They have varied demands, different degrees of ambition to lead and moderate differences in the dilemma between being employees or starting a business. This is the comparative reality of the three most studied generations of professionals in history, who in a few years will live together in the workplace and pose curious challenges to transnational companies interested in attracting this workforce. In attracting it and empowering its leadership.
These are Generation X (born mainly in the 1970s), Y or millennials (born between 1984 and 1996) and Z (born at the turn of the millennium), the three age groups targeted by a survey of 18,000 professionals and students in 19 countries conducted by the INSEAD Emerging Markets Institute, Universum and the HEAD Foundation, published in the Spanish edition of the Harvard Business Review (HBR).
The researchers found important differences in aspirations and values between age groups and between the countries included in the sample. Although the results only work at the moment, especially for generations characterized by a high propensity to evolve, they are very useful for companies to reflect on their strategies to retain, manage and attract workers.
As expected, the majority of young professionals and young adults aspire to leadership positions, but there are nuances. Sixty-one percent of Generations X and Y aspire to do so, four points higher than Generation Z.
However, millennials in countries such as Mexico and the United States far outnumber professionals or students in Norway, Sweden or France, where companies may have more difficulty finding their leadership personnel. A different situation occurs in America or India, where organizations will have to manage expectations for leadership positions.
Millennials and their elders, those of generation X, are more enthusiastic about the coaching and mentoring involved in management positions than the greater responsibility they entail. In Spain, leadership was more valued for its team-building function, while in the United States and Northern European countries, challenging tasks are more highly valued as an attractive element of leadership.
Generally speaking, Generation X women are more likely to enjoy the challenge that comes with leadership, as well as to take on roles that support other professionals. This disposition changes in Generation Z, who are attracted to leadership above all because of the responsibility it entails.
And a very interesting fact: what attracts men of all generations to leadership is generating income and a high Grade of responsibility (or power, perhaps).
When pollsters asked about the drawbacks of exercising leadership, stress plays a major role, especially among younger Japanese, French and British, as well as U.S., Swiss and Finnish millennials.
Similarly, stress puts women in particular on alert, given the social pressure of knowing that they are competing against male colleagues in environments that are not always egalitarian.
Generation X, on the other hand, is more concerned about how to reconcile a demanding private and professional life; it is clear that they are more mature and in many cases close to starting a family. Generation X is more likely to think about their retirement future and is usually more concerned about the guarantee of access to these schemes in the future.
Multinational organizations should pay special attention to developing programs for the integration and equalization of opportunities for women, but in accordance with cultural and social realities, since the new generations are more globalized, but also less willing to conform to uniform patterns.
Only in this way, knowing the generational propensity for leadership, will companies and their governing bodies be able to choose the right technological structure, organizational culture and training to connect with the new leaders.
