China

China is an important example of how generational labels vary among countries; China has entirely different generational labels and defining years that pertain to its own historical shifts. The words baby boomer, gen Xer, and millennial are not a part of normal discourse in China. However, the country's citizens are not immune from generation identification and classification. China deals with their post-1950, post-1960, post-1970, post-1980, post-1990, and post-2000 “generations”:

• The post-1950 generation came of age with the founding of the People's Republic in 1949.
• The post-1960 generation is marked by the Great Leap Forward of 1960, an economic and social campaign by the Communist Party of China that eventually led to the Great Chinese Famine.
• The post-1970 generation was the first generation significantly influenced by the West. Additionally, the members of the generation had more flexibility in choosing their own careers and some limited opportunities to work in multinational companies.
• The post-1980 generation was the first born after China's adoption of the One-Child Policy, a policy that radically changed the definition and structure of family.
• The post-1990 generation was the first born after the Tiananmen Square protests of 1989.
• The post-2000 generation is also sometimes referred to as generation Z and is defined by the adoption of digital technology and the Internet.

Using China as the example, we can more easily see the leaps of logic that lie at the root of generational stereotyping, as obvious questions arise:

How long is a generation? It has traditionally been 20 years, defined by the time it takes a child to reach maturity. But while the United States defines only three generations since 1945, China has six.

How can managers define their employees as stereotypical millennials with all the cultural associations that the label represents, if they were raised in China? Most managers in the United States are unaware of the Chinese generational labels and stereotypes that come with them.

What must it feel like for a foreign-born employee to listen to the gen-experts predict their behavior when they did not live through the U.S. cultural events that supposedly define them?

Japan

Japan provides another example, with its own set of generations and labels:

• The first baby boomers from 1946 to 1950.
• The danso generation from 1951 to 1960.
• The shinjinrui generation from 1961 to1970.
• The second baby-boomer generation from 1971 to 1975.
• The postbubble generation from 1976 to 1987.
• The shinjinrui junior generation from 1986 to 1995.
• The yutori generation from 1987 to 2012.

These generational definitions are equally as arbitrary as those in the United States. They range from being only 4 years long (first baby boomers) to 25 years long (the yutori).

South Africa

South Africa has a unique set of labels and definitions that correspond to its significant historical events. The election of 1994 in South Africa marked the transition from the system of apartheid to majority rule. Members of the “Born Free” generation are those born in the years 1994 to the present.

South Korea

South Korea uses a remarkably complicated labeling system for its generations. South Koreans born from 1960 to 1969 are known as the 386 generation. The label, coined in the 1990s, was named after the Intel 80386 microprocessor, also known as the 386. It refers to people who were (then) in their 30s, who went to college in the 1980s, and were born in the 1960s. As time went on and the generation got older, they eventually became known as the 486 generation.

India

India has three generations, roughly correlated to the Western generations in defining years, but marked by different historical events:

• The partition generation, 1944–1963, is defined by India's independence from British rule.
• The transition generation, 1964–1983, has sympathy for the previous generation's struggles, but supposedly do not feel the struggle as deeply.
• The postliberalization generation, 1984–1993, enjoys India's economic liberalization, which began during their childhood.

Russia

Russia adds even further confusion to generational studies. Russia (along with other countries) uses the same labels as America but assigns opposite personality traits to those individuals. The defining cultural events and stereotypes associated with Russian generations are different but the labels remain the same:

• Western baby boomers grew up in a post-Depression, postwar, materialistic era, whereas Soviet baby boomers lived in a state-controlled economy. Therefore, Western baby boomers are considered individualistic, whereas Soviet baby boomers are known for their collectivism.
• Western gen Xers supposedly value work-life balance above all else, whereas Russian gen Xers, growing up in a time of hyperinflation after the fall of the Soviet Union, are thought to be obsessed with creating wealth.
• Russian millennials are known for being intensely nationalistic, whereas American millennials are sometimes described as the least patriotic generation.