The generation gap can hardly be called today's problem or tomorrow's challenge. Not because it is not a problem or a challenge but because of its temporal dimension. It existed as much yesterday but the existing value structure did not allow it to manifest itself as a major issue. The present day value shift prescribes much less tolerance for the age factor. Within the organisation as much as within the society, the generation gap is calling for greater attention to its management.Worker profile all over the world shows greater number of younger people in the existing work force than ever before. The population explosion in the last thirty years has had a big role to play in this. The then infants have now grown up, are wage earners, voters and consumers. It is they who form the huge slice of under 35 work force. Their attitudes, values and learning behaviours are having strong influences in shaping organizational growth.
One of the major problem faced in generation gap is obsolescence of the oldergroup. The once-young executive loses his ability and desire to stay in touch with recent development as he rises up the career ladder. His time is fully occupied in dealing with day to day administration, co-ordinating between different departments, keeping projects running on schedule, politicising to a certain extent. trying to outgrow others.
The time set aside for reading and updating oneself gradually constricts. Socializing becomes an important part of corporate growth, encouraged by organisations, for much business is frequently transacted on golf courses or over cocktails at the club. Over a period of time, the executive achieves seniority but forgets most of what he knew about his discipline.
Neither is he aware of the advances in his subject. To a freshman straight out college, brimming with information from books and journals, the senior executives' knowledge appears almost fossilised. It is difficult for him to engender and retain respect for such a boss. It is well accepted that leadershipestablishes itself by proving competence.
In the eyes of the younger staff, the seniors fail at the first altar of knowledge competence. A second complicating factor is the change in values such as unblinking respect to seniors under all circumstances. A generation back. such values were taught at home and carried by the individual to school/college and later to the workplace. Parents of the seventies and eighties changed these values treating children as friends and equal.
encouraging questions on hitherto established values. The young man/woman of today is little accustomed to subterfuges in expressing his/ her true feelings. Whether at home or at work, the result is conflict.
Younger generation's intolerance is matched by that of the older employees who recollect their initial years on the job and the rigorous conformance to spoken or unspoken rules. The up-to-date knowledge, facts and figures orientation of the new employees suddenly brings their obsolescence home.
To ward off the ensuinginsecurity. they scoff at the low value of new fangled information and try to hammer in the high value content of their experience, gathered painstakingly through the journey down the corporate years. The rift between the two groups widens. New technologies such as information technologies and telecommunication have brought in a revolution in the composition of workforces of such industries. Almost 75 percent of the technical staff is below 30 years of age.
Becoming a vice-president at 35 or 40 years is quite commonplace. In this scenario, older employees who have struggled for many years to achieve their position start feeling resentful. Their attempts to assert authority are tossed aside. The atmosphere gets further vitiated. The Human Resource Manage, we have accepted, is the lubricating fluid of the organisation.
Anything which has a `people' dimension is an HR issue. Many HR managers will shudder at this and vociferously declaim the limitations of the formal job description. The limitationsgenerally exist in our minds, in the boundaries we set on our responsibilities, in the extent to which we want to commit ourselves, in our desire to do a job or carry out a mission in transforming the organisation, helping it peak challenges successfully.
A problem like generation gap represents a major opportunity to the HR manager to resolve it into a harmonious-growth orientation based on shared strength and knowledge.
To some individuals, generation gap exists because some people are older. Age is a relative thing. To a 15-year-old, a 35-year-old is middle aged. A class X student was studying Charles Dicken's Oliver Twist. Her teacher asked her to describe Bill Sykes, a character in the book. The book says "Bill Sykes was a strongly built man of 35." The student began her description with the words "Bill Sykes was a middle- aged man but in good shape.'' Our perceptions are a function of our experience and age. To most of us. the perception is the reality. Today a CEO of 40 is considered `a youngcaptain of industry' but a cricket player or athlete is almost washed up at 35. Age, then, is a relative factor.
As employees reach seniority in age. they have to make a number of adjustments. There is a sudden increase in economic pressure as children have to be married off or at long last. the house of one's dream is built. Equally dramatically, the pressure may ease off to nil as children leave the nest one by one. An empty nest can be a traumatic experience for the aging couple, creating a feeling of not being needed. This plays a critical role in lowering self-esteem.
As the older employee considers imminent retirement, there may be some apprehensions mixed with ideas of a pleasant change from the working routine. Habits die hard though. The change appears pleasant only for a few days before the employee begins to yearn for the regularity of his erstwhile routine.
To change into the relatively idle new life can be very stressful psychologically. Some organisations hold pre-retirement trainingsessions several years before the actual retirement to prepare employees. The idea being that retirement is not the end of life but the beginning of a new life with new challenge and new perspectives. The older worker may also experience some physical infirmities, slowing down of some functions, decrease in some energy.
The addition of neglect or disregard by younger colleagues can compound all these issues to breaking point. Of course there are some stereotypes applied to older workers such as "their not being able to cope with stressful jobs." It is true that older employees decline in strength and stamina but they also have the patience and experience to search for options that help them in coping.
Another stereotype is that older people generally "resist change" Even HR consultants, who are supposed to be sensitive, are known to hold this belief. However people of all ages are resistant to change, not necessarily the older workers.
CORPORATE HRD
Ajanta EChakravarty
Published by Crest Publishing House
Price: Rs 595
