Managing conflict across generations in the workplace

The current American workplace is made up of members of four distinct generations: "Veterans" (born between 1922-1943), "Boomers" (born between 1943-1960), "Generation X" (born between 1960 - 1980), and "Generation Y" (born between 1980 and 2000). Members of each generation bring to the workplace very distinct assumptions regarding technology, expertise, and rewards. This thesis explores the nature of differences in assumptions across all four generations. It takes the two most relevant to the current work environment, Boomers and Generation Y, and analyzes how their different approaches to technology, expertise and rewards cause conflict in the workplace. After conducting a literature review on conflict and change management at work, I propose a process for preventing and mitigating generational conflict at work.

Department dc:contributor.department

Sloan School of Management.

Grantor dc:publisher

Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Year dc:date.issued

2009

Author dc:creator

• Vázquez, Ernesto (Vázquez-Sáenez)

Advisor dc:contributor.advisor

• John Van Maanen.

• Sloan School of Management.

Statement dc:rights

• M.I.T. theses are protected by copyright. They may be viewed from this source for any purpose, but reproduction or distribution in any format is prohibited without written permission. See provided URL for inquiries about permission.

Licence dc:rights.uri

• http://dspace.mit.edu/handle/1721.1/7582

Language dc:language.iso

eng

Handle dc:identifier.uri

http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/50103

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:dspace.mit.edu:1721.1/50103