Retiring the Generation Gap
by Jennifer J. Deal
Published by Jossey-Bass, A Wiley Imprint
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Reviewed by Barbara L. Fielder
Subtitled: How employees young and old can find common ground
Every person who reads this book will discover something important about their own generation and other generations with whom they come in contact. You can count on this book to offer you two important areas on which to focus:
1. To discover what you can do to retire the generation gap, and
2. Why you should.
Students studying the generation gap or for managers who want to explore options that support improvements in cross generational relationships, this book offers practical information and solutions.
Each chapter contains the following:
—A description of the generational issues
—A description of the author’s research on the issue (over 5,800 participants were surveyed from 2000 to 2005).
—The research expressed as a principle.
—The author’s best take on how to apply the principle to make cross generational work life easier for the reader.
The author slices the generational demographics into smaller segments, differentiating the empirical data from other researchers that cover similar information and makes the data more relevant and specific.
The generations described in specific detail are:
—Silents born between 1925 -1945
—Early Boomers born between 1946-1954
—Late Boomers born between 1955-1963
—Early Xers born between 1964-1976
—Late Xers born between 1977-1986
You might conclude that the author is going to bore you with statistics. Not so. However, for those who prefer empirical data, there is ample research data to excite you. In addition, the book includes bibliographical references and index. No mistaking, this book is not a riveting page turner, yet the author writes in a conversational tone that makes the book readable.
This is an excellent subject matter book for readers who are focused on conducting their own research or for those satisfying their own curiosity about retiring the generation gap.