Baby Boomers: The Largest Generation in the World - Essay Sample

Introduction

A Baby boomer is a term that is commonly used to describe those people who were born from 1946 to 1964 (Boveda and Metz, 2016). It is a generation of its own just the way we have generation X and Millennials. Baby boomers generation makes a big portion of the current population in the world, especially in developed countries where there are improved living standards, which leads increased life expectancy levels. For instance, in the United States, the baby boomer generation makes almost 20% of the total population (Boveda and Metz, 2016). In many cases, they are the ones holding the senior positions in organizations due to their experience as well as their commitment to excellence. Since 1946, there have been several changes on how organizations have been influenced by technological advancements and the emergence of new generations from time to time. This paper is aimed at discussing the leadership of baby boomers and how technology has impacted the way organizations and communication has changed this baby boomer generation.

Is your time best spent reading someone else’s essay? Get a 100% original essay FROM A CERTIFIED WRITER!

Save 25%

Baby Boomer Leadership

Only two generations are separating the leadership styles of baby boomers and Millennials. However, only this gap has been enough to fundamentally change the attributes and methods of the leadership of young people who are rising to take over the leadership of the world. Baby boomers were born after the time war, and they always portray conservatism and recovery in their direction. They believe that achievement only comes from hard work, and through this principle, they have worked tirelessly to provide better lives to their children that they never had (Boveda & Metz, 2016). As a result of being raised by a generation that had faced all the realities of the war, deprivation, and loss, baby boomers have built a foundation according to the lessons and experiences of their parents. Their lives follow a bit a predictable pattern of going to school, getting married almost the same time they get a job and work hard to get promotions. The adherence to this pattern always led to a state of self-achievement, which is termed as the result of almost all baby boomers generation. They usually sacrifice a lot to achieve it.

In the past and even now, baby boomers show a lot of loyalty to leadership styles in any position they are in. They are loyal to their employer, and they always accept that there chains of command that they should adhere to get promoted from one position to another. They are prevailing in teams and are determined to do anything that would enable them to achieve top posts (Boveda & Metz, 2016). Due to their tendency to work for long hours to pay the price of achieving success, the term "workaholic" is frequently used to describe them.

Impact of Technology on Baby Boomers

When the baby boomers were born, there was nothing like technology. They just grew up to technological developments, and as a result, they are referred to as digital immigrants. When the Apples and the first IBM PC's emerged, most of the baby boomers were either at their teens or in their early 30s (Salb, 2015). The only thing they knew and grew up with was the use of pre-cellphone mobile technology such as landline telephones, radios, and television. In their childhood, they were nothing like mobile phones or videogames that are so common in millennial children. Therefore, when it comes to technology, baby boomers have had different experiences compared to the other generations, which were born after several technological inventions. The only technology that was common during their childhood was tube television and a rotary telephone that could be used in the house for entertainment. As a result, in most cases, they were outdoors playing with other children in the neighborhood through life lessons, physical exercises, and conversation skills.

When the technology emergence first in the 1960s, it had little to impact in everyday life of many baby boomers, and henceforth, technology has not played a significant role in this generation. Even in the 1970s, technology had minimal impact on the lives of many baby boomers as they saw it as something that was to be used in academics only but not in the workplace. However, this was not to last for a long time as in the 1980s, technology started invading people's homes, and this made the baby boomers change their behavior towards it. Some things that baby boomers perceived to be of no significance, such as customer satisfaction and company practice, started to be increasingly a concern to many people and organizations (Salb, 2015). Through technology, communication was improved to enable customers to make more informed decisions and make better choices. As time passed by, more and more baby boomers started participating in a consumer economy through buying new cars, televisions, and Hi-Fi systems using modern credit cards (Salb, 2015).

How Technology has impacted the Way Organizations and Communication have changed this Baby Boomer Generation?

With time, organizations noted that there was a need for integration of different generations to align its objectives with those of different generations. The reason behind this is almost all four generations are working together in the same organizations. There is no way these generations can be separated, as the millennials have to learn from the earlier generations. The millennials have been born to technology, and there is no way they can force them to live without it. Nevertheless, technology has been an essential cog in organizations; it comes to communication within and outside the organization. Effective communication is critical to the success of any organization in the current world. Since baby boomers were slow to learn the new technology, organizations had to initiate change in their systems, and they train the baby boomers how to use the latest technological communication devices within and outside the organization. They were made to be conversant and comfortable with all new technological communication medium. Whenever a new communication medium was introduced, the organization had to have a training program for the baby boomers.

Baby boomers usually favor voice communications, but with advanced technology, they had to understand how to use the new devices. In the present, they have broadly experienced electronic communications. However, despite this experience, many baby boomers in the labor market prefer to balance between face-to-face, emails, voicemail communications, and conducting meetings (Fishman, 2016). The need for improved communication through new technological communicative devices has helped baby boomers to change their perspective on technology. Nowadays, many baby boomers have embraced new technologies to the delight of many organizations. Technology is important in every aspect of our lives today. That is why organizations had to make attempts to initiate technological change among baby boomers to improve integration and communication of different generations.

Conclusion

In conclusion, any leader must instill different aspects such as practical leadership skills and competent digital analyzation skills. The Baby boomer generation has all it takes to be successful leaders and mentors to the X and millennium generation, but first, they have to adapt to the current modes of communication, especially social networking. Furthermore, they have to diversify their attributes through live communications programs or apps such as YouTube and podcasts. This will enable the young generation to learn from them and effectively transcend to the desired leaders, managers, or mentors of tomorrow. Ultimately, technology is the backbone of all the current operations of an organization, and therefore, there is every reason for Baby boomers to continue to adapt to every technological change that organizations needs to make.

References

Boveda, I., & Metz, A. J. (2016). Predicting endofcareer transitions for baby boomers nearing retirement age. The Career Development Quarterly, 64(2), 153-168. https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1002/cdq.12048

Fishman, A. A. (2016). How generational differences will impact America's aging workforce: Strategies for dealing with aging Millennials, Generation X, and Baby Boomers. Strategic HR Review. https://www.emerald.com/insight/content/doi/10.1108/SHR-08-2016-0068/full/html

Salb, D. (2015). Using technology to retain baby boomers in the workforce. Computer and Information Science, 8(3), 180. https://pdfs.semanticscholar.org/9ef3/206538691f8c05476e50bfe1e2c715cac07e.pdf