Helms 1

Keith Helms
Professor Dorhout
English 1001-28
October 23, 2015
Millennials in the Workplace
Jorgensen, Bradley Baby Boomers, Generation X and Generation Y? Policy implications for
work forces. Queensland, Australia Government. April 2002. Web. 2015.
This scholarly research report examines the implications of combining the three
generations into the global workforce for future economic growth. The research results
can be used to grow businesses with less resistance from prior generations. Jorgensen
makes a point on how the Australian government looks up to the United States on having
the best plan so far for having the ability and resources to get the three generations to
work together with a purpose for generation Y to lead us into a better economic future.
Jorgensen breaks down the values and beliefs of all three generations: (1) the value of
teamwork: (2) achievement comes from loyalty, sacrifice, long term employment, taking
care of the elderly, communication, working with aged employees, (3) what is important
in the workplace for each generation. His strong points are that it is important for any size
business to plan for generation Y with research results of each generations values to
guide them. However, he fails to give any insight on how to do it, and he raves on how
generation Y will be the best workforce in the last 100 years. However, Jorgensen shows
very little help when it comes to breaking the generation gap barriers. I feel he
researched the three generations well and has a good insight and awareness on generation
Y that is a great resource for my possible solution to these young adults in the workplace.

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Graybill, Jolie O. Millennials among the professional workforce: Their perspective on

leadership. University of Nebraska-Lincoln. May 2013. Web. 24 Sept. 2013.
Graybill conducts a full scholarly study from the Big Ten universities on the perception
of leadership from generation Y students going into the workforce based on the principles
and practices they have learned. Graybills purpose for the University of Nebraska is to
find ways to help the student body have a better chance of employment as they enter the
workforce after graduation. She uses past research from the baby boomers and generation
X with which to relate. She uses her research to persuade managers to develop awareness,
knowledge, and skill sets to help generation Y with managerial leadership. She points out
research results to express what is important to generation Y from their core personal
values to their ideal workplace environment with these key attributes: work-life balance,
personal life, family, hobbies, recognition, responsibility, teamwork, multi-tasking,
professional development, results oriented and communication. I feel this is wellresearched with a lot of detail to improve generation Y in leadership roles which is an
important resource for my solution in helping this difficult generation. However, Graybill
also shows that generation Y has no loyalty; they are non-sacrificial to their work
environment. The research shows that generation Ys commitment to work organization
entails three key aspects: (1) their degree of belief and acceptance of organizational goals
and values; (2) their willingness to exert effort on behalf of the organization, and (3) their
desire to continue employment with an organization. I feel the results are correct for the
lack of loyalty and willing to sacrifice for their organization for which they work when it
comes to these young adults.

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Martin, Carolyn From high maintenance to high productivity: What managers need to know
about Generation Y. Rainmaker Thinking Inc., January 2005.
Here, Carolyn Martin surveys hundreds of generation Y-ers as a consulting firm focused
on better employment strategies for medium to large companies. She provides insight on
how to handle them as they enter into the workforce with any size of business.
Generation Y will become the highest percentage of the global workforce in a few
years as her focus is on employee relations, management strategy, and employee
attitudes. Martin challenges managers to capitalize on the character and expectations of
these talented, demanding young adults. Based on her research, she argues that they have
to be nurtured due to their parents high divorce rates, being left to their own devices, and
having to take care of themselves. Carolyn does a great job of pointing out that these
young adults seek relationships, especially in their work environment. They must have
one-on-one, we must be able to manage them with a coaching style that emphasizes on
positive reinforcement and guidance for their job expectations with a clear direction.
Carolyn Martin claims by practicing three key aspects: employee relations,
management strategy, and being able to work with their attitude in a positive manner
would bring the organization phenomenal results. This is a tremendous resource for my
generation Y solutions. However, the weakest part that I felt she left out, was detailed
information to back up her argument. At one point she claims that these young adults
work best in groups or teamwork, but claims they are independent and have to figure out
the solution on their own. With my experience in the workforce, this information is not
beneficial when given time-sensitive goals required in a work environment.

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King Danae. Companies change as millennials become majority workforce. Bowling Green
News. 07 June 2015.
Danae King uses her research results to emphasize the point that generation Y is now the
largest workforce on the planet and we have to rethink our work processes and attitudes
to accommodate this young workforce. King points out in her research that these young
adults are lazy, disloyal, and frustrating to work with when they often do not show up on
time. Having these issues, companies have to rethink and adjust to this culture change
because they know these issues will cause a lot of turnover with the result of higher
turnover costs to replace and retrain new employees. On a positive side, Danae mention
how these young adults are technology savvy, collaborative, innovative, and are good at
building relationships. I feel she had some good points about her argument regarding
laziness and showing up on time. However, I struggle with my twenty-plus years of
having and running a service-oriented business to see these young adults being
collaborative and building relationships in the work-place. I find this article having little
evidence to back up what Danae King has proposed as solutions to this problem.
Alwin, Duane. Generations X, Y and Z: Are They Changing America? Kluwer
Academic/Plenum Publishers. September 2002.
Duane Alwin does a great job of using his twenty years of experience as a consultant for
the United States government by researching all three generations and comes up with
some hard evidence in the shift of generation succession. He explains that each
generation failed to prepare the next generation in succession for a better economic future
along with each generations life-altering changes from historical events that affect the
employment population. With the consideration of the aging population, Alwin argues

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that these issues are caused by changes in the social connectedness between all three
generations. He lists those changes as trust factors between each other, being fair with
one another, their government stability during each generations time, employment
opportunities, and if a war was involved during that particular generation with a loss of
population as examples. This is a great article of using historical evidence to back up his
claims. Though he postulated what the problem was, he failed to offer any solutions. In
my opinion, this would have been the best study yet if there were possible solutions to
bringing all three generations together for a better plan to future generations in his study.
Also, this is a valuable source of historical evidence to use for future scholarly research
on ideas to eliminate the generation gaps that plague our economic growth.
Nelson, Christopher B. Why Millennials Will Improve Your Company. St. Johns College,
Huffington Post. Posted 20 August 2015.
Nelson surveyed many colleges and career recruiters to get their perspective by asking
the prior generations to look past the generation Ys deficiencies of being non-loyal,
having an attitude, the lack of work ethic, their need for constant encouragement and
rewards, social skills and communication. As the President of St. Johns College,
Christopher Nelson researches what it takes for employers to focus on intellectual virtues
with the millennials so they can be persistent; so they will ask for help when needed to
eliminate the deficiencies these younger adults have. Nelson pushes for consistent
training programs that are honest, express humility, have the fairmindedness to treat
others as equally valuable participants, have good listening skills, and empathy to
understand the work environment. These ideas must be practical so the millennials can
gain momentum to have better completion on the tasks at hand. I like how Christopher

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Nelson made it clear on his research that the millennials have to have a sense of purpose
in their career path. Nelson emphasizes the importance of companies focusing on their
purpose, including better guidance for them to be innovative and solve problems. I
disagree with the notion that millennials are sharing, giving, and selfless in their actions.
My experiences, in a service oriented business have not shown that to be the case.
Overall this scholarly study has a foundation for understanding generation Y, but I was
reluctant to see a good plan in place to get them on track in the workplace. However, Mr.
Nelson provides a lot of information on how these young adults think and what is
important to them. This source is valuable for a solution to the Generation Y issue.