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Bosses and workers, kids and parents?!

Many career advertisements such as GAP, which is a company with international brand, said looking for ÐŽoyoung, fresh and energetic managersÐŽ± but no longer mention too much on experience. Companies look for younger generation to bring fresh energy, high technology and a change mindset to the job. (Joan Lloyd, 2000). For years, promotion depended, to some degree, on seniority. However, much of that has been changing. Tricia Bobeda (2005) has addressed that many young people are entering the work force with high expectations about how quickly they will reach the top of an organization. They have good education such as MBA and good ability so that are higher chance to reach the management rank. ChiTin (2005) said the average age of the top management is 10 years younger than that of 10 years ago in Japan, On the other side, in Hong Kong, according to a recent AXA Global Survey (2006), the average retirement age is 57 and has a trend increasingly older. In the United State, the number of workers who are at least 40 years old will exceed the number under 40 within 10 years (H.N. Fullerton Jr. and M. Toossi, 2001).

The phenomenon of more and more middle-aged workers reporting to fresh-faced bosses with 20- or 30-plus years old is the biggest source of tension in the workplace (Samantha Marshall, 2005). "Younger boss, older employee" will be the new trend and it will be discussed in this paper.

The objective of this paper is to discuss the conflict between younger boss and older subordinate. It will start by specifying which groups of workforce the younger boss and older employee are. Then, base on some literatures, it will analyze the reasons of conflict existing in cooperation between them. Lastly, it will explain some possible ways to deal with the conflicts and draw a conclusion.

Which groups of workforce younger bosses and older employees are

In this paper, older employee refers to the middle-aged and the younger boss means the manager or supervisor who is nearly half age of the older employees, say, 20s or 30s. Those older employees have rich experience and always do not want to be coached by or receive commands from someone they perceive as being the age of their kids (Lynn Lancacaster, 2003). The younger seniors have rich knowledge; meanwhile, comparing with the older, those bosses often have differing values, management styles and attitudes about workplace dynamics (Dana Knight, 2005).

Conflicts in cooperation between younger bosses and older employees

Those differences lead to generational gap, that is becoming more common in the workplace, as young generation moves into the management ranks, and older workers have to answer to them. Unfortunately, the generation gap may become so wide that makes conflict in the relationship between young and old generations. In many cases, age difference will spark misunderstandings or conflict between boss and subordinate and that the workplace becomes unpleasant and perhaps even hostile. It is predicted that the major conflicts in the workplace will no longer be between management and labor, but intergenerational struggles between young and old in an "age-heavy" society (Rhoda Amon, 1992). The following section is going to analyze that why young boss and old subordinates would have conflict in workplace with three main areas: personal characteristics, attitude and perception.

Personal Characteristics:

The young is by nature an assertive, aggressive, take-control generation, the old is much less assertive and aggressive within the workplace (Marilyn Gardner, 2005). These differences in personal characteristics cause the differing expectations of working performance. Lynn Lancacaster (2003) indicated that young generation is more likely to be an energetic, enthusiastic player. They view work as a means to self-fulfillmentЎЄthat is a means to more fully use their skills and abilities, meet their interests and live a desirable lifestyle (B. Wooldridge and J. Wester, 1991) and they are more willing to take risk for outstanding performance

Meanwhile, the older just wonder whether the right jobs can be done. They would tend to keep stable and comfortable life (J. Laabs, 1998), and would not take risk to do more for outstanding performance. Orrin Onken (2005) has found that the older workers avoid the kind of problems that require reflexes and strength to solve. It might be because of responsibilities such as family, and then hope to stay in their jobs because they simply cannot afford to retire (Samantha Marshall, 2005). They are more reliable and less volatile but as well as less innovative. Younger generation tend to take risk to have innovation while the older want to keep stable to ensure no big mistake. It is no doubt that the younger and older have different personal characteristic that might cause contrast ways to deal with event and even conflicts in sometimes

Resentment

Traditionally, older workers often take the lead in the partnership among younger and older employees (Del Jones, 2005). Now, the situation is changing. The old people may have to accept commands and take directions from someone as young as their children do, and that might create seething resentment among older workers (Rhoda Amon, 1992). Older workers may be resentful of younger bosses because the younger bosses are making more money today than they did their first 20 years of working. It is easily to make them give judgmental language to the younger, just as the parents always give comments to their children because they feel they know more than their supervisors do (Samantha Marshall, 2005).

On the other hand, defensiveness exists among callow bosses, who do not feel that they need being taken seriously by older members of their team (Samantha Marshall, 2005). In addition, younger boss would concern that why the older subordinate always does not support them. Those might cause some resentment to the older worker. They treat the older as a resistant force in workplace and would wonder why the old horses would not just retire (Del Jones, 2005). It might lead the younger boss over-strongly to give orders to older subordinates for showing off the power. Sometimes, the attitude may even become impolite and arrogant.

The resentment and anger often lead to a bad attitude - which eventually will be picked up by younger bosses or the older workers. Showing resentment or annoying is huge blocks in communication and it absolutely will destroy the relationship between them.

Perception:

The older has P.H.D. in life