UNDERSTANDING DIFFERENT GENERATION
– K.Thirugnana Sambanthan
Professor, Sankara Institute of Management Science
In this modern era, we are finding it difficult to cope up with different people as their attitude, behavior, performance are different. To manage this problem effectively we have to understand the different generations. The cohorts are classified as follows.
People who are born before 1944 are called as Veterans and GI Generation. They are also called as Traditionalists or Silent Generation
People who are born during the year 1944 to 1962 are called as Baby Boomers
People who are born during the year 1963 to 1979 are called as Generation X.
People who are born during the year 1980 to 2000 are called as Generation Y or Millennials.
People who are born during the year 2001 to 2010 are called as Generation Z or iGen or Digital Natives.
People who are born after 2010 are called as Generation Alpha.
The Current generation composition is as follows
Greatest Generation is 9% of the total population
Baby Boomers is 24% of the total population
Generation X is 20% of the total population
Generation Y is 22% of the total population
Generation Z is 26% of the total population
Generation Z have the ability to work on 5 Screens at a time and they spend more than 40 % of the time outside the school in computers, Tab and Mobile. Generation Y can work on 3 Screens at a time. Generation Z are self directed Researchers. They use YouTube, Social Media for research assignments. They use online lessons for studying. Generation Y are Narcissistic, the concept of taking Selfie photos shows that they are self centered. Generation Y has the attitude to switch jobs as they like. They don’t work in an organization for a long period of time. More than 50% of Generation Z has the ambition to become entrepreneurs.
The List of Gen Y Billionaires and Gen Z Millionaires are given below:
Gen Y Billionaires
31 years – Mark Zuckerberg – FB Co-founder and CEO – $41.6 billion
31 years – Dustin Moskovitz – Facebook’s 3rd employee – $9.3 Billion
34 years – Yang Huiyan (Female) of China – $5.9 billion Realestate
33 years – Eduarardo Saverin – Facebook Co- Founder – $5.3 Billion
32 years – Scott Daniel Duncan – cofounder of enterprise products company – Energy partnership – $5 bilions
25 years Evan Spiegel – Snapchat CEO worth $1.9 Billion
26 years Bobby Murphy – Snapchat Co-founder$ 1.8 billion
Gen Z Millionaires
Justin Bieber – most famous teenagers turned millionaire entrepreneurs – he moved out from his popstar status to tech field- since age 12 – Forbes measured his two years earnings at $108 million
17 years – Nick D’ Aloisio – prodigy App developer – sold his News Summarising app – Summly to Yahoo for $30 million
19 years – Brian Wong- Mobile rewards network called Kiiip – a game changer in mobile advertising – made over $15million
Cameron Johnson – first business at age 9, making invitations for family parties, later worked on internet ad space and greeting cards Net worth more than $1 million before completing his high school
15 year old – Madison Robinson – Fish flops apparel – made over $1 million Sales
The General Characteristics of Generation Y is
- Independent
- Techno Savvy
- Sense Of Immediacy
- Entrepreneurial
- Innovative
- Confident
- Self-reliant
- Flexible
- Optimist
- Multitasking
- Socially Conscious
- Collaborating
- Preference to be entertained
- Valuing Integrity
- Demand autonomy
The General Characteristics of Generation Z is
- Greater dependence on Technology
- Embrace social learning environment
- Enjoy classroom discussion
- Career focused in early college life
- Rather than passive learners, they prefer to be fully engaged and be part of learning process
- Learn by doing
- Comfortable with digital tools (Skype/ online forums)
- Learning isn’t limited to classroom
- Self reliant and career driven
The above figure shows the workforce of generation changes that is going to take place in the forth coming years.
Understanding different generations will help us effectively manage in a work environment.
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