ONE CAUTION

As a result of the educator survey I have come to understand that we actually should have engaged the principals in even more dialogue and that we should have expanded it to include the new generation educators and applicants as a way to increase trust and credibility, which could have in turn increased shared understanding. Deal's admonition that “people from different generations are largely alike in what they think, believe, and want” from their work lives rings true in my data analysis of educators.

There is one caution, however; although the data indicate that generational differences are not the primary source of personal and organizational discord, this does not make such discord any less likely to result in dysfunction in organizations. It would be best if all of us who manage organizations extinguished our predilection for labels such as Baby Boomers and Gen-Xers and then spent the bulk of our time and effort focusing on helping employees of every generation “make their actions consistent with the principles that apply to working people of all generations,” as Deal says. If we succeed at this, individuals and organizations will be the better for it.