See discussions, stats, and author profiles for this publication at: https://www.researchgate.

net/publication/286755025

The Changing World of Work

Article · January 2009

DOI: 10.1093/oxfordhb/9780195335446.013.0002

CITATIONS READS
15 8,766

1 author:

Wayne F Cascio
University of Colorado
183 PUBLICATIONS   11,625 CITATIONS   

SEE PROFILE

Some of the authors of this publication are also working on these related projects:

Talent management and employer branding View project

All content following this page was uploaded by Wayne F Cascio on 28 November 2016.

The user has requested enhancement of the downloaded file.

 The Changing World of Work

Wayne F. Cascio

The Business School

University of Colorado Denver
Campus Box 165, P.O. Box 173364
Denver, CO 80217-3364
Email: [email protected]
Voice: 303-556-5830, Fax: 303-556-5899

Chapter prepared for Linley, A. , Harrington, S., & Page, N. (Eds.), Oxford Handbook of

Positive Psychology and Work.

1
 The Changing World of Work

The world of work is as dynamic as ever, with dramatic changes underway that will

affect employees, managers, and consumers for years to come. Whether publicly traded

or privately held, large or small, domestic or global, the world of work is changing

dramatically, and in this chapter we will explore several of the most obvious ways in

which that is occurring. Coverage of topics is by no means exhaustive, but it is

representative of some important changes that are occurring all over the globe. We will

begin by examining briefly how the nature of change has changed. Then we will consider

the impact of technology and e-commerce, and how those affect the global dispersion of

work. Following that, we will consider some structural changes in organizations,

including demographic changes in the United States and elsewhere, and the effects of

multiple generations in the workforce. We conclude with an examination of the types of

new jobs that are being created, and the implications for career management.

The Nature of Change in the 21st Century

Hamel (2000) pointed out that we have entered a new age – the age of revolutions in

business concepts. The age of incremental progress, little by little, in tiny steps, a little

cheaper, a little better, a little faster, is over. Today, the nature of change has changed.

No longer is it additive. No longer does it move in a straight line. In the 21st century,

change is discontinuous, abrupt, and distinctly non-linear.

To a large extent, this is so because the Internet has rendered geography meaningless.

Global capital flows have become a raging torrent. The cost of storing a megabyte of

data has dropped from hundreds of dollars to essentially nothing. In this new age, a

company that is evolving slowly is already on its way to extinction. In the age of

2
incremental progress, industrial giants like DuPont, Mitsubishi, DaimlerChrysler, and

General Motors harnessed the disciplines of progress: rigorous planning, continuous

improvement, statistical process control, six sigma, reengineering, and enterprise

resource planning. Decade after decade they focused single-mindedly on getting better.

If they happened to miss something that was changing in the environment, there was

plenty of time to catch up.

In the 20th century, the advantages of being the incumbent – global distribution,

respected brands, a deep pool of talent, steady cash flows – granted them the luxury of

time. Thus, although Apple Computer got an early start in the micro-computer business,

IBM quickly reversed Apple’s lead when it threw its worldwide distribution might behind

the PC. But in a world of discontinuous change, a company that misses a critical

development may never catch up. To illustrate, consider this example.

Between 1994 and 2001 the number of mobile phones sold each year exploded,

from 26 million to more than 400 million. At the same time, the technology changed

from analog to digital. Motorola, the world leader in the mobile-telephone business until

1997, missed the shift to digital wireless technology by just a year or two. In that sliver

of time, Nokia, a hitherto unknown company perched on the edge of the Arctic Circle,

became the world’s new number one. A decade earlier Nokia had been making snow

tires and rubber boots. Suddenly, it was one of Europe’s fastest-growing high-tech

companies. As of late 2007, Nokia’s worldwide market share in mobile phones was 39

percent (Nokia, 2007), and its stock price had nearly doubled since beginning of the year

(www.advfn.com, 2007). And Motorola? It is now a leader in the manufacture of

network and other communications equipment (Fortune, 2007). Its stock price fell 21

3
percent over the same period (Silver, 2007). The lesson is clear: in today’s fast-moving

world of business, 100-year-old companies with venerated brands are as vulnerable as

yesterday’s Internet start-ups that defined the dot-com revolution.

Here is further evidence. In one Gallup poll, 500 CEOs were asked, “Who took

better advantage of change in your industry over the past 10 years – newcomers,

traditional competitors, or your own company? The #1 answer was newcomers. Then

they were asked whether the newcomers had won by changing the rules of the game or by

executing better. Fully 62% of the CEOs said the newcomers had won by changing the

rules of the game (Hamel, 2000).

With all of this breathless talk of the speed of change, it is easy to become

convinced that organizations are competing in some kind of “brave new world.” To put

things into perspective, however, it is important to emphasize that claims of increased

change and instability in the ‘current’ environment have been a common and recurring

refrain in the management literature, at least since the 1930s (Daffern, 1960; LaPierre,

1958; Margulies & Wallace, 1973). In fact, a large-scale, 20-year analysis of business

performance across a variety of industries revealed a lack of widespread evidence that

markets are, in general, any more unstable now than they were in the recent past. What

managers face today in terms of hyper-competition is largely the same as it ever was.

Evidence indicates that stable factors at industry, corporate, and business-unit levels, as

well as unstable factors, all significantly affect business performance (McNamara,

Vaaler, & Devers, 2003).

Technology and E-Commerce

Many factors are driving change, but none is more important than the rise of Internet

4
technologies (Friedman, 2005). The Internet, as it continues to develop, has certainly

changed the ways that people live and work. Indeed, in some industries, such as music

and e-commerce, it has completely revolutionized the rules of the game, but the Internet

and e-commerce are not ubiquitous, as many might assume. To appreciate this, consider

that it certainly simplifies things if one assumes that the world is flat, and that work can

be done anytime, anywhere, via the Internet. Yet even a brief examination of the

nighttime electricity grid, as displayed on Google Earth, shows vast areas of darkness in

different parts of the world. Although it might be more correct to speak of the world as

“spiky,” at least in terms of the availability of electricity and access to the Internet, it is

more convenient to refer to the entire world as “flat,” to assume that people everywhere

have Internet access, and that global collaboration in work is seamless (Cascio, 2007a).

At the same time, mass collaboration through file-sharing, blogs, and social

networking services, is making leaps in creativity possible, and it is changing the way

companies in a variety of industries do business (Hof, 2005). Here are some examples.

• Research and development. Procter & Gamble makes use of outside scientific

networks to generate 35 percent of new products from outside the company, up

from 20 percent three years ago. That has helped boost sales per R&D person by

40 percent.

• Software development. By coordinating their efforts online, programmers

worldwide volunteer on more than 100,000 open-source projects, such as Linux,

thereby challenging traditional software.

• Telecommuncations. More than 41 million people use Skype software to share

computer-processing power and bandwidth, allowing them to call each other for

5
 free over the Internet. That has cut revenues sharply at traditional telecom

providers.

• Retail. With 61 million active members, eBay has created a self-sustaining

alternative to retail stores.

The Net gives everyone in the organization, at any level and in every functional

area, the ability to access a mind-boggling array of information – instantaneously from

anywhere. Instead of seeping out over months or years, ideas can be zapped around the

globe in the blink of an eye. By 2009, one quarter of the world’s workforce, or 850

million people, will use remote access and mobile technology to work on the go or at

home, according to research firm IDC (Schweyer, 2006). That means that the 21st-

century organization must adapt itself to management via the Web. It must be predicated

on constant change, not stability; organized around networks, not rigid hierarchies; built

on shifting partnerships and alliances, not self-sufficiency; and constructed on

technological advantages, not bricks and mortar.

In contrast to the hierarchical organization chart of the 20th-century organization,

the 21st century organization is far more likely to look like a web: a flat, intricately-

woven form that links partners, employees, external contractors, suppliers, and customers

in various collaborations. The players will grow more and more interdependent, and

managing this intricate network will be as important as managing internal operations.

As an example, consider some of the problems Boeing faced in building its

Dreamliner 787 aircraft, scheduled for delivery in 2009 (Lunsford, 2007). To lower the

$10 billion or so that it would costs to develop the plane by itself, Boeing authorized a

team of parts suppliers to design and build major sections of the craft, which it planned to

6
assemble at a Seattle-area factory. Unfortunately, outsourcing so much responsibility

turned out to be far more difficult than anticipated.

The supplier problems ranged from language barriers to problems that developed

when some contractors themselves outsourced chunks of the work. For their part, some

suppliers complained that the company was 3-8 months late in giving them final

specifications for structures and systems. The lesson? Program managers thought they

had adequate oversight of suppliers, but learned later that there were many details that

they knew nothing about. They needed insight into what was actually going on in

suppliers’ factories so they could help suppliers deal with the challenges they faced. This

underscores a key finding from a global outsourcing study (Miller, 2007), namely, that

managing such an extended network of relationships requires more transparency, better

communication, greater trust, and genuine reciprocity, as client-service-provider

relationships shift from adversarial to collaborative, from procurement to partnership.

Whether it is outsourcing business processes or managing knowledge, one thing is

clear: intellectual capital will be critical to business success. The advantage of bringing

breakthrough products to market first will be shorter than ever because technology will

let competitors match or exceed them almost instantly. To keep ahead of the steep new-

product curve, it will be crucial for businesses to attract and retain the best thinkers.

Companies will need to build a deep reservoir of talent – including both employees and

free agents – to succeed in this new era. More than ever, 21st-century organizations are

global, and an emerging new demography is helping to shape them for years to come.

Demographic changes and their impacts on organizations

7
In the U.S., the number as well as the mix of people available to work is changing

rapidly. According to the Bureau of the Census, there will be a precipitous drop in the

growth of the labor force among prime-age employees between 2000 and 2020,

especially college-educated ones. Between 2000-2010, the percentage of workers age

55-64 will increase by 52 percent, while those age 65+ will increase by 30 percent.

Similar trends are underway in almost all developed countries (Dychtwald, Erickson, &

Morison, 2006).

To appreciate what this means for specific sectors of the U. S. economy, consider

the following projections from the U.S. Department of Labor:

♦ Half of America’s 400,000 electric-utility workers will be eligible to retire in the

next 5 years

♦ Half the U. S. government’s civilian workforce also will be eligible to retire in the

next 5 years

♦ 40% of the U. S. manufacturing workforce is expected to retire in the next 10

years

♦ Result: A possible shortage of 5 million skilled workers between 2010-2012

At the same time, Generations X (born between 1965 and 1980) and Y (born after

1980), with approximately 50 and 80 million members, respectively, in the U. S., are

large and growing segments of the labor force that pose both challenges and opportunities

(Cascio, 2007b; Guest & Sturges, 2007). Differences among racial and ethnic groups

among generations in the United States are becoming more pronounced. In fact, the

younger the age cohort, the more racially and ethnically diverse it tends to be

8
(Generational differences, 2007). We will have more to say about generational

differences (and similarities) in a following section.

Over the next four decades, non-Hispanic whites will be a slim majority of the U.

S. population. To appreciate what this means, consider that in 2005 Hispanics represented

14 percent of the U. S. population, but 22 percent of its workers. If present trends

continue, Hispanics in 2050 will represent 32 percent of the nation’s population, and 55

percent of its workers (Cadrain, 2007).

Currently, female participation has jumped to 60% from 50% two decades ago,

and much of that is in professional jobs. This is not surprising, considering that the

number of females per 100 new M.B.A. graduates has skyrocketed from 4 in 1972 to 42

in 2004 (“Women have prospered,” 2007). At the same time, the long-term trend toward

earlier retirement has recently been reversed. The average retirement age is now 64, 75

percent of retirees want to launch new careers after that, and 42 percent of those want to

cycle between periods of work and leisure (Greene, 2005).

In most developed countries around the world, we can expect fewer younger

workers, and more older workers (Carnell, 2000). Although a fertility rate of 2.1 children

per woman is needed just to replace current population, in Europe the fertility rate has

dropped to 1.42, and in Japan to 1.43. Spain has the world’s lowest fertility rate, at 1.15

(National Center for Policy Analysis, 2006). In the U. S., the Census Bureau predicts that

the number of workers aged 20-44 will increase by 0.4 percent between 2000 and 2010,

and by 4 percent between 2010 and 2020 (U.S. Census Bureau, 2004).

Of course the flip side of low fertility is an aging population. China has the

fastest-aging population in the world, largely due to its policy of one child per family. To

9
appreciate this, consider that 35 years ago in China the population proportion of children

to the aged (65 and older) was 6:1. Today the elderly population is twice as great as the

number of children. In Thailand, the elderly will account for 14 percent of the population

within 20 years, while children will only represent 12 percent (People’s Daily Online,

2004). Among broad regions of the world, Europe has the highest proportion of the

population age 65 and older, and it should remain the global leader in this category well

into the 21st century. However, the most rapid acceleration in aging, especially in the

United States, will occur after 2010, when the large, post-World-War-II baby-boom

cohort begins to reach age 65 (Population Matters, 2006). These trends may not lead to

labor shortages (Cappelli, 2005), but they will likely lead to shorter employment

relationships, more contingent work, independent contracting, and other free-market

arrangements.

Are organizations preparing now for the looming retirements of the members of

the baby-boom generation? Several sources indicate that the answer is, in general, no. In

one such study of 526 senior-level executives in global as well as domestic firms, among

firms of all sizes, three out of four executives said that “succession planning” was their

most significant challenge for the future. Additionally, approximately seven out of ten

said the next most pressing problems were “providing leaders with the skills they need to

be successful” (71 percent) and “recruiting and selecting talented employees” (69

percent). These survey findings also corresponded to the results of in-depth interviews

that were conducted with 36 additional top executives (Society for Human Resource

Management Foundation, 2007).

10
 In a second study of senior executives on the topic of the impending retirements

of the baby-boom generation, 45 percent said that their employers were beginning to

examine internal policies and management practices, 36 percent were “just becoming

aware of the issue, while only 9 percent had proposed specific policy and management-

practice changes, and only 8 percent had implemented such practices (Cadrain, 2007).

With respect to succession planning per se, one large-scale study of 2,406

organizations revealed that only 29 percent of them have a succession plan in place,

another 29 percent have an informal plan in place, 26 percent have no plan, but intend to

develop one in the near future, and 16 percent have no plan and no intention of

developing one (Society for Human Resource Management, 2006).

To appreciate what changing demographics mean for organizations in the United

States, consider the following data from the U.S. Department of Labor. In 2002 the

aggregate demand for labor in the United States was 141.8 million people. The aggregate

supply was 143.5 million. By 2031 that picture will change dramatically, if present trends

continue. The aggregate demand for labor will be 200.2 million people, while the supply

of labor available will be only 165 million people. One way that firms are coping with

potential labor shortages in their home countries is to seek labor elsewhere through

outsourcing. As the next section shows, however, in some skilled occupations, supply-

demand imbalances are driving up labor costs for multinational enterprises.

An Impending Problem: Global Demand Exceeds the Supply of People with Needed

Skills

India is typical. For example, some 1.3 million people applied for work at Infosys

Technologies Ltd. in 2006, but the company says that only 2 percent of them were

11
employable (Coy & Ewing, 2007). The big problems include inadequate foreign-

language proficiency, lack of practical skills, unwillingness to move for a job, and limited

or no access to airports and other transportation networks (Despeignes, 2005; Pui-Wing

& Range, 2007). The seemingly inexhaustible pools of cheap labor from China, India,

and elsewhere are drying up as demand outstrips the supply of people with the needed

skills. Thus a 2007 survey of nearly 37,000 employers in 27 countries by Manpower,

Inc. found that 41 percent of them are having trouble hiring the people they need (Coy &

Ewing, 2007). As a result, the McKinsey Global Institute predicts that the supply of

suitable labor will be squeezed in Prague as early as 2007, that pockets of skills shortages

in India will appear by 2008 (e.g., in Hyderabad), and that workforce growth will decline

in China starting in 2012.

An ongoing challenge for multinational corporations, therefore, is to make the

most of the global labor pool, wherever it exists. For both developed- and developing-

nation multinationals that often implies a corporate strategy of labor arbitrage - periodic

moves to lower-wage locations as existing ones get too pricey. As wages rise in first-tier

offshore cities like Bangalore, Shanghai, and Prague (6 to 15 percent in 2006), United

States, European, and Asian multinationals alike are moving to places like Jaipur, India;

Chengdu, China; and Kiev, Ukraine. Ho Chi Minh City is becoming the new Manila

(Hookway, 2007). For example, in response to cost pressures, Intel will open a new $300

million semi-conductor plant that employs 1,200 workers in Ho Chi Minh City instead of

expanding existing capacity in China, the Philippines, and Malaysia. (Hansen, 2006).

Emerging human capital challenges, demographic changes, and knowledge management

12
Many of the most pressing human-capital challenges identified in the SHRM

Foundation’s 2007 survey of senior executives described earlier – especially the

development of responses to them - involve an understanding of generational issues and

the impact of demographic changes that are already underway. In that study, the four

most significant future challenges facing companies, regardless of size, location, or

industry were: 1) succession planning; 2) recruiting and selecting talented employees; 3)

engaging and retaining talented employees; and 4) providing leaders with skills to be

successful. In general, senior executives did not feel confident that their companies have

a plan to address these human-capital challenges, particularly among smaller companies

(Society for Human Resource Management Foundation, 2007).

The essence of the demographic predictions is that there will be lots of people

coming and going. With respect to those going, namely, the aging baby-boomer

generation (born 1946-1964), that generation represents 37 percent of the workforce and

most of senior corporate leadership (Washburn, 2007). Many of those individuals will be

gone in the next decade, although many may choose to continue working past “normal”

retirement age. A major concern is the potential loss of mission-critical institutional

knowledge. Knowledge management – the identification and capture of institutional

knowledge and individual expertise – has great potential to address this problem.

Too often, unfortunately, knowledge management has been associated with

specific technologies or narrow processes like records management. While this is

valuable, organizations must not ignore how to capture, catalogue, and retain other, more

tacit knowledge (e.g., judgment, decision making, and “how work really gets done”)

when employees leave (Davidson, Lepeak, & Newman, 2007). Evidence from 2,046

13
organizations that responded to a recent survey indicates, unfortunately, that only 4

percent of them have a formal process of transferring knowledge from retiring boomers

to other employees. Slightly less than a quarter of them have an informal process, but 44

percent do not have a process and have no plans to develop one (Gurchiek, 2007).

Knowledge-transfer programs may assume several different forms, from those

that are technology-based, to ample documentation, to pairings of baby boomers with

younger managers for this specific purpose. That process should begin with a clear

understanding of the retention, retirement, recruitment, and training dynamics of current

employees, not a reactive approach to monitoring the workforce (Davidson et al., 2007).

One useful place to begin is by examining the retirement eligibility of current workers,

coupled with an analysis of the time and costs required to fill a vacant position (Cascio &

Boudreau, 2008). This type of information can prove particularly useful in guiding

strategy and future plans to respond to retiring or exiting workers.

Baby-Boomer Retirements In Europe: The Case of Finland

In Europe, Finland will be the first country to experience the rapid retirements of

baby boomers, beginning in 2010. The exodus has dire implications for the supply of

workers available for hire, and for the financing of the country’s generous pension and

health systems (Anderson, 2007). Finland faces Europe’s demographic challenge first

because its baby-boom generation was comparatively large, and it came immediately

after World War II.

Between 2005 and 2020 fully 40 percent of the baby boomers are set to leave the

workforce, bringing the proportion of people over 65 to 25 percent of the population. By

2030, the size of the population over 65 will increase by 70 percent, while the working-

14
age population will fall by 10 percent. According to the Organization for Economic

cooperation and Development (OECD), these changes mean that the number of employed

workers to each welfare-benefit recipient will drop from 1.7 in 2007 to 1.0 by 2030.

Shortages of skilled workers are appearing already. To counter these trends, the

government has adopted a four-pronged strategy: (1) encouraging immigrants to come to

Finland, (2) encouraging older workers to keep working, and (3) pushing students to

finish their studies earlier. Finally, to encourage the unemployed to seek jobs, the

government is offering opportunities for retraining and subsidized moving expenses, and

it is offering economic incentives to employers to hire workers in high-unemployment

areas (Anderson, 2007).

Finding and Keeping Older Workers: The Response of Some U.S. Companies

In the U. S., progressive companies are taking steps now to recruit and retain workers

over 50. In recruitment, Home Depot and the CVS drugstore chain offer programs to

bring retirees back to the workforce. Both companies feature pictures of older workers on

their websites and have made their hiring and screening practices age-neutral. In terms of

flexibility, some employers have implemented so-called phased retirement programs, in

which employees can move into retirement gradually by reducing their work schedules

and pro-rating their salaries and benefits. Carondelet Health Network of Tucson, Arizona

has a seasonal-worker program, where older employees work under three-, six-, or none-

month contracts. Finally, in terms of improving the work environment, Baptist Health of

South Florida raised the height of its hospital beds in order to ease back strain on

employees caring for patients. Pinnacol Assurance of Denver implemented an

15
ergonomics program that reduced its workers’ compensation costs by 38 percent

(Cadrain, 2007).

Global Distribution of Generations

Thus far we have been describing the baby-boom generation from an Anglophone

perspective. Unlike North American and European nations, however, where the biggest

leap in population growth occurred after World War II, many developing nations

experienced this leap in the late 1970s to early 1990s. As a result, the baby-boom

generation in many countries is actually several decades younger than that of the

Anglophone world, where the term emerged. The differences in timing of the baby

booms, and disparities in the sizes of different generations, have a major impact on two

key issues: immigration and the global competition for jobs (Generational differences,

2007).

Much of the increase in immigration - legal and illegal – is a result of the baby

boomers of the developing world reaching working age in countries where there are not

enough jobs for all of these new young workers to fill. Higher emigration rates from

developing countries may also be an opportunity, however, for those countries that are

able to take economic advantage of these outflows. Economists describe the

demographic balance that has the ideal proportion of prime working-age people between

the ages of 25 and 54 (compared to children and retirees) as the “demographic sweet

spot.” India and the developing countries of East Asia, in particular, have been cited as

places that have benefited greatly from this “demographic dividend” (Generational

differences, 2007).

16
 Global competition for jobs. Among young workers entering the labor markets of

industrialized countries in North America and Europe, intense global competition with

other young workers around the world for the best jobs is now a fact of life. When the

members of Generations X (born from 1965 to 1980) and Y (born after 1980) were

growing up, trends such as the large-scale entrance of women into the workforce, the

offshoring of white-collar jobs, and the decline of unions and the manufacturing sector

were already well under way. Today’s young workers, however, are the first to begin

their careers in a world where many white-collar, knowledge-based jobs that require a

college education are as vulnerable to offshoring as manufacturing jobs are. To illustrate,

consider a recent study by Princeton economist and former Vice-Chairman of the Federal

Reserve Alan Blinder (Wessel & Davis, 2007). He ranked 817 occupations described by

the Bureau of Labor Statistics in terms of how likely each is to go overseas. His

conclusion: 30-40 million jobs are vulnerable, not the 3-4 million that have been

proposed previously. While it is well known that manufacturing jobs have been

migrating to places like China and Eastern Europe, it is less widely recognized that many

service jobs also are vulnerable. A key distinction is services that must be done in U. S.

versus those that can – or will – be delivered electronically. Figure 1 shows graphically

the results of his analysis.

Insert Figure 1 about here

Jobs with characteristics like the following are most likely to be targeted for offshoring

(Bardhan & Kroll, 2006):

♦ No face-to-face customer-service requirement

♦ High information content

17
 ♦ Internet-enabled work processes that can be accomplished via telework

♦ Large differentials in wages in an occupation between target and source countries

♦ Low set-up barriers

♦ Low requirements for social networking

As the need for highly educated workers has grown, firms have used advances in

information and communications technology, facilitated by the World Wide Web, to

employ skilled knowledge workers wherever they may be. This has created a highly

competitive environment where education, coupled with basic and applied skills, is

crucial to ensuring earning power. Basic knowledge comprises areas such as the

following: written, spoken, and reading comprehension of the English language,

mathematics, science, economics, arts and humanities, foreign languages, history, and

geography. Applied skills include critical thinking and problem solving, teamwork and

collaboration, applications of information technology, leadership, creativity and

innovation, self-reliance, and a commitment to lifelong learning (Generational

differences, 2007).

At the same time that higher education is more critical than ever to sustained

earning power, the proportion of workers with high school diplomas and college degrees

in the United States could actually be set to decline. This scenario is possible because the

greatest increase in population growth in the United States is among the racial and ethnic

groups that have the lowest levels of education. In contrast, workers in the baby-boom

generation, many of whom are expected to retire in the next decade, are among the most

highly educated. To be sure, the nation still has the world’s highest proportion of

workers over the age of 40 with a college degree. With respect to the proportion of young

18
people with college degrees, however, many emerging economies appear poised to

surpass the United States, and already have the balance of their educated population

tipped toward their youngest workers (Generational differences, 2007). At the very time,

therefore, when the members of Generations X and Y are facing growing competition for

jobs from young people in other countries, as a group they may be less equipped to deal

with it because of a comparative lack of education.

What Everyone Wants: Similarities in Values Across Generations

Differences across generations by size, diversity, and rates of education do affect

generations in unique ways, but research also reveals that younger and older generations

actually share many values in common. Thus a 7-year study of more than 3,000

corporate leaders by the Center for Creative Leadership found that employees of all ages

want similar things from their work and they share common values about what matters

most – family, respect, and trust (Deal, 2006). Everyone wants to be able to trust his or

her supervisor, few people actually relish change, we all like feedback, and rewards that

are distributed fairly.

Unfortunately there is often a disconnect between what people want and what

they actually get, as a study by RainmakerThinking of more than 500 managers in 40

different organizations found. Results indicated that few managers consistently provide

their direct reports with what Rainmaker calls the five management basics. These are:

clear statements of what’s expected of each employee, explicit and measurable goals and

deadlines, detailed evaluation of each person’s work, clear feedback, and rewards

distributed fairly. Only 10 percent of managers provided all five of the basics at least

once a week. Only 25 percent did so once a month. About a third failed to provide them

19
even once a year (Tulgan, 2004)! Clearly there is much room for improvement in these

areas.

The Center for Creative Leadership study also suggests that many differences in

values and attitudes that people perceive across generations are actually the result of

different contexts. For example, the study found that resistance to change had much

more to do with what a person stood to gain or lose from the change than with his or her

age (Deal, 2006). In general, older workers have more to lose, but many younger workers

have identical anxieties. Other research has debunked similar myths. Here are three of

them (Kadlec, 2007).

1. Members of Generations X and Y lack a strong work ethic. Fact: It’s more a

matter of work style. Members of the younger generations observed that work

was central to their parents’ identities. They saw them get downsized despite

their company loyalty, and watched them strain to juggle their careers and their

families. Younger generations want job experience as well as balance between

their lives at work and outside of work. That doesn’t mean they won’t get the job

done. If they have to, they will work from the beach on their laptops. In the

office, they focus, finish, and leave. The lesson is clear: look at the results, not the

process.

2. Members of Generations X and Y disrespect their elders. Fact: Rather than take

things on faith, 20- and 30-somethings want to know why they are being asked to

perform a task. This is not disrespect. They just have more options than baby

boomers did at their age. Baby boomers got ahead by doing what they were told,

and many of them expect younger workers to fall in line similarly. Yet if older

20
 workers are clear in what they expect and explain the reasons behind a particular

assignment, younger workers will respond.

3. Members of Generations X and Y prefer to go it alone. Fact: Baby boomers

accustomed to face time, as in a meeting, may misread the preference of younger

workers for tech time (communicating online using e-mail or text messaging) as

isolationist. In fact, it is anything but that – if one knows how to use the tools.

Our final two sections examine topics that should be of major interest in the changing

world of work: the types of new jobs being created, and career-management strategies to

capitalize on the kinds of trends we have described.

Types of new jobs being created

Study after study has shown that talent has become the world’s most sought-after

commodity, and the changing nature of work makes knowledge workers ever more

critical to organizational (and national) competitiveness (The Economist, 2006). To

illustrate, consider three types of jobs identified by the McKinsey Global Institute:

• Transformational – extracting raw materials and converting them into finished

goods

• Transactional – interactions that can be scripted or automated

• Tacit – complex interactions involving a high level of judgment. Tacit

knowledge, as we noted earlier, is personal and context-specific, and it is

difficult to formalize and communicate (Rynes, Bartunek, & Daft, 2001).

McKinsey argues that over the past six years the number of jobs that emphasize “tacit

interactions” has grown 2.5 times as fast as the number of transactional jobs, and 3 times

as fast as employment in general. These jobs now make up 40 percent of the U.S. labor

21
market and account for 70 percent of the jobs created since 1998. The same thing is

bound to happen in developing countries as they get richer (The Economist, 2006).

More specifically, consider the “best” jobs in the United States from 2005 through

2009, based on projected job growth (through 2012), salary potential, education level,

and room for innovation and creativity (Quinn, 2005). Here are 10 of the top 25:

personal financial advisor, medical scientist, computer-software engineer, chiropractor,

environmental engineer, biochemist and biophysicist, sales manager, epidemiologist,

computer-system analyst, and marketing manager. Note how virtually all of them are

tacit in nature. Before we get too carried away with this theme, however, consider that

after the expected wave of baby-boomer retirements over the next several years, experts

predict robust hiring in such “old-line” industries as utilities, railroads, community

colleges, and local governments (Washburn, 2007).

Career-Management Strategies

Although the primary and final responsibility for career development rests with each

employee, organizations have complementary responsibilities. Organizations are

responsible for communicating to employees where they want to go and how they plan to

get there (the overall strategy), providing employees with as much information about the

business as possible, and responding to the career initiatives of employees with candid,

complete information. One of the most important contributions an organization can make

to each employee’s development is to provide him or her with honest performance

feedback about current job performance. Employees, in turn, are responsible for

knowing what their skills and capabilities are and what assistance they need from their

employers, asking for that assistance, and preparing themselves to assume new

22
responsibilities - if that is what they want. If not, then employees are responsible for

communicating their intentions to their bosses. Career self-reliance, or career resilience,

does not mean free agency. Rather, each individual needs to become an “informed

opportunist,” combining accurate information with a flexible, opportunistic approach to

his or her career (Cascio, 2006).

This approach to career management can be summed up as follows: assign

employees the responsibility for managing their own careers, then provide the support

they need to do it. This support takes different forms in different organizations, but

usually includes components such as opportunities for self-assessment and personal

career planning, training for supervisors on how to provide relevant information and to

question the logic of employees’ career plans, and lots of opportunities for training and

leadership development. Steps like these will enable employees to position themselves to

assume jobs that are critical to the success of their organizations. After all, the world of

work is changing dramatically, and it is important to understand how it is changing, so

that whether young or old, you can take maximum advantage of opportunities that present

themselves.

23
 References

Anderson, R. (2007, Oct. 4). Baby boom retirement aftershock looms. Worldlink, 17, p.

4, 5.

Bardhan, A., & Kroll, C. (2006). Cited in E. E. Lawler III & J. O’Toole (Eds.), The new

American workplace (p. 31). New York: Palgrave Macmillan.

Cappelli, P. (2005). Will there really be a labor shortage? In M. Losey, S. Meisinger, &

D. Ulrich (Eds.), The future of human resource management (pp. 5-14).

Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons.

Carnell, B. (2000, May 18). Total fertility rates. Retrieved from

www.overpopulation.com on May 30, 2006.

Cascio, W. F. (2007a). Evidence-based management and the marketplace for ideas.

Academy of Management Journal, 50(5), 1009-1012.

Cascio, W. F. (2007b). Trends, paradoxes, and some directions for research in career

studies. In H. Gunz & M. Peiperl (Eds.), Handbook of career studies (pp. 549-

557). Los Angeles, CA: Sage.

Cascio, W. F., & Boudreau, J. W. (2008). Investing in people: The financial impact of

human resource initiatives. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall/Financial

Times Publishing.

Cadrain, D. (2007). Employers prepare to keep, not lose, baby boomers. 2008 HR trend

book, pp. 23, 24. Alexandria, VA: Society for Human Resource Management.

Coy, P., & Ewing, J. (2007, April 9). Where are all the workers? Business Week, pp. 28-

31.

24
Daffern, G. N. 1960. Management development in a changing world. Simmons-

Boardman: New York.

Davidson, G., Lepeak, S., & Newman, E. (2007, Feb.). The impact of the aging

workforce on public-sector organizations and mission. International Public

Management Association for Human Resources. Downloaded from www.impm-

hr.org on November 11, 2007.

Deal, J. (2006). Retiring the generation gap: How employees young and old can find

common ground. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.

Despeignes, P. (2005, June 27). Offshoring: A reality check. Fortune, p. 89.

Dychtwald, K., Erickson, T. J., & Morison, R. (2006). Workforce crisis. Boston: Harvard

Business School Press.

Fortune. (2007, April 30). The Fortune 1,000 ranked within industries, p. F-64.

Friedman, T. L. (2005). The world is flat. NY: Farrar, Straus, and Giroux.

Generational differences: Myths and realities. (2007). Workplace Visions, 4, 1-8.

Greene, K. 2005, Sept. 26. When we’re all 64. The Wall Street Journal, pp. R1, R4.

Guest, D. E., & Sturges, J. (2007). Living to work – Working to live: conceptualizations

of careers among contemporary workers. In H. Gunz & M. Peiperl (Eds.),

Handbook of career studies (pp. 310-326). Los Angeles, CA: Sage.

Gurchiek, K. (2007, Nov. 29). Employers slow to capture boomer knowledge. HR News,

downloaded from www.shrm.org/hrnews on December 1, 2007.

Hamel, G. (2000). Leading the revolution. Boston: Harvard Business School Press.

25
Hansen, F. (2006, Sept. 20). The great global talent race: One world, one workforce.

Workforce Management. Downloaded from http://www.workforce.com on April

14, 2007.

Hof, R. D. (205, June 20). The power of us. Business Week, pp. 74-82.

Hookway, J. (2007, May 29). Vietnam vies to get in on outsourcing. The Wall Street

Journal, p. A6.

Kadlec, D. (2007, Nov.). Don’t trust anyone under thirty. Money, pp. 50, 52.

LaPierre, C W. 1958. Technological change: what will it mean for management? In Fenn,

D. (Ed). Management in a rapidly changing economy (pp. 27-38), McGraw-Hill:

New York.

Lunsford, J. L. (2007, Dec. 7). Boeing scrambles to repair problems with new plane. The

Wall Street Journal, pp. A1, A13.

McNamara, G., Vaaler, P. M., & Devers, C. (2003). Same as it ever was: The search for

evidence of increasing hypercompetition. Strategic Management Journal, 24,

261-278.

Margulies N, Wallace J. 1973. Organization change. Scott, Foresman: Glenview, IL.

Miller, S. (2007). Collaboration is key to effective outsourcing. 2008 HR trend book, pp.

58-61. Alexandria, VA: Society for Human Resource Management.

National Center for Policy Analysis (2006). The world’s declining fertility rate.

Retrieved from www.ncpa.org on May 30, 2006.

Nokia. (2007). Downloaded on December 6, 2007 from www.nokia.com/aboutnokia.

People’s Daily Online. (2004, Oct. 21). Retrieved from http://english.people.com.cn on

May 30, 2006.

26
Pui-Wing, T, & Range, J. (2007, July 3). Some in Silicon Valley begin to sour on India.

The Wall Street Journal, pp. A1, A15.

Quinn, M. (2005, Jan.). The 25 top jobs for 2005-2009. Fast Company. Downloaded

from www.fastcompany.com/articles/2005/01/top-jobs-main.html on Dec. 13,

2007.

Rynes, S. L., Bartunek, J. M., & Daft, R. L. 2001. Across the great divide: Knowledge

creation and transfer between practitioners and academics. Academy of

Management Journal, 44: 340-355.

Schweyer, A. 2006, Oct. 17. Managing the virtual global workforce. Human Resources

(Australia). Downloaded from http://www.humanresourcesmagazine.com.au/ on

April 12, 2007.

Silver, S. (2007, Dec. 13). Is Motorola worth more if it gets busted up? The Wall Street

Journal, pp. C1, C3.

Society for Human Resource Management. (2006). 2006 succession planning survey

report. Alexandria, VA: Author.

Society for Human Resource Management Foundation (2007, Oct.). SHRM Foundation

research on human capital challenges. Alexandria, VA: Society for Human

Resource Management.

The Economist. (2006, Oct. 5). The battle for brainpower. Downloaded from

www.economist.com on October 16, 2006.

Tulgan, B. (2004, June 28). The under-management epidemic. Downloaded from

www.rainmakerthinking.com on September 13, 2004.

27
U. S. Census Bureau. (2004). Projected population change in the United States among

persons ages 20 to 44 and 45 to 64, from 2000 to 2010 and 2010 to 2020.

Retrieved from www.census.gov on September 18, 2005.

Washburn, D. (2007, Sept. 3). “Hot jobs” of tomorrow in old-school industries. The San

Diego Union-Tribune, downloaded from

http://cfx.signonsandiego.com/uniontrib/20070903/news_1n3hotjobs.html on

Dec. 13, 2007.

Wessel, D., & Davis, B. (2007, March 28). Pain from free trade spurs second thoughts.

The Wall Street Journal, pp. A1, A4.

Women have prospered. (2007, Oct.). Money, p. 116.

www.advfn.com/quote_Nokia-CP-Ads_NYSE_NOK.html. Downloaded on December

13, 2007.

28
 Figure 1

Types and Numbers of Jobs That Are “Highly Offshorable”

Types and Numbers of Jobs That Are “Highly Offshorable”

Computer
F inancial programmers,
analysts, 180,910 389,090
Microbiologists, Data entry
15,250 keyers, 296,700
Actuaries, 15,770
F ilm/video
editors, 15,200
Medical
transcription,
90,380
Source: Adapted from data presented by Blinder, A. in Wessel, D., & Davis, B. (2007,
Interpreters/transl
March 28). Pain from free trade spurs second thoughts. The Wallators,
Street Journal,
21,930

Bookeeping,p. A4. Economists,

auditing clerks, 12,470
1,815,340 Graphic
designers,
178,530

Source: Adapted from data presented by Blinder, A. in Wessel, D., & Davis, B. (2007,
March 28). Pain from free trade spurs second thoughts. The Wall Street Journal, p. A4.

29

View publication stats