Age vs. Technology

In their article, The Marriage of Technology and Leadership, Business Source Complete states that  “Through the years, many people protested changes in communication technology” ("The marriage of," 2009).    In earlier times, opinions such as “Why do we need the telegraph? Communication should be face-to-face or via letter” and a little later, “What's wrong with the telegraph? Who needs a telephone? There goes privacy and productivity” have been common complaints in business settings where a multi-generational workforce is employed ("The marriage of," 2009).  Younger generations who have grown up with the latest innovations in communication naturally gravitate towards the tools they are most comfortable using.  As businesses strive to keep up with the most current and efficient technologies, older generation employees are often hesitant to accept these changes and tend to avoid incorporating these new tools into their workspaces.

New Technologies

Social networking websites and technologies such as Facebook and Twitter, initially considered only as means of entertainment, are increasingly becoming workplace communication tools as “new millennials,” or people 30 years old and under become a more prominent presence in the workforce.  These new technologies can allow easy access to a wide, possibly previously untapped customer base.  Often, senior staff members are not as comfortable with these methods of communication and don’t fully understand the applications available via the new systems.  Older-generation managers may not understand the inherent benefits in exploiting these systems to generate customer leads and facilitate customer contact.  For example, a 22-year-old marketing assistant might send out promotional “tweets” via Twitter to promote a new product or service while a 40-year-old marketing manager might plan a marketing campaign designed around more traditional tools such as direct mail or published advertisements. 

New Integration

When businesses integrate new technologies into their own communication and marketing plans, the younger set of employees already accustomed to utilizing the most current technologies easily step into the role of communicating via these means.  Many older employees tend to be resistant to this upheaval and feel that the additions are unwarranted and counterproductive.  A 50-year-old “baby boomer” generation manager might glance into a millennial employee’s office and become irritated at seeing the employee working on a Facebook page due to the assumption that the employee is wasting company time on personal networking.  This type of conflict is an issue that can limit the productivity of the younger workforce in organizations that aren’t completely up to speed with the current technological times ("Online all the," 2010). 

New Opportunity

As millennials in the workforce continue to age, more and more of the younger generation are poised to step up into management-type positions.  Business Source Complete stated that “Children who grew up with the Internet are now only about 15 to 20 years old. They will enter the workforce en masse in the next two to seven years.”  Many of these young employees will go on to become managers and, eventually, top-level executives of their organizations.  This progression can be expected to bring about evolution of communication technology into work settings organically as social networking technologies become increasingly integrated into office environments by a workforce of employees comfortable with navigating the systems.

Resources
 

The marriage of technology and leadership. (2009). Training, 46(4), 16., Retrieved from http://dml.regis.edu/login?url=http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=bth&AN=39660035&site=ehost-live&scope=site

 

Online all the time? Resolving technology-related workplace conflicts. (2010). Negotiation, 13(10), 4-5. 

http://dml.regis.edu/login?url=http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=bth&AN=65065485&site=ehost-live&scope=site

 

 

Marcie J & Nick M