Generational differences in leader values and leadership behaviors.

Abstract

As a new generation of workers enters the workforce and the realms of leadership and management, headlines in the business and popular press are encouraging managers to deal with generational differences that appear to be affecting employees, particularly those in the leadership ranks. This article describes generational cohort theory and summarizes research on the impact of generational differences on work processes. It then explores what differences are occurring among managers in different cohorts in terms of attributes they value in leaders and their actual behaviors as leaders (as perceived by self, boss, and subordinates) using data obtained from 2 large databases, including managers across the country spanning 4 generations. Results of the 1st study demonstrate that managers and professionals in different generational cohorts do value different attributes in leaders. Results of the 2nd study find that managers in different generational cohorts also report behaving differently. Although the differen...