Week 4 Blog, Management Communication Styles

I like Likert’s Management Continuum beginning with System 3 while working toward System 4, becoming more nurturing, it becomes less authoritarian.  (O’Hair, Friedrich, Dixon, (2011).
Then, seek the knowledge of differences in the generations that experts have already evaluated. 

With the changes in the economy and the new longevity of life expediency, Baby Boomers, born between 1946 and 1964 are staying in the workforce longer.  Boomers are competitive and think workers should pay their dues, workplace consultants say, (How to Manage Different Generations, WSJ, 20112).    

With the amount of experience that can be taught from the Boomers to the Gen Xers born between 1965 and 1977, it’s critical and corporations are realizing this fact.  With baby boomers retiring at a rapid rate, their thirty or forty years of knowledge and experience become lost.  At Boeing (when I was there last in 2011 consulting), one of senior management’s biggest objectives was the training from Boomers born 1946 to 1964 to the Gen Xers born between 1965 and 1977, before Boomers retire.

By gaining the knowledge that Gen Xers were born between 1965 and 1977, and are more likely to be skeptical and independent-minded helps when managing and leading teams, (How to Manage Different Generations, WSJ, 20112).   Since the GenXers are typically more educated than their parents and computer literate, they bring a lot to the table.  Millennials born in 1978 or later like teamwork, feedback and technology, (How to Manage Different Generations, WSJ, 20112) and this knowledge helps when managing the differences.

Next, learning the group’s technical skills, humanistic skills, and conceptual skills set and defined job roles will help with communication.  Create meetings communicating in teams planning, organizing, motivating while empowering employee’s to create and be part of the decision making process, since employees work better and more effectively when they feel they are part of the process. (O’Hair, Friedrich, Dixon, (2011).  

I would obtain educational programs continually training workers on new computer technology while working together and teaming.  Training on listening skills while teaching how trust is the biggest human aspect when teams work together.  I would also create a process of accountability to lessen the blame when work was late or not completed by a perspective worker of a team in an attempt to avoid conflict.