for Dr. Rocal

DIVERSITY ISSUE IN ROBINSONS CORPORATION 6

Diversity Issue in Robinsons Corporation

Brittany Ranck

Rasmussen College

Author’s Note: This paper is being submitted on Wednesday, February 15, 2017 for Sylmiki McLaurin Managing a diverse workforce class.

Diversity Issue in Robinsons Corporation

Company Overview

Robinsons Corporation is a real estate company that was established in America. The company’s model is based on the accomplishments of dealing with properties in the real estate markets in the United States. The purpose of the business is to be the leader in the real estate industry by providing quality services, associations, and profitability. The company aims at building long-term relationships with its customers by offering exceptional services through treating the clients with respect and faith. The company has employees from different backgrounds and ages.

Diversity issue-Generational gap

The main diversity issue facing the Robinsons Corporation is the generational gap. Concerning the culture of the company, some employees, especially from the younger generation, may think that the corporation’s culture means room for freedom and no official rules. Since the baby boomers hold most managerial positions in the company, the differences have become a challenge. Besides, how Generation X and the millennial communicate is very different with how the baby boomers talk. For instance, millennial prefers sending texts and tweets while the baby boomers prefer making phone calls and emails. Younger workers in the company use simple language, abbreviations, and colloquialism which are not the case with the baby boomers. According to Lyon and kuron (2014), Different generations value different styles of communication, team structures and the perks of work.

Why generational gap is a problem

The generational gap is a problem because in Robinson Corporation because it has employees with a range of ages including the Millennial, Generation X and baby boomers. Every employee in the company comes to work with different expectations and with different life experiences, views, and perspectives. The expectations vary depending on the age of an employee. The baby boomers that are nearing retirement have different expectations than the millennial who continue to graduate and enter the workforce. They have differences concerning values, communication style, and work habits.

Impact of Generational Gap on the well-being of employees

According to Lu and Gursoy (2016), generational gaps may cause clashes between employees in a firm especially among workers on a team. For instance, baby boomer may have the belief that generation X are too impatient and are capable of throwing away strategies useful o the company. On the other hand, the Gen X may view the baby boomers as people who always try so hard to say the right thing to the right individual and being resistant to change. The result of such perceptions on the well-being of the employees is that they will feel insecure and their productivity may go down.

Consequences of not solving the issue of generational gap

Unresolved generational differences may affect the company’s operations in almost all facets including building strong teams, dealing with change of the business environment, motivation, and management and gaining competitive advantage. Sarma (2014) states that generational diversity affects the way the workforce communicates, their understanding and employee turnover. Besides, the company may experience difficulties in attracting talent and retaining talent. Studies have proven that individuals communicate based on their generations with each generation having different attitudes, expectations, and characters as well as motivational buttons. Generation gap may affect motivation by creating a detachment among the workforce in the organization. The outcomes are always a deteriorating team cohesion and alienation which may lead to stress and in extreme cases the affected individuals may quit their jobs.

References

Lu, A. C. C., & Gursoy, D. (2016). Impact of job burnout on satisfaction and turnover intention: do generational differences matter? Journal of Hospitality & Tourism Research, 40(2), 210-235.

Lyons, S., & Kuron, L. (2014). Generational differences in the workplace: A review of the evidence and directions for future research. Journal of Organizational Behavior, 35(S1), S139-S157.

Sarma, K. A. D. J. J. (2014). Generation gaps revisited. Foundations of Genetic Algorithms 1993 (FOGA 2), 2, 19.