and above. We used workers from the same college to collect data on this set of employees. Data was also obtained from an employee’s program to gather more data on this age group.
Instrumentation
There was a pilot study information memo, presented to the college, the professors in the psychology courses and the employee program informing them of the data collection exercise and asking permission for their participation.
The data collection was done through the use of questionnaires; the students who filled the research fill-up sheets were invited for the data collection. The survey title was “employee generation and their perception and attitude in the workplace.” The aim of the questionnaire is to assess whether employee attitudes and perceptions differ according to their generation.
The survey was put into three sections, section one was the age and generation of the participant, part two, had twelve questions that covered several perception examples relating to the two generations, and the last section had four questions on the age of the ages and their opinions.
Data analysis
30 out of the 35 survey packets given out have been entirely filled out; the five were excluded from the analysis. The 30 packages were then used to test the hypothesis. The highest group rating was determined by a mean score where one was the lowest and four the highest, and out of the 30, the younger generation had the highest average rating of 4.
Item analysis :
To calculate the attitude and perception of employees in each age, we used the mean and standard deviation for each generation and element group. We used the Likert rating scale to determine the results where the ratings were between 1-5 there was a cutoff point, and three was the mean score anything above three had a high average rating anything below three was the low average rating. The young generation got an average rating of four meaning they had a high mean score which was in agreement with the hypothesis that the baby boomer generation has low perceptions and attitudes towards changes in the workplace as compared to the younger Generation (University of Michigan, 1955).
Experience
The research was a great experience, the interaction with the participants while conducting the survey was a magnificent experience for me; I learned a few things about the older and younger generation from the results. There is some misinterpretation of the older generation as I found out during the research and interacting with them shed light on a few misconceptions people have regarding this generation. People assume they are lazy, but this is the generation that shaped the workforce some years back, they may be competing with a more vibrant generation, but they were also vibrant at some point in their lives. We need to appreciate them more for their contribution then and now (Bourne, 2000). My interaction with younger generation was also a good experience because everyone has a different perspective towards life and sharing that with other people make one learn a new thing every day. We can never learn too much no matter the generation we belong to each day comes with its lessons and challenges.
References
Bourne, B. B. (2000). A phenomenological study of response to organizational change: Baby Boomers, Generation X, and Generation Y. Phoenix: University of Phoenix.
Paludi, M. A., Paludi, C. A., & DeSouza, E. (2011). Praeger handbook on understanding and preventing workplace discrimination. Santa Barbara, Calif: Praeger.
The University of Michigan. (1955). Personnel management abstracts. Washington, D.C: Personnel Management Abstracts.
Zemke, R., Raines, C., & Filipczak, B. (2013). Generations at work: Managing the clash of boomers, Gen Xers, and Gen Yers in the workplace. New York: American Management Association.
