This research proposal will focus on examining the problem of multigenerational workplace in the local governments’ context. The age structure has experienced a dramatic change among these organizations in the past years. Conversely, the personnel staff is faced with stable ageing. At the moment there is at least one out of five civil servants above 50 years. On the contrary, the system of customary closed career has stalled. This portrays that fresh individuals can be recruited into the organization at higher levels of the hierarchy and at tender ages as opposed to the past. Furthermore, the older workers are ‘legal’ civil servants who are enjoying security of tenure as well as beneficial state pensions whereas the younger civil servants are mostly contractual employees. In addition, the younger generations had better chances of education generally plus high levels of computer skills. The difference between the generations is essential for relations among members of varied generations in the work organization context.
Background and Significance
This research will explore to what level the evolutions offer to conflicts of generations. The study will use the quantitative and qualitative data derived from interviews as well as focus group discussion among the civil servants in two organizations. Two major research questions will be tackled. The first question is to what level individuals view differences in generations and experience conflicts of generations in their usual work life. The second question is to what level the human resource policy affects the occurrence of conflict of generations. The research will draw conclusions for human resource management on the basis of empirical observations. The first part of the research paper will contain the theoretical framework. Further, it will discuss the concepts of diversity in age and personnel policy in relation to age, generational concepts and conflicts of intergeneration in the context of the organizations. Second, this research will describe the local government cases while in the third stage; it will present the research questions as well as research methods that it will use. The fourth part will highlight major findings from empirical analysis. Finally, it will draw some conclusions and provide recommendations practicing human resource management.
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Literature Review
Age Difference and Age-Linked Personnel Policy
There is a developing interest on age difference in organizations. Therefore it fits the overall tendency of human resource management both in practical such as research concerning diversity and the management of diversity. Even though the age dimension has gotten less attention compared to other dimensions, for example, race and gender, its significance for organizations is advancing. The main reasons behind this are demographic in particular. Due to the increase in life expectancy, the diversity of age in wider society is greater than in the past. As per Earl, and Taylor (2015), individuals in Western nations are exhilarated to work longer in a bid to addressing challenges of finance of the aging population. These financial constraints include health care and rising pension expenditures. In Belgium, policies of the government are mainly focused at keeping the people at work till they reach their official retirement age. The average age of retirement still lies under the official age of retirement which is 65 years. Other nations have already raised their official age of retirement, for example, The Netherlands. Besides, the notion of a compulsory age of retirement may become old-fashioned in the near future. Also, the average age of employees have increased proportionately with the ageing of comparatively large cohort of baby boom, who were born nearly between 1945 and 1965. Specifically, Belgium’s public sector is confronted with a staff that is ageing. For instance, above 40% of the local governments’ employees are at least 45 years. This evolution of demography among organizations means higher rates for workers who are older and higher rates of the diversity of age compared to the former. Moreover, while predicting a decreasing labor market, it is somehow no longer useful for organizations to discard their older workers. Alternatively, organizations will advance strategies to sustain the older workers motivation and employability. This is achieved by executing personnel policies that put the needs as well as competencies of older workers into consideration. Besides, the concept is gaining ground that policies of personnel should focus on older workers by highlighting longer career challenges. The personnel policies linked to age focuses on workers of all categories of ages to promote their motivation and employability across all career stages.
According to Shena, Chandaa, D’Nettob and Mongaa (2009), there is a natural tension in talking about diversity of age in organizations. On the contrary, diversity of age is linked to the equal opportunity concepts as well as equal treatment. Older workers are usually threatened by discrimination on age and negative stereotypes. The perception of ‘difference’ is used as a fundamental characteristic of diversity. A similar threat is noted in the research on age-linked personnel policy. Whereas proponents of age-linked policy personnel stress on the irrelevancy of age as a criteria for executing human resource instruments, for example, recruiting and selecting, reward systems, and training and career chances, it is disputed that human resource management should consider differences in linked to age in needs and expectations. The reason for the latter apprehension is that personnel policies linked to age take a lifespan direction in order to clarify variances between the age group. It is based on the notion that people transform when they grow and experience accomplishing transitions of life course which is linked with changes in their individual goals, career expectations and motivations. The increased diversity of age in organizations is therefore linked with larger variations between employee groups. Moreover, the implementation of diversity management on age embraces the assumption that the age linked variations may have impact on organizational results, for instance, turnover and productivity. Therefore, age difference management is more crucial.
Generational Variances in the Context of Workplace
As discussed above, personnel policies associated with age are designed by the perspective of a lifespan to justify for attitudes related to work and differences in the behavior between age groups. Variations between age groups can therefore be discussed by the effect of age. However, another means of interpreting variations between the old and young is by making reference to the idea of generations. Theory of formative years states that people who were given birth to in the same years have a shared identity of generation since they underwent the similar historical events while growing up. The generation theory forecasts that childhood experiences as well as adolescence have a sustaining effect on attitudes, behaviors and beliefs of people at an older stage of life. In current years, both management books and academic research have revealed a growing concern for generations meaning in work organizations context (Lyons and Kuron, 2014). Most of this study answers the question to what level generations vary from one another regarding attitudes based on work and behavior, basing the assumption that, a part from effects of age, there are also important effects of generations that are responsible for the observed variances between groups of ages. Even though there is no agreement on the actual intervals of birth year to single generations, mostly a separation is done between three generations that exist in current labor market. They include the baby boom generation, X generation and Y generation. Each of the generations has a particular work profile. For example, baby boomers are characterized to valuing life-time employment and loyalty to the company (Ciampa and Chernesky, 2013).
Ciampa and Chernesky (2013) state that generation X members are less competitive as well as loyal. They ascribe more meaning to involvement, development of esteem, life quality and team work. Generation Y is mostly characterized as unique from any of the generations. The ‘me-generation’ is not focused in developing a professional career. In addition, they search for flexibility, management support, autonomy of tasks, and learning environments that are active. Their most outplay is their technological literacy and higher education. Today, academic have been empirically authenticating the profiling of generations by use of majorly quantitative survey designs which are cross-sectional. The research gave mixed outcomes. Moreover, some researcher presented more resemblance compared to variances between generations. Thus it lacked univocal proof on the variances between generations on behavior and work attitudes. However, it appears that the anticipated variances on generations maintained by the co-workers and management are more significant for general changes in organizations than actual ones. In this research, based on qualitative interviews, it found out that baby boomers have a belief that generation X is not committed to their profession. They worked fewer hours as well as prioritized a work-life balance. However, the survey data did not show significant differences in generations. The research therefore proposes that the anticipated generational variance may play a major role compared to factual variances for the relationship between generations in the environment of work.
The study focuses mainly on the anticipated generational variances. In addition, it takes into account the organizational and societal contexts. This is based on the belief, that transforming the conditions of a society affects the view of generations and each other. For example, the available employees who are older were unable to enjoy the benefits of friendly policies for families such as working hours that are flexible and parental leave. This is due to the lack of policies at the stages they had children. In the context of a society that is ageing, younger generations will work longer compared to the past generation so that they secure pension schemes. It is interesting to observe to what level this notion of working longer impacts the relationships between generations in the context of work. Moreover, by assessing the interaction of generations in the context of a particular type of organization, in this case, local governments, the study may take the changing organizational context into consideration. Hence, the study of conflicts of intergeneration should put into account factors into context.
Intergenerational Conflict in Workplace
Today, there has been an emerging concern on the collaboration between different generational members. For instance, an organization portrays a field in which many groups of intergeneration interact and work. Therefore, they establish human resource solutions to promote the interaction of intergeneration. Other researchers emphasize the significance of transfer of knowledge between generations. Organizations should be on the forefront of addressing the challenge of knowledge loss which takes place when baby boomers leave. Organizations should execute knowledge transfer tools between the young and old. Further, they should enhance a culture of organization that promotes transfer of knowledge. Moreover, knowledge transfer of a person could be of an altruistic act. This is because it is carried out for others to benefit. It is therefore essential to expand on more insight regarding generational relationships in a particular setting of an organization. Intergenerational conflict may arise from differences due to generations. The workforce of numerous generations produces an essential task for human resource management to prevent as well as resolve conflicts of intergenerational. Even though, the idea of intergenerational conflict is usually employed in the literature, there is still the lack of understanding of the ideology as observed by McPhee and Schlosser (2015). Conversely, according to Shena, Chandaa, D’Nettob, and Mongaa (2009), authors of management books use the concept as a buzzword with the lack of empirical and theoretical evidence. On the other hand, there is the use of multiple definitions and meanings in literature of academics. Hence, the purpose of this research is to highlight on the concept. This will be done in the next schedules. I will first describe generations in organizational contexts and then assess what it means by intergeneration conflict by deducing on the literature about organizational conflicts.
Defining ‘Generations’ in Workplace
Even though a differentiation between generation and age impacts can be made theoretically, it empirically remains challenging and even impossible to separate. This is because a person’s age, their birth cohort as well as period of history are bewildered. Sociologists claim that the way persons grow alder is also a function of factors of society. A study by Earl and Taylor (2015) on the differences on generations among nurses portrays the idea as a life stage and cycle of a career, cohort of generation, individual experiences of historical occurrences, as well as trends in nursing all contributing to the age group profile in the sample of study. Based on this vision, generation is defined as the varied age groups at a specific moment in history representing varied birth cohorts.
A Typology of Conflicts in Workplace
Although the idea of conflict of intergenerational has become more popular, updated, there is still the lack of theoretical understanding. Different ideas exist in the literature; however, there is the gap of theory due to the definition of the concept with the lack of reference materials on conflicts and management of conflict within an organization. In an attempt to fill the gap, the work of De Dreu and Gelfand’s (2008) explains organizational conflicts. They describe conflict as the process that starts when a person or group view variances and opposition between themselves and another person or group on resources and interests, values, beliefs and practices that are significant to them. The definition is elaborate on conflict conceptualization as a process. It means that conflict can be latent, viewed, and manifest or felt, depending on whatever phase the conflict process. The way conflict is determined portrays the aftermath stage of conflict. This in turn is the fresh beginning of future conflict. However, the definition highlights that a conflict is ambiguous. Sometimes, conflict can exist without any signs of negotiation or aggression (Alfes et al, 2013).
Conflicts should be assessed at several levels of organizational analysis. That is to say, conflicts can be made at individual, group or organizational level. Alfes et al. (2013) observed that conflicts of intergenerational can be understood as a particular incident of group conflict. Conflicts at one level are likely to affect conflicts as well as results at other levels. There definition indicates that there are several conflict sources. There are three major sources of conflict that results into three conflict types. First source is competing for resources that are scarce. The second source is founded on the basis of theory of social identity which people tend to advance and sustain oneself positive image. It is related with conflicts of relationship. The third source is the urge to maintain agreeably common and socially upheld views and beliefs. When the urge is not achieved, it results into conflicts of socio-cognitive. This research paper will describe the types of conflict in detail in the following section and apply them to generations in the case study of local governments.
Preliminary Interview Findings
There are relationships conflicts between generations which are due to categorization of social process. On the basis of social identity theory, people’s views and behaviors on others are a function of categorization into out-groups and in-groups. In organizational context, people categorize themselves with peers and regard others of different age as out-group members. Thus it leads to conflicts of intergeneration since it is linked to biasness, stereotyping, and discriminative behavior. There are also conflicts of socio-cognitive which emerge from divergent and incompatible interpretations and understandings of facts as well as figures. This is because; individuals seek social evidence and consistency on cognition of their insights and beliefs. Thus divergent opinions results into tensions and that requires resolution.
Thirdly, there are the tasks conflicts which are linked to information and cognition regarding a particular task. For instance, co-employees maintain a varied view on which duty and how it should be performed. When applied to organizational generation, members of a certain generation have different view and understanding on the mission, strategies, and values of the organization. Further, due to different educational and socialization background, different communications and style of work, varied approaches of solving problems could also be a source of conflict related to task. Information as well as modern technology also determines differences in generations (Jiménez-Jiménez et al, 2014). However, at the context of the organization, the culture of the organization and style of management have undoubtedly transformed over the years. Since the introduction of fresh management methods by Flemish government, the older generations are faced with the challenges of adapting to the new policies. Further, there is the conflict due to age norms as well as erosion of the earlier structure of age (Donald, 2014).
Five Point Action Plan
Practically research usually directs us to discovering solutions to problems through identification of solutions to business problems through the trial and error method. Somehow, the definite test of research proposition should be based on evidence and on long history of reviewing and achievement. Noble reviewed sources advance themselves to studying and teaching field of knowledge based on evidence. The paper reviewed applicable materials from scientific as well as business and the perspective theory to investigate how they can advance the design as well as practice of management of workplace problems among different generations based on evidence.
It focused the literature review on a number of sources on academic materials through bibliographic search to identify the best and updated research materials relevant to the human resource management. So as to identify the “Five Point Action Plan,” the study found Shaw’s “Sticking Points” to be relevant. According to Shaw (2013), conflicts brought about by multigenerational workforce stems from various attitudes resulting from how an organization manages dressing code, decision making, fun at work, feedback, work ethics, training, communication, knowledge transfer, loyalty, meetings, respect and policies. Such conflicts can be addressed by implementing a five-step process which is “acknowledge, appreciate, flex, leverage, and resolve” (Shaw, 2013). This process will allow group members to appreciate the perspectives of each generation and learn from them. The process will also enable members to accommodate intergenerational differences.
Proposed Research Design and Methods
Research Questions and Method
The research is partly derived from the Research Center for Policy, an agency of the local government from 2007 to 20011. This research aims at developing policy advice on the ways the local governments can tackle the ageing of the personnel staff by executing proper human resource management instruments. This research used both qualitative methods such as focused group discussion and quantitative method, for example, survey.
Survey
In the initial stage of the research, it tackled the question to what level local governments are enhancing and executing personnel policies related to age which are focused on enhancing employees to work longer which up to their retirement age. The significant tools included training investment and development, horizontal mobility promotion, management of competency and a work-life balance support. To answer the research question, the researcher carried out a pen and a paper mail survey among the whole population of the administrative officers of municipalities as well as centers in the public for social welfare (n=616). With regards to personnel policy, the survey entailed many items. The survey entailed questions on to what level the administrative viewed the ageing of the personnel employees and the association between the variance generations as a challenge.
Case Study and Focus Groups Discussion
The second part of the research anticipates intensifying our knowledge on the problems of the ageing personnel staff by observing their interaction between members of variance groups in specific work settings. Age linked policies of personnel do not consider this as they aim at the employee themselves from the perspective of a life span. In order to research to what level and which types of conflicts of organizations are available in local governments, the researcher carried out two case studies. They included municipal organizations and public centers of a Flemish part of the city which comprises residents of about 80000.
Case Study
A case study refers to empirical investigation that researches a modern phenomenon within the realistic context. Researches based on case study are approximate means when clear boundaries are lacking between the context and phenomenon, when many sources of proof are being used. Both of the settings are applicable in our research. As highlighted above, conflicts due to intergenerational should be researched within the organizational and societal contexts. Moreover, the study collected quantitative data on the individual staff and qualitative data from those interviews with the officials of human resource (n=7). Also, focused group discussion was carried out.
Focus Groups Discussions
A focus group refers to research technique for gathering qualitative data based on group discussion and which is moderated by a leader. The researcher decided on the focus group method following our interest in researching common ideas of persons belonging to similar generation and the intended differences of generations. Focused group was effective compared to interviews of individuals, since the group socialization that develops in the course of discussions revealed some insights regarding identities of generations and shared experiences of persons who are belonging to similar generation. In this case, the focus groups were categorized in terms of age. Different focus groups were conducted among the employees above 50 years, between 30 years and 50 years and those below 30 years.
The next variable that was considered was functional level. One side of the group comprised of individuals with functions that requires a masters or bachelor’s degree. It is categorized as high level. The other side comprises individuals in functions that require no particular education or secondary education. It is classified as low level. A group of 6 to 8 contributors was formed for every focus group. The recruitment was conducted in two stages. In the first phase, contributors were recruited through appeal. Individuals volunteered to contribute. They were notified in the letter that the study regards work and age. It looked like older employees were impressed by the concern as opposed to the younger ones. In the second stage of recruitment, the study selected people randomly from the database of the personnel. The researcher held 9 interviews of focus groups among 54 workers. The focus groups were varied since they were put together considering the variable work decree.
The focus groups were based on questions as some questions had been prepared as opposed to using broad topics. The focus groups were organized into four major blocks of queries. First, the contributors were called to deliberate on the effective retirement age and compare their views with the situation of the basic age which individuals would retire in the organization. The researcher then questioned the participants regarding career anticipations with specific topics for example work-life balance and career development. Thirdly, experiences regarding working as a team with individuals of varied ages were assessed. Lastly, participants were asked to give their views regarding baby boomers that live to work, as opposed to the younger generation who work to live. This was to make participants initiate the talk on generational variances.
Preliminary Suppositions and Implications
Information from the focus group indicates that there are conflicts due to intergeneration in the case study of local governments. In addition, the study has shown that conflicts of intergeneration in organizational contexts are a multifaceted phenomenon due to the multiple sources as well as varied types of intergenerational conflicts. Therefore, in the context of the local governments in the country, the study recommends a formulation for the human resource policy. However, there is still room for further studies to tackle the issue on the outcomes of conflicts of intergenerational, at the organizational, group and individual levels which includes motivation, performance, and turnover. Moreover, additional study is required on the impacts of human resource management on conflict of intergenerational in organizations.
References
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Donald, D. U. (2014). Talent management and human resource practices. International Journal of Innovation and Applied Studies , 6 (4), 1011.
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Jiménez-Jiménez, D., Martínez-Costa, M., & Sanz-Valle, R. (2014). Knowledge management practices for innovation: a multinational corporation’s perspective. Journal of Knowledge Management , 18 (5), 905-918.
Lyons, S., & Kuron, L. (2014). Generational differences in the workplace: A review of the evidence and directions for future research. Journal of Organizational Behavior, 35(S1), S139-S157.
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Shena, J., Chandaa, A., D’Nettob, B., & Mongaa, M. (2009). Managing diversity through human resource management: an international perspective and conceptual framework. The International Journal of Human Resource Management, 20 (2), 235–251.
Shaw, Haydn. (2013). Sticking Points: How to Get 4 Generations Working Together in the 12 Places They Come Apart . Carol Stream, Illinois: Tyndale House Publishers, Inc.
