Poster Analysis - Understanding Development of Behaviors in Work

Goal

The goal of this activity was to provide audience with an overview of the classifications and behavioral development of generations of office workers. Understanding the development of Generation Y office workers was the focus. A matrix poster was created to illustrate and describe the classifications and behavioral development of different generations of office workers. This poster series view these office workers from 4 perspectives: society, interactions, characteristics, and technology.

Set-Up

First, generations of office workers were studied based on literature review (Spiro, 2006 & WiKi, 2010) and common understanding. Second, a number posters were created accordingly.

• Traditionalists - Traditionalists grew up during World War II. They are familiar with hardship, value consistency, and are disciplined and respectful of the law. They are familiar with the top-down style of management that disseminates information on a need-to-know basis, and they get satisfaction from knowing a job is well done. Traditionalists are known for staying with one company for their entire career (Spiro, 2006).

• Baby Boomers - Baby Boomers are an enormous generation that grew up in relative prosperity and safety. They developed their opinions during the sixties and seventies. Believing in growth, changes, and expansion, they seek promotion by working hard and demonstrating loyalty. In general, they believe anything is possible and therefore strive for the corner office, top title, and high salary (Spiro, 2006).

• Generation X - Between the previous generation (Baby Boomers) and the following generation (‘Generation Y’), there is a small group of the population born between 1964 and 1977. These people are determined to maintain a work-life balance. The days of a job for life became history with Generation X. According to ‘Generation Flex’ (Spiro, 2006), the number of people staying in a job for 5 to 10 years decreased by 21.3 percent between 1972 and 2000. Besides, intensely self-focused post-Boomers born during the late 1960s and 1970s often lack loyalty to their employers (Spiro, 2006). Without clear career goals, Generation X places family and community above work requirements.

• Generation Y - Please refer to late posts.

• Generation Z - Generation Z roughly spans the birth years from 1995 to 2009. The oldest members of this generation were born during the mid-1990s, and the youngest of the generation were born during the time of the global financial crisis in the late 2000s. Following ‘Generation Y’, they are typically the children of Generation X. Their parents also include the youngest Baby Boomers and some of the oldest ‘Generation Y’. On the average, members of Generation Z are highly participative. They are highly connected, many of them have had lifelong use of communications and media technologies such as the World Wide Web, instant messaging, text messaging, MP3 players, cellular phones, and YouTube (WiKi, 2010).

• Generation Alpha - Having exhausted the alphabetized theme of Generations X, Y, and Z, it has been suggested that the next generation, born from 2010, is called Generation Alpha. Generation Alpha is truly the first millennial generation because they are the first entirely born into the 21st century. Generation Alpha are largely the children of ‘Generation Y’, the grandchildren of the younger Baby Boomers and the younger siblings of Generation Z (WiKi, 2010).

Results

To summarize findings among different generations of office workers, a matrix poster was created. This poster series provide audience with an overview of the classifications and development of generations from 4 perspectives: society, interactions, characteristics, and technology. Vertically, they describe the external (social and technological) impact for each generation, as well as its unique interaction styles and characteristics. Horizontally, they show the behavioral development of the 6 generations and vision of future.