Unfairly Labeled

Chapter 3

American Labels in a Global World

Globalization of the workforce has transformed the modern-day labor pool. According to a 2014 White House report, managers in the United States are dealing with the most diverse group of employees in history. In 2014, Foreign-born employees made up 16.5 percent of the United States workforce in 2014. That represents a significant portion of our U.S.-based employees. In addition to these employees, there are the thousands of foreign-based employees who are associated with American companies through their global networks. Yet, despite this well-documented trend, generational labels are still part of our common business vocabulary, even though they are based on a middle-income, American archetype of a person born and reared in the United States.

Generation Stereotypes in Other Cultures

The American-born concept of generational stereotyping has been exported and adapted to other cultures. Hole, Le Zhong, and Schwartz (2010) chronicle cultural differences in generational labels in their report: “Talking About Whose Generation”? Generational differences, as we've seen, are supposedly shaped by significant historical and cultural events; it is obvious that “significant events” vary from culture to culture. For example, the kick-off year for baby boomers, 1945, may have had a major impact for North American, European, and Japanese workers, but not for the entire world.

Countries with Their Own Labels and Cultural Markers

China

China is ...