ABSTRACT
As one of the largest and most influential generations, the Baby Boomers, begins to retire, organizations are increasingly looking for the best ways to integrate, motivate, and retain younger generations of workers. Both business practitioners and researchers have focused attention on generational differences among workers and their possible impact on important work constructs. This is a critical issue, because to the extent that younger generations differ from workers of older generations, managers and organizations have been advised to tailor their policies to better recruit, retain, and motivate their increasingly Millennial workforce (e.g., Ahmed, 2013; D’Amato & Herzfeldt, 2008; Hunter, 2013; Lub, Bijvank, Bal, Blomme, & Schalk, 2012; Meiser, 2013; Wilson, Squires, Widger, Cranley, & Tourangeau, 2008). However, most of these recommendations hinge on data that do not allow for the inference of generational differences. Specifically, these recommendations are commonly made on the basis of cross-sectional designs where responses on one or more psychological variables are collected from a sample of individuals (representing multiple generational groups) at the same point in time. Using this design, researchers have made such recommendations as, “We recommend managers take a more generation-specific approach to managing their workforce” (Lub et al., 2012, p. 566) and “The findings suggest an approach of generation-specific HR practices for talent retention” (D’Amato & Herzfeldt, 2008, p. 929).
