1-

Managers in today’s workplace play a key role in the success of a company. A good manager has exceptional leadership skills along with good decision making. A manager performs as a spokesperson, a mentor or an administrator. Managers have to be very skilful and also be able to manage people from all age categories, from the elderly baby boomers to the fresh and genius younger employees from the millennial category. The concept of diversity includes acceptance and aspect (Patrick & Kumar, 2012). The managers have to incorporate all the ideas and modes of instruction followed by successful leaders and apply them in their business model. Diversity in the modern workplace is not only cultural, racial, and religious but there are also generational differences. A manager has to build an effective team and be able to make them work efficiently. The success of a manager relies on how he handles his group members and makes the most out of them. A company’s success relies on how the managers use generational differences wisely.   In the present world, the number of younger bosses is growing very rapidly. There are many new start-ups and many mangers from the millennials due to more use of digital intelligence. The baby boomers have a lot of wisdom and the millennials have got digital intelligence. A company becomes successful when they create powerful alchemy of the two (Conley, 2018). Conley (2018) in his video also states that “There have been several European studies that have shown that age-diverse teams are more effective and successful”. But the success of such diverse teams is purely based on the proper planning of the manager. Being an effective manager requires a set of skills which include the understanding of the various Ethical, Social, Team and Cultural issues (ESCT) which have happened in the past (Buelens et al., 2011). A diverse workforce will have people with different religious and ethnic backgrounds; therefore, managers should have high emotional and cultural intelligence, as well as good communication skills (Toro et al., 2019).   The Gen Zers are technically very strong but they are the ones who are least likely to have worked when they were young. So, they tend to be anxious and depressed from work, a manager needs to appreciate this type of workers to do well and shape them as learners and future employees. The introduction of technology has impaired the ability of the Gen Zers to communicate efficiently and interact with each other including with the elders in their workplace (Schroth, 2019).

For the millennials to work efficiently with their workforce, the mangers and the organizations should give them realistic goals to work towards it (Lawton, 2015). One of the main roles of a manager is to maintain all his team members with a growth mindset. The people with a growth mindset always embraces challenges and see effort as a path to mastery (Reutter, 2010).   The managers should mainly look at the behavioural viewpoint as a better human relationship between the different generations leads to better productivity. A manager should try to fully understand the capability of all his team members and try to avoid stereotyping as this might lead to underestimating a person’s capability. According to Hendri Fayol (1841-1925), the major functions of management include planning, organizing, leading, controlling and coordinating. The Gen Zers are more tolerant towards diversity and risk and are capable of multitasking while the baby boomers see diversity as a moral and legal imperative and they take time to work together with the Gen Zers (McMurray & Simmers, 2019). The manager should reinforce the team containing the diverse generations with their positive attributes and skills so that they gain self-esteem. The team can be made to work efficiently by breaking large projects in smaller tasks and assigning them to the member of the team who is most capable of doing that (Andree, 2018).   A manager’s role in a diverse workplace is evolving and changing as the society is modernizing. The millennials are stronger on the technological side and the baby boomers have strong experience and are loyal. So, the manager who learns to create an alchemy of these both is successful. Managers should consider generational preferences when developing a performance management approach. All the age group people should be appreciated for a well-done job and the managers should give constant feedback on improving their performance. Managers should take measures to manage diversity to harness and leverage the potential of employees for competitive advantage. A manager should have the ability to create good quality planning, effective and efficient use of resources, strategy achievement, and satisfying stakeholders' expectations. Uniting all these skills into one unified and cohesive manner is the key to effective management in a diverse workforce.

References: Andree, Shelley 2018, EMBRACING GENERATIONAL DIVERSITY: REDUCING AND MANAGING WORKPLACE CONFLICT/ACCEPTER LA DIVERSITE GENERATIONNELLE: REDUIRE ET GERER LES CONFLITS EN MILIEU DE TRAVAIL. ORNAC , vol. 36, no. 4,p. 13. Conley, C 2018. What baby boomers can learn from Millennials at work and vice versa. [Online] Available at: https://www.ted.com/talks/chip_conley_what_baby_boomers_can_learn_from_millennials_at_work_and_vice_versa [Accessed 10 april 2019]. Patrick, H, & Kumar, V 2012, Managing Workplace Diversity: Issues and Challenges. SAGE open, 2(2). Lawton, D 2015, Diversity in the Workplace and the Impact of Work Values on the Effectiveness of Multi-Generational Teams. i-Manager's Journal on Management, vol. 10, no. 3, pp. 20-28. McMurray, A. J., & Simmers, C. A 2019, The Impact of Generational Diversity on Spirituality and Religion in the Workplace. Vision. doi: 10.1177/0972262919884841 Reutter, J 2010, Differences matter; Effectively managing diverse generations in the workplace.(Practice Resources). Accounting Today ,vol. 24, no. 15, pp. 33. Schroth, H 2019, ‘Are You Ready for Gen Z in the Workplace?’, California Management Review, vol. 61, no. 3, pp. 5–18. doi: 10.1177/0008125619841006. Toro, Ignacio Sobrino-De, Labrador-Ferna ndez, Jesa*S, & De Nicola s, Va-Ctor L 2019, Generational Diversity in the Workplace: Psychological Empowerment and Flexibility in Spanish Companies. Frontiers in Psychology, vol. 10. Fassin, Y, Van Rossem, A & Buelens, M J Bus Ethics 2011, Small-Business Owner-Managers’ Perceptions of Business Ethics and CSR-Related Concepts. Journal of Business Ethics, 11 february , vol. 98, vol. 3, pp. 425–453.