1. 12 PEOPLE’S EDGE ● FEBRUARY 2013
PUBLISHER’S NOTE
FEBRUARY 2013 ● PEOPLE’S EDGE 13
PUBLISHER’S NOTE
Managing a Multi
Generational
Workforce
T
he business world is becoming progressively global.
Products and services offered by businesses are also
becoming more focused and targeted at specific
demographicsegments.Besides,manyorganisations
today have customers all over the world who demand
excellent services and products that meet their diverse needs,
expectations and priorities. The composition of the workforce
is also changing significantly across the globe.
Never before have four generations worked side-by-
side in the workplace. After World War II, the Traditionalist
generation,bornbetween1922and1945,tendedtoworkwith
the same employer for the duration of his career. Beginning
with the Boomers, born between 1946 and 1964, women and
Professor Sattar Bawany, CEO, Centre of Executive Education
& Strategic Advisor, International Professional Body (IPMA)
Asia Pacific, looks into the challenges facing the global business
landscape and the accompanying new realities
ethnic groups began entering the workforce in increasing
numbers, bringing different needs and perspectives to the
workplace. As the Gen Xers entered the workforce, they
augmented job-hopping in an effort to increase their income
and/or to balance their lifestyle. Although some employers
made accommodations in response to the demographic
shifts, the basic work model––top down, command and
control, one-size-fits-all, 8-to-5 workday—did not radically
change. Now, the emergence of the digitally-savvy Millennials
or Gen Yers has the potential to change the face of the
working world to be more collaborative, to use virtual teams,
to use social media, and to offer more flexible work hours.
The Fifth generation, Gen Zers or The Linksters, has started
coming into the workforce. The five generations and their
birth years are depicted in Table 1.
Challenges in Managing a Multi-
generational Workforce
Amajorchallengefortoday’sTraditionalistandBabyBoomer
managersistofigureouthowtodevelopyoungerworkersinto
tomorrow’s managers under a new business environment. A
pivotal question for managers is, “Do we want our legacy to
be of mentoring and empowering the next generations, or
of fighting them tooth and nail?” Organisations that embrace
generational differences in values, ways of getting things
done, and ways of communicating will thrive.
Demographic and social trends will have a significant
impact on the workforce in the coming years. In today’s
struggling global economy, it is more important than ever for
organisations to leverage the knowledge, skills and abilities
of all workers, from all generations. By capitalising on the
strengths and values of different generations, business
leaders can create a sustainable competitive advantage for
their organisations.
Generation Birth Year Work Perspectives
Traditionalists 1922 - 1945 “Company loyalty” - Believe they would work
for the same company for their entire career.
Boomers 1946 - 1964 “Live to work” - Believe in putting in face time at the
office. Women enter the workforce in large numbers.
Gen Xers 1965 - 1980 “Work to live” - Believe that work should not define
their lives. Dual-earner couples become the norm.
Gen Yers
(Millennials) 1981 - 1994 “Work my way” - Devoted to their own careers,
not to their companies. Desire meaningful work.
Gen Zers (Linksters) 1995 to present
“LivingandWorkingtheirway”-Theirstrugglesinthework
environment are tied to their youth and inexperience.
Desire for change, stimulation, learning and promotion
thatwillconflictwithtraditionalorganisationalhierarchies.
Table 1: The Multi-Generational Workforce
Organisations struggle with the challenges of effectively
managing a more diverse workforce. These challenges often
relate to variation in perspective, values and belief systems as a
result of generational differences and are further complicated
due to the age differences between managers and employees.
The assumption that people of varying ages will understand
each other or have the same perspective and goals is far from
true. In order to be successful, managers need to understand
andvaluethediversityresultingfromgenerationaldifferences,
varying perspectives and differing goals.
Each generation brings different experiences,
perspectives, expectations, work styles and strengths to the
workplace. Despite the perceived “generation gap” from
differing views and potential conflict, organisations have the
opportunity to capitalise on the assets of each generation
to achieve competitive advantage.
Each brings unique assumptions to the job. As a result,
events in the workplace are often interpreted differently
by individuals of different generations. What may seem
like good news to a Boomer might well be an unsettling
and unwelcome development to a member of Generation
X. Things that members of Gen Y love often seem
unappealing or frivolous to those of the older
generations.
Like any other generation, Gen Z or the
Linksters brings its own mind-set into the workforce.
They are called Linksters because no other generation
has ever been so linked to each other and to the world
throughtechnology.Theirstrugglesintheworkenvironment
are tied to their youth and inexperience. They are complete
digital natives and cannot function without communicating
through social media. They desire change, stimulation,
learning and promotion that will conflict with traditional
organisational hierarchies.
Leading and Engaging a Multi-
generational Workforce
When employees join an organisation, they’re usually
enthusiastic, committed, and ready to be advocates for their
new employer. Simply put, they’re engaged.
“Do we want our legacy
to be of mentoring and
empowering the next
generations, or of fighting
them tooth and nail?”

2. 14 PEOPLE’S EDGE ● FEBRUARY 2013
PUBLISHER’S NOTE
FEBRUARY 2013 ● PEOPLE’S EDGE 15
PUBLISHER’S NOTE
Butoften,thatfirstyearonthejobistheirbest.Research
by Gallup, Inc. reveals that the longer an employee stays
with a company, the less engaged he or she becomes. And
that drop costs businesses big in lost profit and sales, and
in lower customer satisfaction. In fact, Gallup estimates that
actively disengaged employees are the least productive and
as such, cost the American economy up to US$350 billion
per year in lost productivity.
Managerswhoharnessthisunprecedentedopportunity
for growth, development, and collaboration, and build
bridges between generations, will thrive in today’s turbulent
economic landscape.
For managers who have four generations of employees
sitting in a meeting or working on a project, it can seem
like each generation has its own world-views, priorities,
career models, motives and values. They need to enhance
their understanding of generational characteristics and the
impact of their own management practices on each of these
groups, so that they can leverage on the strengths of each
generation. Taking full advantage of the multi-generational
workforce will enable employers to effectively attract
and retain employees, build teams, deal with change, and
increase employee engagement.
Impact of Leadership Effectiveness
on Employee Engagement and
Organisational Success
Organisations need to deliver service value and build good
customer relationships in order to generate sustainable
resultsthroughtheirsatisfiedandloyalcustomers. Employees
being at the forefront of the service delivery chain hold the
key to building this satisfied and loyal customer base.
Employees who are engaged and motivated are
instrumental in delivering the service experience for the
client,whichwillresultincustomerengagement.Thelevelof
employee engagement is dependent on the ‘Organisational
Climate’ (sometimes known as Corporate Climate), which
simply refers to “how employees feel about working in
the organisation/business unit/department/division.”
Organisational climate is the process of quantifying the
‘culture’ of an organisation. It is a set of properties of the
work environment, perceived directly or indirectly by the
employees, that is assumed to be a major force in influencing
employee behaviour and engagement.
We know that leaders create, transform and manage
organisational cultures. The leader’s values, beliefs and
leadership styles will impact the organisation’s climate. We
need‘Level5Leaders’whodemonstrateontologicalhumility
and possess emotional mastery. They also need to possess
essential integrity in discharging their day-to-day role and
responsibilities towards engaging the employees.
In his book Good to Great, Jim Collins examines how a
good company becomes an exceptional company. The book
introduces a new term to the leadership lexicon––Level 5
leadership. Level 5 refers to the highest level in a hierarchy
of executive capabilities. Leaders at the other four levels may
be successful, but are unable to elevate companies from
mediocrity to sustained excellence.
Level 5 leadership challenges the assumption that
transforming companies from good to great requires
larger-than-life-leaders. The leaders that came out on top in
Collins’five-yearstudywererelativelyunknownoutsidetheir
industries. The findings appear to signal a shift of emphasis
away from the hero to the anti-hero.
According to Collins, humility is a key ingredient of
Level 5 leadership. His simple formula is Humility + Will =
Level 5. “Level 5 leaders are a study in duality,” notes Collins,
“modest and wilful, shy and fearless.”
Increasing generational diversity and technolog ical
change is causing a transformation in the way employers
must manage human resources. The homogeneous human
capital model of the past simply will not work with such
diverse cohorts in the workforce. It is time to throw out the
one-size-fits-all model of talent management and embrace a
more flexible model.
The diversity in the workforce today may be a challenge
to HR and business leaders. However, they do provide an
organisation with a positive force as they each bring varied
sets of skills and life experiences to the workplace. If
managedproperly,organisationscandefinitelyseeimproved
productivity and employee engagement.
Managers who harness this unprecedented
opportunity for growth, development, and collaboration,
and build bridges between generations, will thrive. For
managers who have four or five generations of employees
sitting in a meeting or working on a project, it can seem
like each generation has its own world-views, priorities,
career models and motives. Managers need to develop
an understanding of generational characteristics and
the impact of their own management practices on these
groups. They also need to leverage the strengths of each
generation. Taking full advantage of the multi-generational
workforce will enable employers to effectively attract and
retain employees, build teams, deal with change, and
increase employee engagement.
WHAT’S WITH
EXTERNAL SUCCESSION
PLANNING?
F
rom an observer’s perspective, it appears that most
succession planning efforts are nothing more than
staged processes to lure up-and-coming leaders
into a false sense of job security and form part of the
business case that lets the leadership development function
spend a fortune on career coaches, custom education
development, and opulent retreats. This is clearly a case
of HR practitioners pandering to the wants of a few versus
the needs of the organisation, and someday soon such
gluttonous actions will wreak havoc.
Small- and medium-sized organisations are already very
aware of what not developing leadership bench strength
can mean to the organisation. Across the globe there are
thousands of businesses that are nothing more than shells of
what they once were, thrown into periods of spiralling decline
caused by the absence of engaged leadership. The problems
that strike family-owned businesses that arise when there is
no family left interested in assuming the reins are no different
than those that impact large conglomerates that find that after
years of focusing on the product, they haven’t developed any
replacementleaderswiththerightmixofskillsandknowledge
to run a division or even a facility.
Lack of Leadership Bench Strength:
A Growing Problem
As the second phase of the War for Talent slowly builds
momentum, more and more firms are going to experience
Succession planning is an interesting concept with great potential—
if only it were used to do what it was designed for. The unfortunate
truth surrounding succession plans, however, is that most are
nothing more than out-of-date, static documents—rarely referred to,
and with little exception, never executed.
By Dr. John Sullivan & Master Burnett
Driving the demand for such talent are a•
number of issues, including:
The impending retirement of baby boomers•
(i.e. the ageing workforce)
The increased turnover resulting from a•
growing economy
The surge in interest of becoming an•
entrepreneur
The lack of upward promotions available in•
recently merged or otherwise "lean" firms
Continued global expansion, which requires•
leaders with broader skill sets
havoc directly related to the absence of leadership bench
strength. The problems that have crippled smaller firms
historically will establish a footing in every major enterprise,
as the competition for management and leadership talent
reaches an all-time high.
Most organisations have no effective strategy that can
realistically address this. The dominant strategies and tools
that power succession planning were designed around the
assumption that your organisation has a sufficient volume
of internal candidates suitable for development and the
opportunities to actually development them as needed. In
The diversity in the
workforce today may be
a challenge to HR and
business leaders.