Baby Boomer: Individual born during the post-WWII boom, from 1946-64.
Generation X: Generation born after the baby boomers. No firm dates, but general consensus is that this includes peoples born in the 1960s through to the late 70s/early 80s.
Generation Y: Also called Millennials. This generation was born from 1981-2000s. The omnipresence of the Internet and other global information technologies has had a huge influence on this generation.
This chart gives some of the work characteristics of the different generations in the U.S. During your reading and research, you will want to see if these generations are defined along the same lines in foreign countries, and how they different and are the same with U.S. characteristics.
| Baby Boomers | Generation X | Millennials | |
|
Work Ethics and Values |
Workaholics Work efficiently Personal fulfillment Desire quality Question authority |
Eliminate the task Self-reliance Want structure and direction Skeptical |
What’s next Tenacity Goal oriented |
| Work Is... | An exciting adventure |
A difficult challenge A contract |
A means to an end Fulfillment |
| Leadership Style |
Consensual Collegial |
Everyone is the same Challenge Others Ask why |
*TBD - As this group has not spent much time in the workforce, this characteristic has yet to be determined. |
| Interactive Style | Team Player Loves to have meetings |
Entrepreneur | Participative |
| Communication | In Person | Direct Immediate |
E-mail and voicemail Text Messaging |
| Feedback and Rewards |
Don't appreciate it |
Sorry to interrupt, but how am I doing? Freedom is the best reward |
Whenever I want it, at the push of a button Meaningful work |
|
Work and Family Life |
No balance Live to work |
Work to live | Balance |
Adapated from "Mixing and Matching Four Generations of Employees" by Greg Hammill.
Simply knowing the right search terms can help immensely in the research process. Some recommended search terms are:
Try adding a country of interest to your search term to narrow your results if you find yourself retrieving too much information with any of these terms.
These websites are published by a variety of individuals and organizations to the world wide web. Remember that anybody can publish information to the Internet. When viewing websites, keep a critical eye out for any message or bias the author of the work may be expressing.
Many of these titles are hosted by Books 24x7. This service is free, but does require you to create an account before accessing the titles. Remember to use your @ivytech.edu e-mail address.
Asian Values, Western Dreams: Understanding the New Asia by 
The Character of Nations by 