Five Generations at Work

2Defining Our Generations

What do we mean by a generation, and what are the commonly used terms for different generations and why? As we have outlined, there is no definitive system for how generations come to be framed or named. There is something energising about this, suggesting an organic freedom where generational names are adopted, adapted and established through common use. It may also be the case that framing further evolves through how generations are seen as they age, and through their impact on the world.

Stereotypes, which tend to be oversimplified, biased and divisive, have become too pervasive. Indeed, one of the aims of this book is to challenge and break free from some of the stereotypes that have emerged around how different age groups might behave. Our perspective, and one shared and evidenced in our research and through this work, is that it is inherently more productive to think about generations in a series of ways, starting with, but by no means ending with age.

A definition that is often drawn on is from the seminal Essays on the Sociology of Knowledge: “A generation can be defined as a group of individuals born within the same historical and socio-cultural context, who experience the same formative experiences and develop unifying commonalities as a result.”¹

In the West, the naming of generations tends to have been characterised by the conditions that a particular generation experienced and how they have responded to those conditions, as well as how ...