Generational conflict: what works for one generation will not work for all generations

A Study of Generational Conflicts in the Workplace. Steven H. Appelbaum, Anuj Bhardwaj, Mitchell Goodyear, Ting Gong, Aravindhan Balasubramanian Sudha, and Phil Wei (2022) Concordia University, Montreal, Quebec, Canada.

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This article reviews research around generational differences and examines the causality between these differences and conflicts usually happening at the workplace. 

The conflicts can be defined as 

• Value-based: Each generation has different views and work values that motivates them 
• Behaviour-based: 
• conflict comes from how each generation communicates. Research has shown that different generations do not communicate with each other
• conflict comes from the differences in the expectation of feedback. Gen Y requires constant feedbak on their work
• Identity-based.
• conflict arises when differences exist between the ways one generation sees their own identities and the identities of other generations
• conflict originates form the general sense of wanting to belonging to a group of by comparing themselves to other groups.

These generational differences also affect managers’ strategies when dealing with conflicts at work. Morton Deutsch’s theory of cooperation and competition is often used for organisations to understand the nature of conflicts, and the Conflict Process Model can be used to examine how conflicts can evolve. 

Studies show that once a generational conflict is identified and understood, organizations can mitigate and resolve the conflict by developing mentorship between the parties involved to embrace generational diversity. Various components of the HR activities should also be altered to adapt generational differences for an organization to attract and retain talents. However, some studies raised debate about the causality between generations and behavioural characteristics at work and argued the necessity of managing conflicts caused by generational differences, raising concerns that attributing conflicts to generational differences potentially oversimplifies the problems.

photo Jordi Soldevila. Màcules de Barcelona. Constel.lació blava

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