ABSTRACT
This chapter describes four groupings of generations in the workforce: Matures, Baby Boomers, Generation X, and New Millennials. Knowing more about each generation can be especially helpful for project professionals on developing teams to manage multigenerational disagreements and conflicts with more understanding, diplomacy, and flexibility. Anyone involved in developing project teams, regardless of how much or how little authority they have, should know about the most likely multigenerational alliances and how they can enhance teamwork. The most common multigenerational conflict patterns on project teams are Generation Xers and New Millennials, Generation Xers and Baby Boomers. A trend in team development is a multigenerational approach to team collaboration and decision making for more innovative solutions. Project managers and business analysts responsible for developing teams should become familiar with the characteristics of each generation to prevent their own biases from influencing their team interactions and decisions.
