Managing Generation Y: Global Citizens Born in the Late Seventies and Early Eighties

122 Pages·2001·0.351 MB·English

by  Carolyn A. Martin, Bruce Tulgan

Managing
GENERATION Y
Global Citizens Born in the
Late Seventies and Early Eighties
Bruce Tulgan
Carolyn A. Martin, Ph.D.
HRD PRESS
Amherst, Massachusetts
Copyright © 2001, RainmakerThinking, Inc.
Published by: HRD Press, Inc.
22 Amherst Road
Amherst, MA 01002
800-822-2801 (U.S. and Canada)
413-253-3488
413-253-3490 (fax)
http://www.hrdpress.com
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be
reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted
in any form by any means, electronic, mechanical,
photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the
prior permission of the author.
ISBN: 0-87425-622-4
Cover design by Eileen Klockars
Editorial and production services by Mary George
Dedicated to all Gen Yers
whose voices ring out loud and true in this book
and to the managers everywhere
who will coach these global citizens

Contents

Acknowledgments .............................................. vii
Introduction ........................................................xi
1. Who Is Generation Y?.....................................1
2. What Can Managers Expect from
Generation Y? ...............................................17
3. How Not to Manage Generation Y:
The Seven Traits of the Worst Managers .......29
4. The Fourteenth Generation’s
Fourteen Expectations...................................47
5. Best Practices to Meet the Fourteen
Expectations..................................................65
In Conclusion . . . .............................................101
Recommended Resources .................................103
— v —

Acknowledgments

AS ALWAYS, we must thank first and foremost the many
thousands of incredible people who, over the years, have
shared the lessons of their experiences through Rainmaker-
Thinking’s ongoing workplace-interview research. At the
top of our list for this project are all the Generation Yers
across North America who took the time to tell us their
stories. They are the heartbeat of this book and deserve
our special thanks.
We are also indebted to the many others who lent their
assistance to the research for Managing Generation Y,
especially the following: Christie Duncan, Jeanne Yerko-
vich, and the staff of the School-to-Work Program at
David Douglas High School, in Portland, Oregon, who
allowed us to interview their positive, upbeat Gen Yers;
the research assistants at RainmakerThinking, notably
Jeff Hockenbrock, Kelly Poggio, and Heather Neely, each
of whom contributed several dozen in-depth interview
transcripts and who collected most of the transcripts
excerpted in this book; Cynthia Conrad at Rainmaker-
Thinking, who compiled the recommended resources
appendix and whose regular research and editing con-
tributes so much to all of our publications.
— vii —
Managing GENERATION Y
To the rest of our colleagues at RainmakerThinking,
especially Jeff Coombs, Mark Kurber, Peggy Urbanowicz,
Colleen Keating, and Susan Ciemniewski, thank you for
your hard work and the valuable contributions you
make to this enterprise every day.
Many thanks as well to our friend and publisher, Bob
Carkhuff, and his staff at HRD Press. Bob has continu-
ously supported our work since the early days, when it
was a gamble. The partnership we maintain with HRD
Press is critical to our ability to reach inside organizations
of every shape and size and make them even better than
they already are. Special thanks, too, to Mary George
for her editing and design work.
To all of the business leaders and managers who have
expressed so much confidence in our work, thank you
for giving us the opportunity to learn from the real man-
agement issues you must deal with and solve on a daily
basis. Thanks especially to Dick Bristol, retail support
manager at the Ace Hardware Distribution Center in
Rocklin, California, for modeling what it means to be a
great boss and team player; and to Sherrie Barger, prin-
cipal of Gilbert Heights Elementary School, Portland,
Oregon, who inspired our “Declaration of Respect.”
Finally, as co-authors, we also have our respective debts
of gratitude to express. From Carolyn: Thank you to
Kathy Richard, who thoughtfully read and re-read this
— viii —
Acknowledgments
manuscript and provided much encouragement, love,
and support. From Bruce: Thank you to my family and
friends, for being you and for allowing me to be who I am;
and as always, I reserve my deepest thanks for my wife,
Debby Applegate, who is my best friend, my partner in
all things, and owner of my heart.
— ix —