Based on a more than a decade of research, this reference is designed for marketers, managers, educators, and parents who need a useful, fun, not-too-technical introduction to generational research. The breezy vocabulary of this kind of study is familiar to most people—Are Gen X-ers still slackers? Will Gen Y-ers ever move out of the house? Why are Zeds so spoiled?—but this guide goes deeper with explanations of how a generation is defined and the statistical tools that allow social scientists to track the behavior of its members over time. The discussion also provides examples of generational conflicts in school, home, and the workplace—and reveals how these clashes can be understood and resolved. Interspersed with useful tables and figures, the book also compares English-speaking countries with their generational counterparts in Japan, Finland, and other parts of the world.
Based on a more than a decade of research, this reference is designed for marketers, managers, educators, and parents who need a useful, fun, not-too-technical introduction to generational research. The breezy vocabulary of this kind of study is familiar to most people—Are Gen X-ers still slackers? Will Gen Y-ers ever move out of the house? Why are Zeds so spoiled?—but this guide goes deeper with explanations of how a generation is defined and the statistical tools that allow social scientists to track the behavior of its members over time. The discussion also provides examples of generational conflicts in school, home, and the workplace—and reveals how these clashes can be understood and resolved. Interspersed with useful tables and figures, the book also compares English-speaking countries with their generational counterparts in Japan, Finland, and other parts of the world.
The ABC of XYZ: Understanding the Global Generations
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The ABC of XYZ: Understanding the Global Generations
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Based on a more than a decade of research, this reference is designed for marketers, managers, educators, and parents who need a useful, fun, not-too-technical introduction to generational research. The breezy vocabulary of this kind of study is familiar to most people—Are Gen X-ers still slackers? Will Gen Y-ers ever move out of the house? Why are Zeds so spoiled?—but this guide goes deeper with explanations of how a generation is defined and the statistical tools that allow social scientists to track the behavior of its members over time. The discussion also provides examples of generational conflicts in school, home, and the workplace—and reveals how these clashes can be understood and resolved. Interspersed with useful tables and figures, the book also compares English-speaking countries with their generational counterparts in Japan, Finland, and other parts of the world.
Product Details
| ISBN-13: | 9781742240947 |
|---|---|
| Publisher: | UNSW Press |
| Publication date: | 04/01/2010 |
| Sold by: | Barnes & Noble |
| Format: | eBook |
| Pages: | 208 |
| File size: | 5 MB |
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The ABC of XYZ
Understanding the Global Generations
By Mark McCrindle, Emily Wolfinger
University of New South Wales Press Ltd
Copyright © 2009 McCrindle Research Pty LtdAll rights reserved.
ISBN: 978-1-74224-094-7
CHAPTER 1
GENERATIONS DEFINED
'One generation passes away, and another generation comes.'
Ecclesiastes 1:4
With any discussion on the different generations, an important first step is to define the term 'generation'.
Traditionally, a generation has been defined as 'the average interval of time between the birth of parents and the birth of their offspring'. This biological definition has placed a generation for millennia at around 2025 years in span. While in the past this definition has served sociologists well, it is irrelevant today. Because cohorts are changing so quickly in response to new technologies, changing career and study options and shifting societal values, two decades is far too broad a generational span.
Also, if we apply a biological definition today, a generation would span a larger time than ever as childbirth is pushed back later than ever. On average, the time between birth of parents and birth of their offspring has stretched out from two decades to more than three. In 1982, the median age of a woman having her first baby was 25, while today it is 31.
So today generations are defined sociologically rather than biologically. A generation refers to a cohort of people born within a similar span of time (15 years at the upper end) who share a comparable age and life stage and who were shaped by a particular span of time (events, trends and developments).
Generational experts William Strauss and Neil Howe agree that generations are shaped by a particular span of time: 'A generation is a group of people who share a time and space in history that lends them a collective persona.' They also say that the 'span of a generation is roughly the length of a phase of life'. However, with the traditional life stages and their respective responsibilities no longer applicable to today's children and youth, this definition is not entirely helpful. Childhood is increasingly being cut short, while the traditional adult responsibilities typically emerging in the 20s and 30s are being delayed. Thirty is the new 21!
More so now than ever, the commonalities of today's generations cut through global, cultural and socioeconomic boundaries. Due to globalisation, largely made possible through the various technologies of today, the youth in Australia, the USA, the UK, Germany and Japan are shaped by the same events, trends and developments: they are avid users of social media and online technologies, are witnessing an unprecedented ageing in their populations, and are more financially endowed and formally educated than any generation preceding them.
Even beyond these developed countries young people are logged on and linked up. From Beijing to Bangalore, from Buenos Aires to Brisbane, we have a generation accessing the same websites, watching the same movies, downloading the same songs and being influenced by the same brands. Today we have the world's first global generation. Therefore we define a generation as a group of people born in the same era, shaped by the same times and influenced by the same social markers – in other words, a cohort united by age and life stage, conditions and technology, events and experiences.
Generational characteristics: not a passing fad
Some may argue that such attributes as the limited attention span of Gen Y, Australia's current adolescent and young adult population, is a trait of all young people regardless of the time they were born into, or a passing fad and not a generational trait that they will carry through to mid-life and old age. However, generational characteristics are not merely a factor of life stage, or a fad that they will outgrow. While people of various ages are living through the same events, the age at which one is exposed to a political shift, technological change or social marker determines how embedded it becomes in one's psyche and worldview.
National statistics further demonstrate that generational diversity is not just a matter of life stage. For example, the average age at first marriage for Gen Y today is 29 for a female and 31.6 years for a male. In 1982, when the youngest of the Boomers were in their early 20s, the average age at marriage was 22 for females and 24 for males. Among the factors deemed responsible for Generation Y's unwillingness to commit to binding relationships are relaxed moral codes and high divorce rates. As is evidenced by these statistics, delaying the markers of adulthood (such as marriage, having children, getting a mortgage and a steady career) is characteristic of the Y-ers, just as loyalty – to spouse, boss, brand and country – is characteristic of the Builders. The old Jesuit saying holds true: 'Give me a child until he is seven, and I will show you the man.'
Of course, youth of all eras demonstrate some similar characteristics such as an experimental lifestyle, questioning the status quo, idealism and pushing the boundaries. However, you would not say that those growing up in the 1970s were the same as those who came of age in the 1990s and those who are coming of age today. While age influences behaviour and attitudes, greater impacts are made by the culture in which one lives out one's youth, as well as social markers – significant events during one's formative years. There is an ancient saying that bears much truth: 'People resemble their times more than they resemble their parents.'
The technology, mass marketing, politics and pop culture in which today's youth have grown up have ensured a significant difference to previous youth cultures. And because of the different times, conditions and social markers, these generations have different aspirations and worldviews. The younger generations – Y and Z – are environmentally and politically conscious. Recent Australian elections revealed increased youth voting for the Greens political party, as well as an increasing concern and demand for the creation of new and positive environmental policies. This is especially reflected in the younger generations' support of popular cultural events such as WaveAid, Make Poverty History and Live Earth, which demonstrate awareness of the need for charity and environmental lobbying. Such attitudes are further reinforced by the music artists they support, with performers like Sandi Thom and John Butler writing songs about how they were 'born too late into a world that doesn't care' and how we should treat our planet with respect.
Strauss and Howe theorise that just as history moulds generations, generations mould history. In their books Generations and The Fourth Turning, they divide Anglo-American history into seasonal cycles and label the generations according to which cycle they were born into. The four cycles can be compared to a swinging pendulum. The pendulum sways from one side to the other, always succumbing to gravity and stopping at its lowest, central point. Similarly, Strauss and Howe's cycles of history are repeated in the following manner: a crisis period (one extreme), a high period (the other extreme) and the awakening and unravelling periods (the quieter periods).
The pendulum-like cycles of history are poetically summed up by famous novelist DH Lawrence in Classical American Literature: 'Men fight for liberty and win it with hard knocks. Their children, brought up easy, let it slip away again, poor fools. And their grandchildren are once more slaves.'
Hugh Mackay and Phil Ruthven, well-known Australian social researchers, draw on the work of Strauss and Howe for Australia's generations – from the Federation Generation to the young Zeds. A valid criticism of the cyclical models of generations is that they give an impression of generations as seasons, neatly rotating through the eras. Most social analysts find the symmetry too compliant for a real-world situation with infinite variables and influences. However, the broader point holds true – each generation is a factor of its times and a reaction to the generation that went before it.
Prophet/Idealist – the Baby Boomers
Born during a high, spend young adult years in an awakening, midlife during an unravelling and old age in a crisis. This generation was born into the high of the postwar boom. The civil rights movement, which characterised the Boomers as young adults, is the most recent example of an awakening.
Nomad/Reactive – Generation X
Born during an awakening, spend young adult years during an unravelling, midlife during a crisis and old age in a new high. The X-ers lived out their young adult years in the pre-September 11 world of relative peace and prosperity.
Hero/Civic – Generation Y and the Federation Generation
Born during an unravelling, spend young adult years during a crisis, midlife during a high and old age in an awakening. Gen Y-ers, as young adults, are now living through the crisis period of post-September 11. The Federation Generation – the parents of the Builders – are also of this generation type. Born during a time of peace when Australia finally secured nationhood, the Federation Generation entered adulthood at a crisis point marked by World War I and the Great Depression. They fought in both World Wars and experienced the high of the postwar boom as they entered their 40s. A very small percentage of this generation is still living.
Artist/Adaptive – The Builders and the Zeds
Born during a crisis, spend young adult years in a new high, midlife in an awakening and old age in an unravelling. The Builders were born into the crisis period of the Great Depression and World War II, and started their families as young adults during the postwar boom. They were in their 40s and 50s when their children, the Boomers, led the civil rights movement of the 1960s and 1970s. The Zeds have been born into the crisis period of terrorism, the global recession and climate change. They are predicted to spend their young adult years in a time of economic and social renewal.
Understanding your generation
While most of us have heard of the Builders, Boomers, Gen X-ers, Y-ers and Zeds, not many would be aware that another, older generation is still living, the youngest in their 90s, which means there are six living generations in Australia. This generation is called the Federation Generation.
Federation Generation
The Feds, Australia's oldest living generation, and the first to be labelled and profiled, started in the year Australia became a nation (1901), hence their name. The last of this generation were born in 1924. They were young men and women during the Depression and the World Wars, fighting in both wars. The Builders are often mistakenly seen as the generation that fought in World War II and while many older Builders did, it was the Federation Generation men who made up the bulk of World War II soldiers.
The Federation Generation witnessed some of the most iconic events. They were alive when the Titanic sank and when Australian women were given the right to vote. They are the parents of the Builders and the great-great-great-grandparents of the Zeds!
Builders
The Builders, Australia's current senior generation, were born between 1925 and 1945, during the Depression and the war years. They were commonly referred to as the 'greatest' generation and Hugh Mackay, in his book Generations, labels them the 'lucky' generation because of the years of relative comfort that followed World War II.
Since the early 1920s, with the exception of the baby boom years, the child population as a proportion of the general population has steadily declined – from 32 per cent to under 20 per cent today. During the Great Depression of the 1930s, Australia's total fertility rate (TFR) reached its lowest point, up to that time, of only 2.1 babies per woman, compared to 3.1 less than a decade earlier. Obvious contributors to this decline in TFR in the 1930s were great poverty and joblessness – effects of the Depression experienced throughout the western world.
Boomers
The end of World War II was the key event to shape the generations in the western world. Rarely in history is there an event that so impacts a culture as this one did. The years after the war were the mirror opposite of the war years, with the Depression and war replaced by economic growth and full employment. Austerity was overtaken by technological advancement and increasing freedom. Yet even more significantly, in the years after World War II, there was an unparalleled baby boom and immigration program. This 19-year population boom literally birthed a generation. The Boomers came close to doubling Australia's population between 1946 and 1964 – from 7 to 12 million.
The Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) defines the Baby Boomers as 'those who were born in Australia or overseas during the years 1946 to 1964'. The fertility rate began its rapid rise in 1946, peaking in 1961, and by 1965 it had dropped again to just below the 1946 level.
Generation X
The Gen X-ers are also clearly demographically defined as those born between 1965 and 1979 inclusive. In 1965 the number of births began to increase from the post-Baby Boomer low, peaking in the early 1970s before dropping back to another low in 1979. Just to show how solid this definition of Generation X is in Australia, in 1965 there were 223 000 births and after a rise and fall there were, in 1979, again 223 000 births. The peak year was 1972 when there were 268 711 births – a record number of births that stood for more than three decades. By comparison, only in 2007 did Australia set a new birth record of 276 361 even though the population was 60 per cent larger than it was in 1972. Originally labelled Baby Busters, Post Boomers or Slackers, only the label Generation X (or X-er) has stuck.
Generation Y
The Y-ers are those born between 1980 and 1994 inclusive. Again the definition is demographically reliable. In 1980 the number of births once more began to gradually increase, hitting a peak of 264 151 births in 1992 – at the time the highest number of births since 1972. The births then dropped away through the rest of the 1990s, hitting the lowest birth rate ever in 2001 (1.7 babies per woman) before beginning a recovery which has lasted the rest of the decade.
Many attempts have been made to give alternative labels to Generation Y, from the trendy 'Millennials' and 'Dot.com Generation', to the more disparaging acronym KIPPERS (Kids In Parents Pockets Eroding Retirement Savings). But the alphabetised theme in naming the generations remains, and so the global label that has stuck is Generation Y.
'Millennials' and 'Dot.com Generation', to the more disparaging acronym KIPPERS (Kids In Parents Pockets Eroding Retirement Savings). But the alphabetised theme in naming the generations remains, and so the global label that has stuck is Generation Y.
Generation Z
As birth rates picked up in 1995, we had the beginnings of Generation Z. Marketers are tempted to begin a generation at a key year like, say, 2000, but there is no demographic or sociological justification for such date picking. The birth rates, in addition to the social changes and trends, give a solid basis to generational definitions.
Generation Z demographics show the full results of Australia's declining fertility rates of the last few decades. However, the total fertility rate bottomed out at 1.77 (children per woman) in 2001 and the total births have increased every year since then, hitting new all-time records from 2006 with the TFR rising to 1.81. This mini-baby boom followed Peter Costello's urging of Australian couples to 'have one for mum, one for dad and one for the country' – and the promise of a $3000 baby bonus in 2004! Prior to the mini-baby boom, the government actually increased the baby bonus from $3000 to $4000 and today it stands at $5000. Australia's TFR now stands at a relatively high 1.89 babies per woman.
Notwithstanding an increase in births in Australia, the Zeds have been born into a time when the TFR is at or below the replacement level of 2.0 on an unprecedented, global scale. In fact 104 countries are either at or below the replacement level.
In response to declining child populations, governments around the world are offering incentives to encourage couples to have children. The last time governments offered incentives on such a similar scale was just after World War II.
Given the new definition of a generational span (15 years), 2009 marks the end of Generation Z and 2010 the start of the next generation.
Generational labels
Prior to the Baby Boomers, the practice of labelling a generation did not exist. Labels, where they did exist, were limited to a particular span of age, such as 'this generation of young people'. However, because of the clear demographic impacts of the post-WWII generation, the term 'Baby Boomer' entered the vernacular. Sixty years on, this label remains the default term describing the cohort born in the birth-boom years of 1946–64. With the emergence of the Boomer label came the beginnings of a generational nomenclature.
(Continues...)
Excerpted from The ABC of XYZ by Mark McCrindle, Emily Wolfinger. Copyright © 2009 McCrindle Research Pty Ltd. Excerpted by permission of University of New South Wales Press Ltd.
All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.
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Table of Contents
Contents
Foreword by Bernard Salt,Introduction,
1 Generations defined,
2 Generational warfare,
3 The generation map,
4 Parenting and training,
5 Educating and engaging,
6 Recruiting and retaining,
7 Motivating and communicating,
8 Leading and managing,
9 Marketing and selling,
10 Beyond Z: Meet Generation Alpha,
A final word,
Notes,
Bibliography,
Index,