Clash of the Generations: Managing the New Workplace Reality

Clash of the Generations explores this new and increasingly common workplace phenomenon, and provides strategies to help managers navigate this ever more complex maze. Traditionally, older workers would retire and make room for the next generation; instead, Baby Boomers are now prolonging their time in the workplace, yet the successive generations are still coming in. Senior leaders are now left to manage a blended workplace comprised of up to four generations―each with their own ideas of work ethic, work/life balance, long-term career goals, and much more. Management is challenging at the best of times, but the new prevalence of generation gaps―sometimes even layered―add an entirely new dimension to an already complex responsibility. This book presents case studies and interviews with representatives of companies with age-diverse workforces, detailing innovative strategies for smoothing out the bumps and helping everyone work together.

Managers have long wished that their positions came with an instruction manual, and this book delivers with a host of effective inter-generational management strategies illustrated by real-world companies.

• Manage the multi-generation workplace more effectively
• Navigate the generational culture clash
• Adopt proven strategies for helping everyone get along
• Promote a more positive culture amidst clashing expectations

Every generation in the workplace has value, each has their own strengths, their own weaknesses, and their own unique talents. Each is indispensable, and when they come together as a synergistic force, they can be unstoppable. Effective management means bringing out the best in your workforce, and the strategies presented in Clash of the Generations help you streamline your varied workforce into a team more valuable than the sum of its parts.

VALERIE M. GRUBB is founder of the consulting firm Val Grubb & Associates Ltd. She is an innovative, visionary operations leader with an exceptional ability to zero in on the systems, processes, and human capital issues hampering a company’s success. During her career, she served as vice president of strategic operations and initiatives at NBC Universal and played a key role in creating both Oxygen Media and IAC. She is the author of Planes, Canes, and Automobiles: Connecting with Your Aging Parents through Travel.