Thursday, January 1, 2009

The generations at the workplace

Dear Students,

Demographic change is an important area to address in today's organizations.

The generations at the workplace can be broadly segregated as under:

Generation Bharat (Born 1960-1975): Characterized by collectivism, conformity, stronger family values, not to question authority, belief that higher education is the only way to success, lack of optimism, deep-seated economic insecurity, cynicism, lack of empowerment.

Generation India (Born 1975-1990): Characterized by high confidence to process information very fast, urge to develop a career fast, tendency to be given high responsibility, individualism, impatience, boldness, tendency to overestimate themselves (arrogance of ignorance), tendency to expect employer to adapt to them, roaming in cynicism-optimum paradigm, living in duality.

Generation Globalised India (Born>1990): Characterized by awareness of the world environment-consciousness, high technology – literacy, multi-tasking ability, urge to grow up fast, disrespect for elders authority, lack of proper models and reference, high self-confidence, optimist by nature and sees plurality as a way of life.

Needless to mention, the workplace will also contain ' Pre-Generation Bharat' people (born <1960).

The success of HR therefore, lies in navigating through the above sets of people effectively, integrating their "human variables" (culture, values, etc.) with "organization variables"(goals, policy, etc.) smoothly.

Best wishes & season's greetings for a happy & prosperous new year!

Prof. D. P. Chattopadhyay
(Globsyn Business School)

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