8. MILESTONE THE 21ST
CENTURY
marks the first time in history that members of four
separate generations make up the U.S. workforce
9. The age gap between
F A the oldest and youngest
workers in America is
C T wider than ever—and
likely to continue growing.
10. One out of four
human resource
professionals
report witnessing
intergenerational
conflicts among
workers.
Source: Society for Human Resource Management
11. Four Generations at Work
Silent Generation 1925 - 1945
Baby Boomers 1946 - 1964
Generation X 1965 - 1980
Generation Y 1981 - 2000
12. When you were born determines the
momentous events, social trends,
economic conditions, and cultural norms
you experience as a young person.
14. 1950:
‣Cold War heats up when United States convicts
communist spy Alger Hiss of perjury
‣Truman orders development of hydrogen bomb
‣United States enters Korean War
‣FCC licenses first color television broadcasts
‣“Great Appalachian Storm” ravages 22 northeastern
states, killing 323 people
‣Peanuts debuts in seven newspapers
15. 1963
• George Wallace becomes governor of Alabama
• Betty Friedan publishes The Feminine Mystique, launching
the Women’s Movement
• The Beatles release their first album, Please Please Me
• U.S. Postal Service introduces ZIP Codes
• Coke unveils TaB, the first diet cola
• Martin Luther King delivers “I Have a Dream” speech
• President John F. Kennedy is assassinated
16. 1972
✓ President Nixon visits China for eight days
✓ Nixon re-elected as the Watergate Scandal breaks
✓ U.S. ground troops leave Vietnam
✓ Atari kicks off video game craze with launch of Pong
✓ Apollo 17 is last manned mission to the moon
✓ Wallace is shot
✓ The Boston Marathon allows women to officially compete
17. • Dow Jones closes above
•
2,000 for first time
DJ drops 22.6 percent on
1987
“Black Monday” (remains
largest one-day decline)
• Second “Unabomber” bomb
explodes
• “Baby Jessica” rescued
after falling into a well
• Prozac approved
• Tower Commission blames
President Reagan for Iran-
Contra affair
• World population reaches
5 billion
18. 2001
• September 11 attacks
• George W. Bush
becomes president
• First self-contained
artificial human heart
implanted
• U.S. Patriot Act
becomes law
• Enron files bankruptcy
• Timothy McVeigh is
executed for Oklahoma
City bombing
19. 2008
Iraq War enters its fifth year
Dow Jones drops 33.8 percent
Earthquake in China kills 69,000
Barack Obama becomes first
African American elected president
Michael Phelps wins 8 Gold Medals
Bernie Madoff arrested
Fidel Castro, leader of Cuba since
1959, resigns
Apple sells 11.4 million iPhones
26. The September 11 terrorist attacks,
Columbine high school massacre, and
Katrina all happened in their lifetime; yet
optimistic about
they tend to be
going to college, making lots of
money, and being famous.
28. Ron Alsop, The Trophy Kids Grow Up
“It may seem obvious that employees
should show up on time, limit lunchtime
to an hour, and turn off cellphones
during meetings. But those basics aren’t
necessarily apparent to many millennials.”
30. Sol√ e f∅r why
In 1968, 18 percent of American college freshman
had achieved an A average in high school.
By 2004, that figure was 48 percent.
During that same period, SAT scores decreased.
SOURCE: Twenge, J. M. (2006). Generation me: Why today’s
young Americans are more confident, assertive, entitled—and
more miserable than ever before. New York: Free Press.
35. In a 2008 survey conducted by the
Josephson Institute, 64 percent of high
school students said they cheated on a
test in the past year, and 38 percent
said they cheated more than once.*
*However, 26 percent confessed to lying on the survey.
48. •G eneration Z
on
ut” Generati
•The “Bailo
rs
•Ob ama Boome
1
•Gene ration H1N
n
man d Generatio
•The On-De
t
eration Tex
Naming •Gen
ct ive Generat
ion
•The Intera
the next •Generat ion Wannab
e
Hex
generation •Generation
51. Dictionary: attribute (uh-trib-yoot)
-verb (used with object)
1. to think of something as caused by a particular circumstance.
2. to consider as a quality or characteristic of the person.
Origin: 1350-1400; Latin attribūtus
56. I’m late because
my alarm clock didn’t
go off.
External I’m in trouble for being
late because my boss
Attributed to outside is a jerk.
agent or force
She only got her
promotion because they
needed to fill a quota.
57. I’m the type of person
who always likes to
be on time.
I earned my promotion
Internal
by working harder than Attributed to
everyone else did. personality factors
He’s behind in that project
because he’s an idiot.
60. “The more that people’s feelings of self-
worth are wrapped up in a poor decision
they’ve made, the greater their impulse
will be to justify it in some way.”
DANIEL C. MOLDEN
NORTHWESTERN UNIVERSITY
61. “If we can control the
attributions people make,
then we can influence their
future behavior.”
–Steve Booth-Butterfield, Steve’s Primer
of Practical Persuasion
62. “This is the neatest classroom. You must be very
neat students who really care about their room.”
63. REINFORCEMENT TRAINING: “I’m proud of
you and pleased with your progress.”
PERSUASION TRAINING: “Try harder. You
should be getting better grades in math.”
ATTRIBUTION TRAINING: “You work hard and
seem to know your math assignments very well.”
64. Students who received attribution
training scored one to two points
higher (out of twenty) than those
receiving persuasion and reinforcement.
66. You seem like a
{ hard worker
question asker
team player
}
quality stickler who…
67. Rewards and punishments
are external factors and, as
such, they prevent workers
from forming the internal
attributions that bring about
those behaviors that you’re
attempting to encourage.
70. Social loafing is the tendency for people to apply
less effort
when they are part of a collective work group.
71. Some loafers perceive
that others in the group are
slacking, so they feel justified
in exerting less effort. Others
assume that their laziness
will go unnoticed in a group.
72. Many social loafers
believe that their
personal efforts will
have little or no effect
on the group’s overall
performance.
78. “Generational differences
are often about perspective
and how things should be
done. It’s as if everyone
looks at the other group
saying, ‘That’s not how I
would do it.’”
Randstad
2008 World of Work Survey
79. reality:
“The transfer of knowledge
between retiring generations
of veteran workers and newer
entrants to the workforce is
unlikely.” Randstad
