Generational Career Shifts

Eddy Ng is the F.C. Manning Chair in Economics and Business and Professor of Organizational Behaviour at Dalhousie University. His research focuses on managing diversity for organizational competitiveness, the changing nature of work and organizations, and managing an intergenerational workforce. His work has been funded by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada grants. He has published more than 80 peer-reviewed journal articles and book chapters. He co-edited the Research Handbook of International and Comparative Perspectives on Diversity Management (2016), International Handbook on Diversity Management at Work: Country Perspectives on Diversity and Equal Treatment (2014), and Managing the New Workforce: International Perspectives on the Millennial Generation (2012). He is Editor-in-Chief of Equality, Diversity and Inclusion and an Associate Editor for Personnel Review.Sean Lyons is Professor of Leadership and Management in the College of Business and Economics at the University of Guelph. His main area of research concerns inter-generational differences and their impacts on workplace dynamics and managing people. He is an Associate Editor of the journal Career Development International and serves as an editorial Board Member on the Journal of Organizational Behavior. His research on generational differences in work values and attitudes has been published in numerous journals, including journal of Organizational Behavior, Journal of Management and Psychology, International Journal of Human Resource Management, Journal of Business and Psychology, Sex Roles and Public Administration Review. It has also been featured in a number of media outlets, including Time Magazine, the Globe & Mail, the National Post, Macleans magazine, as well as on CBC's The National, CTV News Channel, the Business News Network and CBC Radio's The Current. Dr. Lyons works frequently with private and public sector organizations to identify and address inter-generational issues.Linda Schweitzer is Associate Professor and Interim Dean of the Sprott School of Business, Carleton University. She researches gender and inter-generational differences and their impacts on workplace dynamics and management. Her research has been published in numerous journals, including the Journal of Management and Psychology, Journal of Business and Psychology, Career Development International and Multivariate Behavioral Research. It has also been featured in a number of popular press including Sheryl Sandberg's Lean In, Time Magazine, Macleans magazine, and the Globe & Mail. Her work has been funded by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada grants.

The authors describe a three-year study, the Generational Career Shift Project, to investigate whether four successive generations of Canadians (Veterans/Matures, Baby Boomers, Generation X, and Millennials) have had different career expectations, experiences, attitudes, and outcomes as they have moved through their careers, focusing on knowledge workers. Through phone interviews and a survey, they discuss the role of career concepts, including identity, planning, resilience, salience, work-related locus of control, self-efficacy, anchors, and orientations toward the modern career, then discuss work value priorities, career experiences, and outcomes for these generations, as well as implications for employers.

• Chapter 1. Introduction and Background Chapter 2. Career Concepts Chapter 3. Work Value Priorities Chapter 4. Career Experiences Chapter 5. Career Outcomes Chapter 6. Implications and Conclusion