COMMUNICATING FOR A NEW AGE
First of all, please forgive me for taking so much time in updating my blog. This is due to some working commitments and the fact that I have to travel to Wilayah Persekutuan Labuan just recently and stayed there for 5 days conducting training session on ISO 9001:200 as well as doing field auditing on the Quality Management System developed by the company I’m working with. This took place since 17th – 22nd May 2008.
I had the opportunity to read an article sent to me with the topic “Communicating For A New Age” based on an interview with the President of Kinsey Consulting Services, Carol Kinsey Goman last week and found it very interesting. The article discussed mainly on how ways of communication has progressed so dramatically in the workplace globally.
Nowadays, the present Generation Y as mentioned in the article has been promoting a more informal and collaborative approach and style of communications in the workplace. As a comparison, the Veteran Generation (1927 – 1945) approach of communications was heavily hierarchical, with communication neatly controlled and cascaded through the ranks. Then comes the Baby Boomers generation (1946-1964) whose expectations of their employers led to less effective company hierarchy and an increased importance in communicating shared company vision and values. While the Generation X (1965-1983) agreed with the importance of the organisation’s vision and values but at the same time demanded better working arrangements.
The question is how does it happen and why people change their ways of communication. I strongly agree with the statement that the advent of the computer has enabled humans to move randomly from working on one thing to another. The evolution of today’s communications technology are moving so fast that if we fail to take advantage of it, we are sure to be left behind. We just have to accept that ways of acquiring knowledge have also moved from a linear way to a more parallell fashion.
I am very attracted with the remarks in the article emphasising on the important step on communicating with the younger generations has been moved from the “passive” or “pushing” communications to the “active” or “pulling” communications. Ironically, this is just exactly what we are experiencing now. It is so obvious that Generation Y will easily lose their interest should inactive involvement occurs in receiving information. In other words, today’s generation has the tendency of exposing themselves to communications be it in the workplace or at the outside world. In fact, this generation introduces new communication methods like text messaging and blogging. They are willing to spend more to get connected to their employer more easily in order to keep themselves up to date with the latest development on certain relevant issues.
Generation Y are also said to be highly sceptical of things happening at their workplace. As a result, they would prefer to employ grapevine, use peer recommendation and obtain information in a informal process. This can be true because information spreads very quickly through today’s communication gadget. Though this phenomenal is not healthy, there is nothing much that we can do about it as bad news will always be sensational to spread about. To avoid this negative attitude, employer should take preventive actions by making sure the right information is being disseminated at the right time to the right person.
Changing communications pattern that you are comfortable with is very difficult. Even if changes had to be done, it will definitely take sometimes. I have to agree with this remarks because it’s quite difficult myself to ask my parents even to send me Short Messages System (SMS) should they have anything to inform me. That reflects the technology gap between just two generations. Can we just imagine if it involves 3 or four generations relatively.
Therefore, idea of creating segmentation in the workplace between the veterans and the younger staffs is not an ultimate solution to this issue. I believe by doing so, especially in Malaysia, the sense of respect to the senior staffs will not surface. By all means, the younger staffs have to respect the experiences gained by the veterans and not be errogant just because of the knowledge gap about the latest technology in communications.
In conclusion, I personally believe that we should not create barriers with the older generations although they might not be able to cope with the fast moving world controlled by the fast growing of communications technology. The goverment of Malaysia should take steps in ensuring the big gap in understanding modern communications between generation at the workplace narrowed down so that organisations can move forward in a more positive manner.
Thanks and regards..
