Introduction

Much has been written about Generation Y (Gen Y) in the U.S. This is the generation that was born between 1980 and 2001. Today they represent about 20% of the U.S. workforce. Although the focus has been on the U.S., what you may not realize is that Gen Y generations actually exist in other countries. They may have different names, but many of their behaviors, characteristics and ambitions are the same. In this article I will describe:
* how generations are defined in each country by the global or historical events they experience during their lifetime and
* the similarities and differences of Gen Y in several countries.


U.S. Workforce Generations

Thee four generations represented in the current U.S. workforce have been shaped by five very important historical events, and each has resulted in a change in personal and workforce behaviors, attitudes and aspirations.

Traditionalists: 1925-1945.
Events: Depression, World War II, Pearl Harbor, beginning of the Cold War, creation of the H-bomb, Empire State Building completed, and black and white TV invented.
Characteristics: Patriotic, dependable, respectful of authority, conservative, solid work ethic

Baby Boomers: 1946-1964
Events: Vietnam War, Kennedy and King assassinations, first man on the moon, 60’s social protest, civil rights movement, Beatles, women’s liberation
Characteristics: Workaholic, idealist, competitive, loyal, materialistic, personal fulfillment, relevance to bottom line and “my rewards”

Generation X: 1965-1979
Events: AIDS epidemic, space shuttle Challenger catastrophe, fall of the Berlin wall, Oklahoma City bombing, video games, MTV
Characteristics: Self-reliant, adaptable, cynical, distrustful of and openly questioning of authority, entrepreneurial, technology savvy, interest in what happens to “me”

Generation Y: 1980-2001
Events: Columbine shootings, 9-11, corporate scandals, wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, hurricane Katrina, globalization
Characteristics: entitlement oriented, technologically savvy, environmentally minded, civic-minded, close parental ties, work-life balance, “I want to be VP now”, and team-oriented, respect for authority must be earned, globally conscious, grown up with computers and the internet.

Generations Across Borders

While the concept of generational differences is universal, how those generations are defined remains specific to a given country. Both the timeframes for these divisions as well as the common traits are not the same for everyone. Generational differences are shaped by the political, socioeconomic and cultural events that have a transforming impact on a country. These events become the turning points for new generations that will incorporate different behaviors, attitudes and aspirations from the preceding generation. If the timing of critical events varies from country to country, then the definition of generational behaviors will change at different times as well.

Generation Y Across the World

Gen Y currently makes up about 20% of the worldwide workforce (according to McCrindle Research) and this is set to increase to 42% by 2020.Does the fact that Gen Y professionals, for example, in New York, London and Beijing display similar outward material characteristics reflect the same aspirations, ambitions, values and attitudes? Put simply, does the fact that workers from New York, London and Beijing walk the city streets listening to their music of choice, wearing designer jeans and drinking lattes indicate anything deeper than the outward appearance between contemporary generations across the globe?

Once you get past the similarities in the outward appearance you find that their aspirations, ambitions, values and attitudes are very different.Companies need to probe a little deeper than outward appearance to understand the generational composition of their entire global workforce. This should be of interest to all business leaders who seek to enter a market, build global business operations or maximize the productivity of a workforce across national borders.

Asia

China

Today China is the second largest economy in the world, developing into a vast consumer market with a sizeable middle class. On every newsstand there is a magazine highlighting articles about China. China's Gen Y consists of approximately 200 million young people born between 1980 and 1989.China’s adoption of the One-Child Policy in 1980 radically impacted the traditional family structure in many unforeseen ways and resulted in a generation that grew up in a family environment of high expectations and minimal competition for attention.

The first generation of single children to emerge after the introduction of the One Child Policy in 1980 have a reputation of being individualistic and confident but also self-centered and rebellious. Compared to preceding generations, they are regarded as innovative, open-minded toward new ideas and approaches.

Around the same time, college graduates acquired the right to choose their own jobs, and multinational corporations (MNCs) started recruiting on Chinese campuses.

While there is skyrocketing economic growth in China, that rapid expansion is revealing a gaping hole in leadership talent leading to questionable practices. Companies operating in China often give young managers loftier titles and greater responsibilities before they have soaked in the lessons of their previous job. Premature promotions stem both from a tight job market for managers and from all the new roles created by the country’s fast growth.

Title inflation in China comes with big risks. Fast promotions can result in poor leadership quality, which threatens corporate strategies in the ever-more crucial Chinese market. Many young Chinese managers will job hop from employer to employer for bigger salaries, more status and more opportunities. And less-than-ready leaders in China pose problems for broader company succession plans.

Company branding is far more important to Gen Ys in China than it is to Gen Ys elsewhere. They are
much more likely to be turned on and off to a company based on what they hear in the news or how it is portrayed by friends and family. Gen Y in China want to work for large multinationals that can invest in their career growth and development.

Having access to mentors is very important to them --- so much so that when considering a job offer the absence of a mentor can be a “deal breaker”.

They are more likely to want an opportunity to work globally --- even more than having a flexible work schedule. They want support and access to top management and are less loyal than Gen Y in the rest of the world.


Japan

The most recent entrants to the workforce — the Yutori — Japan’s Gen Y ---are of particular interest to employers in Japan as they adapt to the workplace.  The Yutori generation was born between 1995 and 2000.   The product of a more liberal education due to education reforms, they are perceived to lack the focus and discipline of earlier generations.7 Within the workplace, they typically demonstrate greater individualism and that can be a source of friction with older generations brought up to accept group thinking. While technically competent, many believe that the Yutori need more coaching and guidance.  In Japan, this generation has characteristics that make it much different than Gen Y’s elsewhere in the world.

As a result of the decline in Japan's economic fortunes since 1990 and the death of the “job for life”, the Yutori generation has grown up in a time of high economic anxiety, rather than perpetual growth of their parents' era. The wave of job losses after Japan's bubble burst in the 1990s and again after the global financial crisis in 2008 shattered the myth of life-time employment and the loyal corporation and left a lasting effect on the psyche of all workers. The duration of the depressed economy in Japan has affected the Yutori much more than the impact of the most recent recession in 2008 that impacted other countries.

Yutori-generation workers tend to be risk adverse, insular and more focused on themselves rather than the company's goals. In many instances, they are less ambitious than previous generations striving, above all else, for job security and employability over leadership and personal advancement. They are serious about personal development, but mostly to safeguard future employability rather than increase their firm's productivity.

India

About half of India's 1 billion people are under the age of 25.   Gen Y in India was born between 1980 and 2000.

Stories about young Indians earning more and leading lifestyles beyond the imagination of earlier generations are all too familiar now. They no longer make news. But what is news is that suddenly, while most of the developed world is struggling to create new jobs in the aftermath of the 2008 recession, India is experiencing a job boom and a tremendous growth in employment opportunities.

Along with this boom has come the changing lifestyle of India's younger generation. India’s Gen Ys no longer clamor for permanent jobs. Gen Ys have fully embraced a career model of rotation between employers as they pursue career advancement. High priorities for them are talent programs that address their development needs, opportunities for advancement and enrichment. For example, opportunities to work globally are particularly prized.

However, company loyalty no longer matters if the next company promises greater opportunities for advancement and better pay. This is why employers now have to deal with the problem of attrition and retention. With so many jobs to select from, Gen Ys are only too willing to jump jobs for better prospects.

Western Europe

United Kingdom

Prior to the 2008 recession, Gen Ys were very spoiled. It's easy to see why. By the time many of the UK's Gen Y population were old enough to read a newspaper, Britain was ready to begin its greatest ever period of sustained economic growth. For the children born in the 1980s, recession was something that happened to other people.Since 2008, reality has come as a shock. Graduate intakes have been cut by up to 20 per cent. Companies all over the country are starting to narrow their lists of "acceptable" universities from which to hire. With unemployment expected to remain high, this is now the fiercest job market in a generation.

The current crop of graduates seems uniquely ill-equipped for the fight. Gen Y has little interest in their parents' work-dominated lives. This generation isn’t seduced by salary and status. Instead, the ability to "make a difference", balanced by plenty of downtime, is their career dream. Most pertinent to the corporate world is the disturbing notion that Gen Y workers are unprepared to put up with stressful working conditions: when unhappy, they simply resign.

How does this square with the competitive paranoia of today's job market? Despite the current market, Gen Y hasn't altered its values. Recession or no recession, this is a group that will "walk away" if the company doesn't match its ideals.

Fostering collaborative structures, where hierarchy plays second fiddle to flexibility, is seen as a way to attract the best graduates. But experts warn that a change in culture requires full commitment, from the top down. It needs a CEO who will loosen the reins at the precise point when the temptation to maintain control is at its highest. Recessionary pressures often go hand in hand with a command-and-control management style. Stress and strain can spur autocratic behavior. This is the style of management that Gen Y employees seek to avoid.

In the UK, the school system has led them to believe they are successful and that they can always succeed—that they are in control of their destiny. Micro-management doesn't fit with that.

Managing Gen Y in the UK requires courage. Companies have found that it's a generation that really demands feedback—constant feedback—and mentoring.

Germany

In Germany, Gen Y born between 1980 and 1989  makes up approximately 15% of the population. Like
their peers around the world they are non-conformist, value driven, innovative and challenging.
In Germany, Gen Y is regarded as the “generation internship” – young academics, highly
educated, with a university degree, but very little income and huge problems entering the job market
due to high unemployment.

The German Gen Y has very different expectations compared to their counterparts in other countries.
Compensation is a priority when choosing an employer, while opportunity for learning is the top priority of Gen Y in other countries.

The workplace and the right working environment are crucial in attracting Gen Ys  Choosing cities and an urban environment seem to be key in order to attract and retain Gen Y. German Gen Ys have an emotional engagement with their workplace which is unique compared to Gen Y in other countries.

More than ever before Gen Y in Germany is very vocal to the point of being demanding that their employers need to be green, sustainable and show they are well above other companies in meeting standard environmental compliance. This is a generation of youngsters embracing green travel: cycling, walking or using public transportation.


Central and Eastern Europe

Countries that emerged from communist rule in 1989 have been through a sociopolitical and economic transformation that is unparalleled among their Western neighbors. In turn, this transformation has had a profound impact on the attitudes and aspirations of the workforce.  Gen Y in Eastern Europe was born between 1985 and 2000. In Central and Eastern Europe after the collapse of communism and the Soviet empire, generational differences have been as numerous as the histories that shaped these various countries.
 
For example, the Boomers in the Czech Republic and Bulgaria are, like Russia’s, the product of post-war communism and embrace more collectivist working styles. However, the impact of the Prague Spring of 1968 and the Velvet Revolution of 1989 directly shaped the attitudes of the Czech Republic’s Gen X (also known as “Husak’s Children”). This generation is profoundly focused on compensation and career development opportunities.

Meanwhile, Gen Y in the Czech Republic and their Bulgarian contemporaries, the Democracy Generation, are more inclined to seek work-life balance than their immediate predecessors. For Bulgaria’s Democracy Generation, openness to the opportunities created by globalization is a clear trait, and opportunities to work abroad are regarded as a standard part of career experience.

Russia

Beginning in 1983, the first truly post-Soviet generation to enter the workforce under the presidency of Vladimir Putin was the so-called “Generation Pu”.   Generation Pu was born from 1983 to 2000.

This group is far more focused on professional development than the generation before them. They typically demonstrate a willingness to sacrifice work-life balance early in their careers in exchange for quick advancement. Interestingly, Gen Pu is uniquely nationalistic compared to its generational contemporaries in other countries.

After the fall of the Soviet era, Gen Pu was willing to launch their own businesses, but did not know what to start with, how to build up companies internally, or how to deal with external partners and rivals. They had to survive in a new, unknown environment and had to build the foundations of a new business culture. Most of them share the same characteristics: they are more pragmatic, decisive, straightforward and more willing to take risks than their predecessors. Living in an unpredictable and fast-changing environment, they learned to gain quick profits and to live in the present, not in the future.  Thus short-term planning was/is of greater importance than strategic planning. As with many Russians, Gen Pu is far more fatalistic in its worldview.

At first sight, a modern Russian business person looks like any other Western business person. He/she is educated, diplomatic, speaks English fluently, is clearly more punctual and task-oriented than their predecessors and shares rather realistic and individualistic attitudes towards life.

Nevertheless, in spite of their strong Western orientation, new Russian generations (especially those living outside of the two major business centers, Moscow and St. Petersburg) share the basics of Russian mentality with previous generations. Russian negotiating teams are hierarchical, and only the leader of the team will speak and make decisions. The others will only join in if invited to do so.

Because of the relative unpredictability of the Russian economy and politics, most companies still prefer to make short-term plans on a yearly, quarterly and monthly basis. Company structures also reflect the traditional Russian mentality. Plans are typically made in a top-to-bottom fashion and then distributed to the heads of each department. There is not much information flow between different levels within an organization. And the number of those who make important decisions individually, without consulting others, is still rather high.

In total, one of the major shared features of the Russian complex business culture is a strong role of the company leader (often its founder) and his or her personality in planning and control. The Russian business culture is still often based on paternalistic, charismatic leadership. At the same time, this model is considered to be more flexible and adaptive than the Western, process-oriented model.

Another feature shared by all generations of Russians is an inherent flexible attitude towards rules and regulations. Quite often Russians do not hesitate to circumvent policies and procedures that they may perceive to be senseless. As one Russian government official generalized: "There is a peculiar Russian mentality.... A Russian man sees a law and instantly thinks of ways to maneuver around it. This is just a tradition."

Africa

South Africa

The leading economy in Africa is that of South Africa, a country that has gone through tumultuous change. Such events include the establishment of apartheid by the nationalist government in 1948, the Sharpeville Massacre, and the 1976 Soweto Uprising. It also includes the constitutional changes of the early 1990s and the first democratic election under universal suffrage.   Gen Y in South Africa was born from 1990 to 2000.This emergence from the apartheid era had an impact on the composition of the workforce and the attitudes of people.

One of the byproducts of apartheid was an employment environment in the public sector that gave preference to white South Africans in certain areas. As South Africa entered the democratic era, affirmative action was introduced to hold companies to strict employment quotas aimed at making the workforce more reflective of the population as a whole.  As a result, the South African Gen X tended to be more entrepreneurial, displaying skepticism of corporations and hierarchy while looking for an outputs-driven workplace.

Gen Y, meanwhile, has no memory of apartheid and seeks a relaxed, informal workplace that differs from the command structure that shaped the boomers. This is a new generation of South Africans born into a new world order and indeed a new South Africa.

They are often called the “born free” generation of mostly black South Africans that have grown up in a different world, and in particular a country that is very different than what their parents knew. Many Gen Ys are the first black generation of South Africans to have benefited from political change. They are sometimes referred to as model “C” kids because they have been able to attend traditional white model “C” schools in previously exclusive white suburbs.

The oldest of these Gen-Y’s have already grown up and many have already, or are just about to, enter the world of work, and it is certainly a “new world of work”. For South African businesses it is important to realize that these future employees, customers, entrepreneurs and leaders are different and they bring a different set of values into play. For South African business leaders, Gen Ys are specifically different not only demographically but also because they are legally protected to from never being excluded from the mainstream economy or confined to being hired only as low-skilled workers.

Kenya

Gen Y is expected to account for up to half the total workforce in Kenya by 2012. They are probably the least understood segment of the workforce.    They were born between 1990 and 2000.

What most of their employers consider as incentives do not really matter to them. What does matter are clear work related goals, challenging and interesting work, coaching and mentoring as well as the right benefits and incentives. This group is described as ‘”techno savvy, high maintenance, optimistic, confident, self-reliant, entrepreneurial and environmentally minded”.

Gen Ys in Kenya are not necessarily driven by social networking, fast cars and technology gadgets as previously perceived, but instead are driven by the urge to grow, gain experience and succeed at an early age.  Another common notion that the Gen Y tend to change jobs often also does not appear to be true. Most Gen Ys expect to remain with their current employer for at least 5 years.

Gen Y calls for a change of management technique by businesses in East Africa. Some employers are already providing some of the benefits Gen Ys want such as career development and challenging work, while many more seem willing to consider providing them.

Thus, employers have no option but to work towards satisfying Gen Y who are more demanding than previous generations in their expectations.


Conclusion

Now fast-forward to the 21st century. Next-generation technologies, from wireless to email, are suddenly available to workers in blossoming economies like China, India and Brazil. Although delayed by the lack of infrastructure and internet connections, even Africa and some of the third world countries are becoming techno savvy.

The impact of technology cannot be emphasized enough as to the impact on Gen Y’s. The rise of instant communication technologies made possible through use of the internet, such as email, texting and IM and new media used through websites like You Tube and social networking sites like Facebook, and Twitter, may explain the Gen Ys reputation for being more peer-oriented due to easier facilitation of communication.

What is increasingly recognized is that people under 30 are becoming more similar worldwide due to the proliferation of technology and the "world getting smaller" unlike preceding generations that were much less alike. The world is bound together by sharing external events in real time.

If anyone needs convincing, think about the recent events in the Middle East. For example, the revolution in Egypt was organized by Gen Ys that mapped out a strategy designed to disperse police forces and boost the number of demonstrators. They called, on Facebook, for demonstrators to assemble at five staging grounds around Cairo. Such advance planning helped these young Egyptians outsmart their elders in the government. These revolutionaries will forever be known as the “Facebook Rebels”.