Today's Young Workers Don't Have the Same Values?

I agree with this manager's comments. 35 years will span over 2 to 3 generations and as we develop, our society and people's mentality will have changed greatly over the years. As we move from a conservative and developing society to a more open, educated and developed society, people's set of values changes as well.

Now, what are values? Values can be defined as broad preferences concerning appropriate courses of action or outcomes. They are global beliefs that guide actions and judgements across a variety of situations. As such, Values tend to influence attitudes and behaviour. People's values develop as a product of the learning and experiences they encounter in the cultural setting in which they live. Because learning and experiences differ from one person to another, value differences result. Such differences are likely to be deep-seated and difficult (although not impossible) to change; many have their roots in early childhood and the way in which a person was raised. (Wood et al, 2010)

Based on these definitions, we know that the values of employees 35 years ago and now differ greatly as our society and learning experiences changes thru the years.

Young Employees 35 years ago will fall into the Boomers category and young workers today will be in the Generation X (Xers) and Generation Y (Nexters) category. (Robbins, Millett & Waters-Marsh, 2004)

These categorisations state that the Boomers are successful, have a sense of achievement and have ambition. They dislike authority and are loyal to relationships. However, they still believe in some values of the older generation and they are respectful to seniority and traditional workplace values.

Xers place more value in work-life balance, are team oriented, dislike rules and are still loyal to relationships. Nexters are like Xers but much more. They are confident, have financial success, self-reliant but team oriented; loyalty to both self and relationships. They have High expectations regarding performance, self esteem and maintenance. They are seen as demanding flexibility, are results driven and have no respect for past accomplishments.

With the differences in values of workers in