Building professional identity: a study with female managers who are baby boomers, generation Xers, and millennials

Resumo O objetivo deste estudo foi o de analisar a construção da identidade profissional de mulheres pertencentes as gerações Baby Boomers, X e Y, que atuam como gerentes. Em termos metodológicos, este estudo adotou uma abordagem qualitativa-descritiva e entrevistou 32 mulheres que atuam como gerentes em diversificados setores da economia, localizados na cidade de Belo Horizonte. O grupo entrevistado foi constituído por 6 gestoras da geração Baby Boomers, 11 da geração X e 15 da geração Y. Os dados foram analisados considerando as seguintes categorias propostas por Hill (1993): “aprender o que significa ser gerente”, “desenvolver julgamentos interpessoais”, “adquirir autoconhecimento”, “lutar contra as tensões e emoções” e “gerenciar as transformações”. Como principal achado, observou-se que, embora as gerações em estudo apresentem características distintas, como modo de pensar, agir e ver o mundo, tais diferenças pouco interferem no processo de construção da identidade gerencial.

The Next Generation

Purpose This paper aims to review the latest management developments across the globe and pinpoint practical implications from cutting-edge research and case studies. Design This briefing is prepared by an independent writer who adds their own impartial comments and places the articles in context. Findings This paper explores differences in organizational commitment between Generation Xers and Millennials. The study finds that Generation Xers and Millennials show equal levels of organizational commitment and identifies that employee development creates organizational commitment in Generation Xers, but is less of a priority for millennials. Originality The briefing saves busy executives and researchers hours of reading time by selecting only the very best, most pertinent information and presenting it in a condensed and easy-to-digest format.

Women’s Educational Attainment and Fertility in the United States among Generation Xers

This study is the first to systematically examine the educational differentials in fertility levels and timing across four 5-year cohorts among Generation Xers in the United States. Little attention has been paid to the relationship between U.S. women’s educational attainments and fertility behaviors among those born after 1960 by previous studies. Results reveal that the cohort Total Fertility Rate among college graduates is lower than those of the less educated. However, there is evidence of an emerging trend: an increasing proportion of college-educated women with two children have transitioned to a third. Although college-educated women postpone first births, they tend to ‘catch up’ by spacing higher-order births closer to first births compared to the less-educated.

Do different generations look differently at high performance organizations?

Purpose Many researchers argue that the shared values of a generation affect people’s attitude, commitment, and ethics toward work. It is also argued that generational differences may cause tension between employees and with that prevent projects – such as a transition to a high performance organization (HPO) – from being completed successfully. The purpose of this paper is to examine whether generational differences in work values influence people’s perceptions of HPO, and if so, in what ways and how management could deal with it. The HPO Framework developed by de Waal (2012b) was used as a starting point for the study. Design/methodology/approach This study was performed at a Dutch multinational with a management trainee program. In this program, young talents, all belonging to Generation Y, followed a series of internships in various business units. A questionnaire on HPO was distributed among the trainees and their direct managers (all Generation Xers). The average scores for the five factors described in the HPO Framework were calculated for both groups. In addition, attention points were identified for the multinational, i.e. issues that needed to be addressed by the organization in order for it to become an HPO. The scores and the attention points were discussed in a workshop with both trainees and managers. Finally, the results of the workshop were analyzed and several weeks later presented by the authors to a larger audience, to validate the research findings. Findings The research results showed that there was a close match between the opinions of trainees (Generation Yers) and of managers (Generation Xers) concerning the general importance of the HPO factors, the organization’s performance on these factors, and the actions needed to improve on them. There were several explanations for the fact that generational differences did not influence the opinions of both generations on HPO. For example, the corporate culture in a multinational may be predominant over national culture, creating uniform thinking; or new employees adapt quickly to the organization and behave according to established patterns and thereby comply to the accepted way of thinking in the company. Research limitations/implications The practical implication of this study is that an organization does not have to target specific groups to convince people of the importance of HPO. It should be sufficient to hold an informative session for all staff on HPO before starting the joint HPO transition process. Originality/value This is the first study into how generational differences in work values could influence the opinions of various generations on HPO.