Mary Gowan, professor of management, was the guest speaker for the Lunch and Learn Professional Development Workshop at Novartis Animal Health on Tuesday, August 23, 2011.
Her presentation, “Intergenerational Differences in the Workplace,” challenged participants to think about why it is important to value all five of the generations in today’s workplace: Traditionalists, Boomers, Gen Xers, Millennials and Linksters. These five generations add to the complexity of managing today’s workforce, but each generation brings strengths that can lead to high productivity, innovation and a competitive advantage for the firm. Participants explored the characteristics of each generation and identified ways to capitalize on those characteristics to enhance work performance.