7-1 Discussion: Multigenerational Workforce

Discussion 7

Instructions

I will identify myself as a Millennial. Please read that section on the pdf slide. In addition, please refer to cheap 7 overview.

Chapter 7 Overview

In Module Seven, we will review the importance of employees as stakeholders in the organization, as primary internal customers. We will explore how the demographics of the workforce continues to change. For the first time in history, five different generations are employee stakeholders. We will discuss the changes in the composition of the workforce that relate to work-related values and motivations. One-size-fits-all management techniques no longer work for this diverse employee group of stakeholders.

Employee Stakeholders

Chapter 7 reviews characteristics and diversity issues about today’s workforce and how these characteristics and issues affect the corporation’s ethical responsibilities and leadership practices. Motivation and engagement elements are unique for the different groups encompassing the employee stakeholders. The chapter explores the changing nature of the employer-employee social and psychological contract, the boundaries of employee loyalty, the facets of generational wants and needs, and employee and employer rights and responsibilities. The chapter addresses the differences of today’s workforce and how these differences potentially affect the corporation’s ethical responsibilities.

Employees are primary customers and stakeholders of the organization and greatly impact productivity, quality, and profit. Moral leaders recognize that employees must be treated fairly as individuals and equipped with the necessary resources to give their best effort to help the organization succeed in its mission and goals.

Technology is driving a shift in necessary workforce knowledge, skills, and abilities to compete and succeed. The moral leader recognizes the responsibility of the organization to help workers increase their knowledge, improve their skills, and develop new abilities to keep pace with change. In a technology-based, digital economy, “knowledge workers with technological and people skills must manage processes and themselves in cyberspace with speed, efficiency, and accuracy” (Weiss, 2014, p. 426). Within this context, Weiss (2014) lists the following changes for employees and professional stakeholders:

• An increasing shift to knowledge work, increasing the potential for satisfying work but heightening stress.
• The concept of “a job and career for life” is dead or dying. Professionals change careers an average of five to eight times in their working lives. Compensation and benefit needs are increasing and changing due to national and global economic conditions. Income is not increasing with expenses and the wage gap between lower level and upper level employees is widening.
• Quality and balance in the work life is no longer guaranteed in the workplace and influenced by market demands and globalization. (p. 427)

Changes in the workforce present a unique set of ethical challenges and issues for leaders. For the first time in history, the workforce has five active generations with different attitudes and values toward work and organizational culture. Generational differences in the workforce result in the need for leaders to “develop workplace strategies and evaluate ethical principles and beliefs of different groups in the workforce” (Weiss, 2014, p. 428). Leaders must integrate “individual and group differences in the workforce” with planning, policies, and training. “In larger, more complex organizations, providing education and training to integrate the workforce is a necessity” (Weiss, 2014, p. 430).

Weiss (2014) offers the following steps as a framework to integrate the needs of a multigenerational workforce:

• Identify the Problem Areas: Assess issues between individuals or groups from different generations and seek the root cause of the problems such as value differences, rewards, motivation, work methods, and cultural attitudes.
• Get to Know the Individuals Inside Their Roles and Positions: Arrange for conversations to discuss broader topics and subjects that are important to employees. Plan, arrange, and invite individuals to conversations where needs and perceptions can be shared in non-threatening ways. Take steps for problem resolution.
• Understand and Anticipate Expectations of Different Generations: “One size (of leadership or management) does not fit all.” Individuals must be recognized and treated as such and managers must seek balance and harmony between the employee and the company.
• Develop a Personal Growth and Development Plan for Each Employee: Assist employees to develop specific future goals and marketable skills as tools for motivation and morale.
• Engage and Communicate: Employee generational differences must be understood through communication and right action. Engagement is primarily an emotional connection with the employee, his or her manager, and the organization. Organizational leadership must find ways to help employees verbalize and internalize what the company’s mission and purpose means to them.
• Be a Leader, Not a Friend: Most employees have friends. They seek leaders who are role models and mentors in the organization. Employees want moral leaders who are trustworthy, reliable and possess strong character. They want leaders who “do the right thing” in spite of obstacles and challenges. (pp. 431–432)

Rights and Responsibilities

“Employers and employees have rights and responsibilities each should honor with respect to the other” (Weiss, 2014, p. 445). Our textbook reviews the mutual responsibilities of employers and employees based on ethical principles and law and legislation. The best case for this relationship is mutual respect and trust. The moral leader respects employees and understands the need to enforce employment law and compliance. This principle of respect and the understanding of legal boundaries affect organizational culture and brand image. Employees and employers act and react based on needs and values. The moral leader understands this perspective and works to align and balance the needs and values of employees with the needs of the organization to earn profit and sustain the business.

Weiss (2014) notes the following:

A values-based stakeholder management perspective views the employee-employer relationship from a win-win foundation . . . Employer-employee working relationships are enhanced when the values of the organization reflect and align stakeholder with stockholder interests. Productivity, innovation, personal and professional growth are more likely to result from this type of alignment. (p. 447)

Reference

Weiss, J. (2014). Business ethics: A stakeholder and issues management approach (6th ed.). Oakland, CA: Berrett-Koehler Publishers.