Leading Changes to Professional Training in the Multigenerational Office: Generational Attitudes and Preferences toward Learning and Technology

Abstract

A multigenerational workforce is now commonplace, and research has shown that historical context and generational experiences affect the values, attitudes, and working and learning preferences of each generation. Therefore, organizations' awareness of the demographic profile of their internal talent and external talent from which they may recruit is needed to ensure they are cognizant of their employees' needs. Training leaders can serve as a valuable resource for businesses and their employees by offering support in learning and technology. To assist with the needs of this changing employee workforce, training leaders will need to consider generational attitudes and preferences regarding learning and technology to develop effective training that serves both the business and the employee. In this narrative review, the authors discuss generational attitudes towards learning and technology to assist training leaders in understanding the needs of the current multigenerational workforce and to provide actionable guidance for training multigenerational learners.

Coworking spaces as talent hubs: The imperative for community building in the changing context of new work

“…With similar numbers and trends spanning across Europe, the projection by the European Union indicates that by 2030, these hyper-connected, commonly tech-savvy millennials will make up to 75% of the total workforce and most likely seek active networks of highly skilled individuals who can support them with obtaining new skills, open new connections or assist when shifting career path (European Union 2020 ). Flexible, open-to-all and multigenerational offices such as coworking environments seem to have the capacity to tackle these trends (Lowell and Morris 2019 ; Buchnik and Frenkel 2021 ). Second, coworking spaces provide greater autonomy and productivity, and are heavily frequented by highly specialised freelance and independent workers.…”

Enhancing project team outcomes despite provisional work: a discussion to leverage cross-generational advantages

“…As “elders” within organizations, they may influence team climate and effectiveness (Anantatmula and Shrivastav, 2012; Becton et al , 2014). Boomer competencies which may be beneficial include senior management support (Ali and French, 2019), driven scope execution (Becton et al , 2014), structured change management (Lowell and Morris, 2019) and strong interpersonal skills (Hannam and Yordi, 2011).…”

“…Although much criticism has been levelled toward Millennials, their technical fluency could be used to automate, communicate or streamline projects (Bidian and Evans, 2018; Paros, 2016). This generation assumes technology is a core project component (Lowell and Morris, 2019). With less focus on job security coupled with a high value of new opportunities, the provisional nature of workgroups may be appealing to Millennials (Wong et al , 2008).…”

“…Boomer managers may approach dilemmas with humanistic values, whilst pre-Boomer managers lean towards pragmatism. This substantial work establishing generational differences in attitude, values and motivation has pushed employee training to acknowledge and make use of generational differences (Lowell and Morris, 2019). However, acknowledgement and instrumental use of generational diversity typically ends at training.…”

Change is a Constant

“…The knowledge within the performance improvement field of study has presented many examples of change, many within the publication of Performance Improvement Quarterly . Some recent examples include Ellis and Brown (2020) in looking at change and organizational culture, Chai et al (2020) in viewing psychological owners and openness to change, and Lowell and Morris’ (2019) in leading change in multigenerational offices.…”