Much has been written about differences among generations, especially birth cohorts. Although birth years for cohorts vary slightly across studies, they tend to be similar to this:

• Baby Boomers  (born 1946-1964)
  
• Gen-Xers (1965-1979)
  
• Millennials (1980-2000)

Amy Drew summarized work on birth cohorts in the Association for Psychological Science publication, Observer, in January 2015.  The premise of birth cohort research is that sociocultural influences are different across time and affect generations differently.  Vivid events are part of a shared cultural lens: for Boomers, the assassinations of John Kennedy, Bobby Kennedy, and Martin Luther King, Jr.; for Millennials, 9/11. Similarly consider the impact of technology: Boomers grew up without computers, social media, video games, the Internet, a very different world than Millennials.  Millennials know a very global world.

Teasing out potential affects associated with cohorts is difficult. Jean Twenge of San Diego State University found Millennials more narcissistic. Kali Trzesniewski, now at UC, Davis, found no overall increase in narcissism. Likewise studies on whether Millennials have a greater sense that “outside forces beyond their control” significantly affect them (higher external locus of control) have mixed results.

So are there any consistent findings that have emerged from research across generations? There are:

• “Since the late 1970s” there have been significant decreases in Empathic Concern, that is having “sympathy for others’ misfortunes.” 
  
• Likewise, Perspective Taking has decreased, that is,  “the tendency to see a situation from another person’s point of view” (p. 20).
  
• Younger generations are less attached, with higher proportions agreeing “I am comfortable without close emotional relationships.”
  
• Younger generations have increased levels of anxiety and depression and this has been reported also in other countries. 
  
• “We all tend to get happier as we age” but the economic environment into which we are born and grow up affects our well-being baselines, that is people who experience young adulthood during tough economies have a lower baseline that those who experience young adulthood during more prosperous economies. 
  
• People who enter young adulthood during recessions tend to be less narcissistic. 

My take-aways:

1.  I use to be skeptical that there were significant birth cohort or generational differences.  I am not as skeptical as I use to be. I hear many stories from the corporate world about generational issues. I experience differences in the classroom. The times they are a ‘changing.

2.  Generational research is very difficult to do. I think a measure of caution is appropriate in drawing firm conclusions. For example, in the list above, new research could bring these findings into question.

3.  With that said, generational differences is an area with which every leader needs to be familiar. In some situations there may be important differences between how one leads Boomers versus how one leads Millennials.

4.  Ultimately though, the leader must guard against stereotyping based on age. While there may be commonalities across generations, each person is unique with different interests and motivations. Be aware of possible generational affects but don’t stereotype an individual because they are part of a particular generation.

Drew, A. (2015). Talkin’ about your generation. Observer, 28 (1), 19-21.

Image by Дарко Максимовић. Used with permission Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported license. Obtained from: http://commons.wikimedia.org
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When do you abandon a project? When do you stay the course? Helga Drummond addressed these questions in an excellent, easy-to-read article in the November 2014 issue of The Academy of Management Perspectives. Drummond is scholar of managerial decision making at the University of Liverpool.  In this contribution she examined the forces to persist and the forces to abandon projects based her review of the literature. Many of these studies have been about “escalating commitment,” basically spending good money on a poor project beyond the point at which it should have been abandoned.

Drummond suggested that managers are taught to avoid escalating commitment but they need more guidance on when to persist and not give up.  My brief review of the literature supports this. Among the forces to persist are overconfidence, sunk costs, and exit barriers; forces to abandon, opportunity costs, reluctance to renew budgets, and organizational factors. Drummond’s analysis is  thorough and of significance to decision makers. 

When are people likely to abandon a project when they probably should not?

• When there is a crisis. Managers overreact, overcome by a “vivid event” or events that grab attention -- although statistically the odds favor continuing. 
• Where there is high risk and an absence of leadership. For example, projects where project managers come and go during the life of the project. 
• Where there are conflicting factors that offset each other such that managers reinvest enough to keep the project alive but not enough to make the project a success.

My take-aways:

1.  Drummond’s article should be required reading for all leaders, managers, and project managers. She gives many “real world” examples such as BP oil drillers who went 3 meters beyond after being told to quit and hit “one of the world’s largest oil fields.” 

2.  The article underscores the importance of good leadership. Leaders with high responsibility in situations of high-perceived risks make the best economic decisions. Give the tough projects to the best leaders. Give them all the information available. Let them do their jobs. Let them make the decisions. And give them a copy of Drummond’s excellent article.

Drummond, H. (2014). Escalation of commitment: When to stay the course? The Academy of Management Perspectives, 28, 4, 430-446.

Image of Victoria Building, University of Liverpool, by Derek Harper. Obtained from http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Victoria_Building,_University_of_Liverpool_-_geograph.org.uk_-_209212.jpg.  Use with permission http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0/deed.en
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Follow me on Facebook at  https://www.facebook.com/johnballardphd
On Twitter: @johnballardphd
Decoding the Workplace: 50 Keys to Understanding People in Organizations.
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