Generational Affects in Business Ethics

Generational Affects in Business Ethics

We are experiencing in our work force a changing of the guard, currently there are three generational groups that make up our workforce: The Baby Boomers, Generation X, and the Millennials, who for the past few years have begun to work together. However, what we are discovering is that because of the time frame of their births and the life altering affects during those times, it has influenced the values and objectives of each of these groups, ultimately affecting their ethics and values, in the work place. We will continue to discover the differences in each of these generations, their outlooks, and the steps that business leaders are taking to evolve their training programs and procedures to accommodate these changes and maintain or increase the ethical standards of their companies. Many business leaders are striving to ensure that a generational divide does not lead to miscommunication, hindered performance, and most importantly, put their company at risk.

To delve further into the various attributes of each of these generations you have to understand the history of what has caused the evolution of these generations. We begin with the Baby Boomers, or sometimes referred to as the, “Me Generation”. The birth years of this generation span from 1946 to 1964 or more specifically, after the Second World War. These children were raised in an era of economic prosperity by their parents who survived the Great Depression. They witnessed on the radio and TV the assassinations of Robert F. Kennedy, President John F. Kennedy, and Martin Luther King Jr. They were front in center for the Civil Rights Movement and were greatly affected by the Vietnam War. Which for the first time in U...

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... to retire we are experiencing for the first time a vast difference in the attitude, outlook and skill set of workers in the United States. What this is causing is for leaders of companies to be vastly more dialed in and aware of these ethical changes, while preparing and educating younger workers to assure that their business model, products and services they offer, as well as the ethics of these companies, continue to improve.

References

George, R. T. (2005, Feb 19). A History of Business Ethics. Retrieved from http://www.scu.edu: http://www.scu.edu/ethics/practicing/focusareas/business/conference/presentations/business-ethics-history.html

Supplemental Research Brief 2009 National Business Business Survey. (2009). Retrieved from http://ethics.org/files/u5/Gen-Diff.pdf: http://ethics.org/files/u5/Gen-Diff.pdf