Structural Stimulation

Education systems and Parenting styles which are producing graduate trainees for firms today are very different to those of the Baby Boomer generation (1946-1964). There has been a fundamental shift in the Educational system from the didactic model to a critical analysis model. The Plowden Report (1967) argued that schools must lay special stress on allowing children ‘individual discovery’, such that the individual would look ‘critically at the society of which he forms a part’. Play this out into the work environment: Boomers and Builders who have been used to a didactic style of education expect Generation Y (1979-1996) to adhere to the same. So, they expect Generation Y to accept their truths and work towards their goals, however, the education system has told them to question and critically examine; furthermore, the philosophical environment of (arguably, post [sic]) ‘post-modernity’ is teaching that there is ‘no truth’ – conflicting to the security of taught truths that Boomers accept. This will create conflict as Generation Y is seen to ‘know it all’ and Boomers are seen as backward and slow. Far from accepting the indifference to truth, commercial reality says organisations need now to create new ones, constantly being on the edge of innovation. The challenge is harnessing the abilities of Generation Y to be creative, entrepreneurial and excellent seekers of new information. At the same time, it is essential to allow Boomers and Generation X (1965-78) to provide a context for decision-making for these (relatively) new entrants into the corporate world.