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Belief in Generational Stereotypes: Why There Is a There There Ronald E. Riggio and Karan Saggi Industrial and Organizational Psychology / Volume 8 / Issue 03 / September 2015, pp 340 - 342 DOI: 10.1017/iop.2015.46, Published online: 02 October 2015
Link to this article: http://journals.cambridge.org/abstract_S1754942615000462 How to cite this article: Ronald E. Riggio and Karan Saggi (2015). Belief in Generational Stereotypes: Why There Is a There There. Industrial and Organizational Psychology, 8, pp 340-342 doi:10.1017/iop.2015.46 Request Permissions : Click here
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Belief in Generational Stereotypes: Why There Is a There There Ronald E. Riggio and Karan Saggi Claremont McKenna College
Belief in generational differences is nothing new. In ancient times, generational differences were seen as a threat to productivity, and efforts were made to change them. Bertman (1976) writes, “as early as the twenty-fifth century BC, the older generation in authoritarian Egypt had to ‘work at it’ to mold the younger generation in its own image.” Yet, Costanza and Finkelstein (2015) point out that “there is minimal empirical evidence actually supporting generationally based differences” and “no sufficient explanation for why such differences should even exist.” One explanation for the prevailing belief in generation-based differences is systematic biases in social perception.
Ronald E. Riggio and Karan Saggi, Kravis Leadership Institute, Claremont McKenna College. Correspondence concerning this article should be addressed to Ronald E. Riggio, Kravis Leadership Institute, Claremont McKenna College, 850 Columbia Avenue, Claremont, CA 91711. E-mail:
[email protected]
b e l i e f i n g e n e r at i o na l s t e r e o t y p e s
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In-group/out-group bias (the “we–they feeling”; Tajfel & Turner, 1979) may cause each generation that is in the position of power and control (which today would be the Baby Boomers) to view successive generations primarily negatively. As a result, the younger generations are viewed as “unmotivated,” “unfocused,” “lacking in work ethic,” and organizationally “disloyal” (although there may also be some positive qualities also associated with the younger generation; e.g., “technologically proficient”). This is reflected in the fact that most of the writing on the younger generations (both Generation Xers and Millennials) tends to view their work-related behavior from a problem-focused perspective: how to “fix” or “manage” them. Confirmation bias then causes members of the dominant generation to seek and interpret evidence that is consistent with the stereotypes (Nickerson, 1998). For example, an employer might interpret information from a Millennial job applicant’s response that he or she seeks a career that allows “work–life balance” as evidence of lack of occupational and organizational loyalty, stereotypical of Millennials. Evidence that is inconsistent with the prevailing stereotypes may be ignored or discounted, resulting in persistence of the generational stereotype/bias. The generational stereotypes may then become fortified through shared stories and from articles in the popular media. As these stereotypes are widely and consistently disseminated, the members of the target generation—the Millennials themselves—may start to believe them, leading to a sort of self-fulfilling prophecy. For example, if a young person hears often enough that “Millennials want work–life balance,” it might cause that individual to mention this as an important requirement of a job during a job interview, even though she or he might not have previously considered the issue important. What we are saying is that perhaps members of the generation endorse the stereotypes about themselves, regardless of whether they actually apply (e.g., “I want work–life balance”). They report certain behaviors and beliefs, but the actual incidence of the behaviors, such as the number of hours per week spent at work versus home, doesn’t actually vary across generations. Costanza and Finkelstein state that “stereotypes are hard to shake because it is easy for us to see evidence of what seems to be their accuracy,” but that may be due solely to how we process social information and inherent biases. If someone stereotypes Millennials as young adults constantly glued to their smartphones, every young adult hunched over a handheld device serves as evidence that the stereotype is true (never mind the many Boomers who are also on their smartphones). What we are suggesting is that there is a there there, but rather than actual generational differences, they are perceived generational differences that are commonly held not only by both members of other generations but also by the members of the target generation.
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References Bertman, S. (Ed.). (1976). The conflict of generations in ancient Greece and Rome. Amsterdam, the Netherlands: John Benjamins. Costanza, D. P., & Finkelstein, L. M. (2015). Generationally based differences in the workplace: Is there a there there? Industrial and Organizational Psychology: Perspectives on Science and Practice, 8(4), 308–323. Nickerson, Raymond S. (1998). Confirmation bias: A ubiquitous phenomenon in many guises. Review of General Psychology, 2(2), 175–220. Tajfel, H., & Turner, J. C. (1979). An integrative theory of intergroup conflict. In W. G. Austin & S. Worchel (Eds.), The social psychology of intergroup relations (pp. 33– 47). Monterey, CA: Brooks/Cole.
Using Lifespan Developmental Theory and Methods as a Viable Alternative to the Study of Generational Differences at Work Hannes Zacher University of Groningen
I agree with Costanza and Finkelstein (2015) that it is futile to further invest in the study of generational differences in the work context due to a lack of appropriate theory and methods. The key problem with the generations concept is that splitting continuous variables such as age or time into a few discrete units involves arbitrary cutoffs and atheoretical groupings of individuals (e.g., stating that all people born between the early 1960s and early 1980s belong to Generation X). As noted by methodologists, this procedure leads to a loss of information about individuals and reduced statistical power (MacCallum, Zhang, Preacher, & Rucker, 2002). Due to these conceptual and methodological limitations, I regard it as very difficult if not impossible to develop a “comprehensive theory of generations” (Costanza & Finkelstein, p. 20) and to rigorously examine generational differences at work in empirical studies. I do believe however that studying generations based on social identity and stereotyping perspectives is interesting and important in the work context because, as noted by Costanza and Finkelstein, “people believe that they exist” (p. 21). Indeed, organizational researchers have argued in several recent review articles that people’s beliefs about generational differences are Hannes Zacher, Department of Psychology, University of Groningen. Correspondence concerning this article should be addressed to Hannes Zacher, Department of Psychology, University of Groningen, Grote Kruisstraat 2/1, 9712TS Groningen, the Netherlands. E-mail:
[email protected] 