Generalisations & Generation Y

Kicking off the Generation Y research - review of articles

We have started to develop our understanding on "Generation Y" with some desk research. You can look at the articles that we have written to summarises our finding by looking at the posts that we have indexed "Generation Y".

The key issues that you will need to be taken into consideration when looking at these articles is:

• Understanding that we are making generalisations in order to draw out the Generation Y key themes
• Understanding that the posts are based on articles that are USA centered where most of the Generation Y research has been done

Generation Y - can we generalise?

Who is Generation Y

Generation Y is the generation that was born between circa 1980 - 1994. This range of dates varies from source to source, however for our study we will take that the oldest of Generation Y is currently aged about 27 and the youngest being about 13. On a world wide basis, the use of the term Generation Y seems to be restricted to the Western World.

New behaviours belonging to Generation Y

As with people in general, the population of Generation Y also has a huge variation in the characteristics of the young people that make it up. However, there are a combination of key drivers (social, economical, technological) in this generation that are bringing up behaviours and tendencies that are more prominent with this generation than in the previous generations. Our series of post on Generation Y will concentrate on these new prominent behaviours and tendencies - with the understanding that these findings will not apply equally to all members of Generation Y.

The emergent generation

Furthermore, Generation Y seems to be more of an emergent generation than other generations - we are finding more and more about the values and beliefs that drive them as they start to play a more prominent role in society and the workplace. Generation Y is also more difficult to tie down and categorise than previous generations - for example marketers are finding it exceedingly difficult to market to Generation Y because they do not respond to the standard marketing techniques.

The surprising generation

It seems that we as a population seem to be generally surprised and flummoxed at the behaviours and values of young people today. We are struggling to understand what makes them and drives them - and Generation Y themselves are struggling to understand themselves. Individually Generation Y members see themselves as odd because they are struggling to fit in with what society expects of them - they do not realise that there are many others who are also struggling with the same issues that they are facing.

The divided generation

Just as we find commonalities for this generation, we also have divides (such as the digital divide, the social divide, the cultural divide) that have become more even more prominent in this fast moving world of Generation Y. This has resulted in a precipitation of distinct sets of "haves" and "have nots" in Generation Y which is also proving difficult to understand and accept in a world that expects equality as its basis no matter what your background.

Work Empowerment Foundation's focus

We are hoping that this series of articles on Generation Y will provide the overview...that will help Generation Y to understand itself and help others to understand Generation Y...as well as raising the issues of the divides that are operating in Generation Y.

Generation Y and the USA focus of articles

The majority of the articles that we found when googling "Generation Y" are USA in origin (with a significant smattering of Australian articles). It seems that the USA are currently on the leading edge for understanding Generation Y - and it seems to be that not much has been done to specifically done to date understand the characteristics of UK's Generation Y.

The key differences between the UK and the USA for graduates seem to be that:

• Tighter labour market - The labour market in the UK has not tightened up as much as the USA. The labour shortage due to baby boomers leaving the job market has not yet fully hit the UK market. This difference mainly seems to be due the fact that more USA baby boomers are taking on early retirement than the UK. As a result, the UK graduates are finding the market considerably more difficult than their USA counterparts since large numbers of graduates are now flooding a market that is not ready for them. In 2007, there is expected to be 90,000 graduate advertised jobs for the 250,000 students who will be graduating this year). This huge influx is causing employers are tighten up their recruitment processes even more as a response, making getting a getting a graduate a challenging experience for many UK graduates.
• More competition - UK graduates are facing more external competition than USA graduates in their home market because the UK market can easily be accessed by other European graduates.
• Less Generation Y opportunties - These two factors and other factors seem to provide USA graduates with more of an opportunity to exhibit their Generation Y characteristics at work and have the job market accept these differences

Learning more about the UK Generation Y

Who is the UK Generation Y?

It is clear that we need to do more research in the UK to determine what are the characteristics that make up the UK Generation Y rather than relying on the findings for the USA Generation Y.

Work Empowerment Foundation and the UK Generation Y

The Work Empowerment Foundation feels that the best group of people to do this research is Generation Y themselves. The results of this research will be used by the foundation to facilitate Generation Y to develop services for themselves.

Generation Y articles in this research series (in date order)

• First Steps conference - research background
• Generation Y research strand
• Generalisations & Generation Y
• Generation Y articles used for research
• Gen Y1 - role of Generation Y parents
• Gen Y2 - role of technology
• Gen Y3 - other factors influencing Generation Y & the Generation Y divide
• Gen Y4 -Generation Y characteristics and values in life
• Gen Y5 - the marketing view of Generation Y
• Gen Y at work 1 - characteristics and values at work
• Gen Y at work 2 - Generation Y and intergenerational conflict
• Gen Y at work 3 - Generation Y - vision, good work, work ethics, work-life balance
• Gen Y at work 4 - how employing Generation Y will benefit business
• Gen Y at work 5 - how to manage Generation Y
• Gen Y at work 6 - Generation Y and career
• Gen Y at work 7 - recruiting Generation Y

Posted by: Hina Patel