Why do generations

Sep, Retrieved from Business Insider. Retrieved from Vision Critical. Feb, Retrieved from Inc. May, Retrieved from Forbes. Retrieved from Staffbase. Accessed 5 March Retrieved from Pearson. Retrieved from Growing Leaders. Social share:. Related Reading. Generations are one way to group age cohorts. A generation typically refers to groups of people born over a year span, such as the Millennial generation, currently the youngest adult generation. Generational analysis is an important tool used by Pew Research Center and other researchers.

This report aims to describe the basic approach of generational analysis at the Pew Research Center and some of the key insights it provides into understanding public attitudes and behaviors. Setting the bounds of generations is a necessary step for this analysis. It is a process that may be informed by a range of factors including demographics, attitudes, historical events, popular culture, and prevailing consensus among researchers.

As a result, the lines that define the generations are useful tools for analysis, but they should be thought of as guidelines, rather than hard-and-fast distinctions. The Baby Boom generation is an example of a generation that is largely delineated by demography. Its oldest members were part of the spike in fertility that began in , right after the end of World War II. Its youngest members were born in , shortly before a significant decline in fertility that occurred after the birth control pill first went on the market.

Other generations are less strictly defined by demography, though it plays an important role in designations including Generation X and Millennials — the two generations that followed the Baby Boomers.

Generation X describes people born from through The label overtook the first name affixed to this generation: the Baby Bust. In part, this generation is defined by the relatively low birth rates in these years compared with the Baby Boom generation that preceded them and the Millennial generation that followed them. The label for this generation was popularized by a book by Douglas Coupland titled, Generation X: Tales for an Accelerated Culture. This generation is largely made up of the children of the Baby Boom generation.

The name for this cohort refers to those born after — the first generation to come of age in the new millennium. As this generation was first entering adulthood, some used the term Gen Y to refer to them, and its boundaries were slightly different. This is another example of how the names and spans of generations can change over time. The Silent generation describes adults born from through Time Magazine coined the term in a article describing the emerging generation of the time.

The Silent label is not widely recognized by the public: fewer say they have heard of it than the labels for any other of the living generations. See here for our report on generations and identity. An age cohort spanning years will necessarily include a diverse assortment of people — and often there are meaningful smaller cohorts within these generations. Changes in political circumstances, societal mores and economic conditions over a period of years can lead to people within a cohort having different formative experiences.

Understanding these differences within a cohort is an essential component of generational analysis. The factors associated with generational differences can be complex and overlapping. Researchers often think about three separate effects that can produce differences in attitudes between age groups: life cycle effects sometimes called age effects , period effects and cohort effects. When a life cycle effect is at play, differences between younger and older people are largely due to their respective positions in the life cycle.

For example, young people are far less likely than older adults to vote and engage in politics. This may be because they are less informed about politics or feel they have less at stake in political or policy debates. As people age, they vote at higher rates and their level of political engagement rises. Millennials are less engaged in politics today than are older generations, but the same was true of Baby Boomers in their youth. Today, Boomers are among the most likely to vote and participate in politics.

The second process is a period effect. Period effects are seen when events and circumstances for instance, wars, social movements, economic booms or busts, scientific or technological breakthroughs as well as broader social forces such as the growing visibility of gays and lesbians in society simultaneously impact everyone, regardless of age.

Period effects are typically thought to have lasting effects on an entire population. An example of a period effect may be the impact of the events of the early to mids — the end of the Vietnam War and the Watergate affair — on views of government.

This was a time in U. Overall trust in government has ebbed and flowed since the s, but has never returned to levels seen before that period. Another example of a lasting period effect is the shift in public views on the issue of terrorism and the priority given to homeland defense and combatting terrorism globally following the September 11, terrorist attacks.

They also described the qualities that other people might have about their own age group their meta-stereotypes. The pattern of their responses varied by age group. Broadly, these results demonstrate that older and younger workers believe others view them more negatively than they actually do.

These cases confirm that neither age-related stereotypes or meta-stereotypes are accurate. Another undergraduate was asked to listen to the training and then perform the task.

We varied whether each person — the trainer and the trainee — appeared to be old approximately 53 or young approximately 23 using photographs and voice-modifying software. When trainers believed that they were teaching an older person how to do the computer task, they had lower expectations and provided worse training than when they believed they were teaching a young person.

These results demonstrate that poorer training is a direct result of age stereotypes. A recently published study examined how people react to meta-stereotypes over the course of a work week. Importantly, these reactions can also impact interpersonal behaviors at work. Both threats and challenges led to conflict at work things like arguing or not getting along with colleagues and avoidance behaviors things like keeping to oneself and avoiding interacting with others.

We also considered the implications of meta-stereotypes for mentoring relationships in law and in medicine in another study that we recently presented at a conference with our colleagues.

If there are not real and consistent differences between people of different age groups, but these stereotyping and meta-stereotyping processes end up creating artificial generational divides, what is a manager supposed to do?

First, openly talking about these stereotypes and meta-stereotypes can be a great first step. Combining this effort with practices in perspective-taking e. Another strategy that can be effective might be emphasizing shared goals. By doing so, both older and younger people can see themselves as part of the same team working toward the same outcome.

Finally, managers would benefit from recognizing that employees often change over time due to varying priorities, demands, experiences, and physical capacities. These changes can take many forms.