Traditional Workplace Environment for the New Millennium
Please use scholarly sources in America, and kindly stick to specific facts, not opinions.
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Working Title:
“Traditional Workplace Environment for the New Millennium”
Research Question: What are the implications of the COVID telework transition to the traditional work environment?
Hypothesis: What are the impacts of generational differences in the transition to a more traditional workplace environment?
Research Argument:
Data argues that the current work-from-home telework trend is becoming more common and is likely to substitute the traditional workplace environment (warrant). COVID-19 allowed for teleworking options where individuals could work from home or in offices that provided space that met COVID compliance (evidence). Generations Y and Z will struggle and see a drop in productivity regarding work-life balance (claim). Most Z generation tends to live with parents or others; therefore, creating the ideal home workspace is complicated (The Pyn Team, 2022) (reason). Generation X prefers independence and fewer rules, along with needing direct communication with leaders (Nowakowski, 2019) (reason). The generational differences in traditional work environments result in implications for transitioning back to normal business practices for supporting the warfighter (acknowledgment). Leaders at every level will need to understand and develop innovative ideas to capture the new and old ways of doing business for both generations (response).
Background Problem & Significant Statements:
While teleworking capabilities have been proven for short-term solutions to the recent COVID-19 pandemic, the overall impact may be uncertain and carries risks, especially for innovation and worker satisfaction for the X and Y generations. Telework has the assumption of becoming permanent in many organizations, which can create risks in areas like innovation, personable experiences, collaboration, and policy concerns (OECD Policy Responses to COVID-19, 7 Sep 2020). Cultural and generational differences will be a subject of concern due to how each generation receives and communicates expectations on many different levels. This brings to light the need to address concerns about telework across sectors and other countries. Most organizations crosstalk, facilitate, and collaborate with industries in many nations.
When the pandemic started a few years ago, organizations or businesses started adopting new practical strategies to implement in their operations to limit COVID-19's impacts. One of these strategies was teleworking. The teleworking adoption rates increased considerably during the pandemic and among employees in all firms, regardless of size (Abulibdeh, 2020). However, as things start getting better, there is a tendency for most firms to seek to return to the traditional working setting, which is problematic and presents various implications (International Labour Organization, 2020). Generational differences featuring Gen X, Y, and Z, also impact the shift to traditional ways. These vary significantly from one generation to the other. This also resulted in implications like some workers being unwilling to shift to the working setting. The warfighter's impacts across the three generations, Gen X, Y, and Z, can be assessed dependent on four main aspects: mission impacts, generation impact, readiness impact, and career development impact.
Sources:
Resources for this proposal is based on conducting a literature review and answering the research question based on the information or data collected from various secondary sources (peer-reviewed and scholarly articles). Specifically, coronavirus posed various challenges that forced businesses to adopt appropriate measures to contain the situation. One of these measures was shifting to teleworking (Stanca & Tarbujaru, 2021). Conversely, after the condition started improving, there was a need to transition back to the traditional work environment. This also resulted in implications like some workers being unwilling to shift to the working setting. The warfighter's impacts across the three generations, Gen X, Y, and Z, can be assessed dependent on four main aspects: mission impacts, generation impact, readiness impact, and career development impact.
Additionally, most of my resources will be study and evaluation-based due to dealing with historical, present, and future data regarding the generation and work environments. The research question proposed can be answered with different sources, such as information papers and books about generational differences and traditional and future workplace environments. However, the following information will be valuable to help answer my research question:
- Generation differences and perspectives
- Traditional work environment vs current
- Impact on the warfighter
- Long-term planning for Leaders
- Sustainability for each generation
Framework and Outline
This research paper will focus on the scenario planning framework and outline. Although teleworking capabilities have been proven for short-term solutions to the recent COVID-19 pandemic, the overall impact may be uncertain and carries risks, especially for innovation and worker satisfaction for the X and Y generations. After the introduction to the research question and thesis, the observer will be able to recognize what drives generations regarding traditional and the present day (post-COVID) working environments from the background that will address speaking to impacts these changes have on the warfighter. Key issues and analysis regarding long-term planning for leaders and individuals in specific generation mindsets will be acknowledged, captured, and effectively communicated, highlighting alternatives for positive and negative impacts. Identifying and comparing generational perspectives to why the traditional versus current telework environments of coming into work is more suited to the warfighter will be explained, along with counteracting this statement by pinpointing the pros of the current telework situation. This paper will conclude by summarizing the research and providing recommendations for sustaining the warfighter in both environments.
Section 1: Introduction
- Research Question
- Thesis
Section 2: Background
- Generation differences and perspectives
- Traditional work environment vs current
Section 3: Problem and Key Issues
- Impact on the warfighter
- Long-term planning for Leaders
- Sustainability for each generation
Section 4: Alternatives
- Positive and negative approaches
- Generation X independence and fewer rules approach yet needing direct communication availabilities.
- Generation Z’s need to create an ideal workspace to enhance productivity
Section 5: Analysis
- Do generational differences regarding traditional working environments impact the overall mission for the warfighter?
- By observing generational impacts, will they be robust enough to sustain Post COVID-19 teleworking practices?
- Will alternative approaches to traditional working environments allow for challenging, fulfilling work for generations X, Y, and Z?
Section 6: Results
- The nature of the working environment at the workplace is likely to determine the level of effort and mission accomplishment by the warfighter workers.
- Generation Z can complete their missions using the laid-out teleworking environment because it best suits the setting and provides maximum effort.
- Gen X and Y might not be as successful and/or influential in the working environment other than the traditional environment (Raisiene et al., 2021).
Section 7: Recommendations
- Organizational managers and leaders must concentrate on ensuring their workplaces are suitable and conducive to encouraging ultimate performance from their workers.
- Regarding teleworking environments, an organization should ensure various aspects to encourage a positive workplace perspective.
Annotated Bibliography:
Stanca, P. I., & Tarbujaru, T. (2021). Remote Working: How the Working Life Changed During the COVID-19 Pandemic. Ovidius University Annals, Economic Sciences Series, 21(2), 520-526.
Stanca and Tarbujaru (2021) dispute that the COVID-19 pandemic in 2019 resulted in governments adopting protective measures to limit the disease's further spread. These adopted measures increasingly influenced the usual daily processes and undertakings. Change among people and firms was increasingly necessary to counter the challenge. For example, redefining and restructuring the significant operations that sustained the society was inevitable. All economic sectors also turned to telework to continue operating and remaining relevant in their industries. Completing the assignments at home was problematic for many workers, so productivity was reduced significantly. Human resource components faced severe modifications due to mass virtual working adoption. Job vacancies and searchers also altered since organizations now recruited according to the emergent working process that comprised remote working. Also, most firms conducted interviews using virtual means. This approach might have actualized though the disease accelerated this process.
Shutters, S. T. (2021). Modelling long-term COVID-19 impacts on the US workforce of 2029. Plos one, 16(12), e0260797. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0260797
This research assesses the expected long-term workforce effects in the next decade by comparing the unique coronavirus-modified forecasts provided by the American Bureau of Labor Statistics and the original 2029 labor forecasts. According to the authors, results indicate that labor expertise's future demand will rise as the work nature moves from physical to increasingly cognitive based. About 3,000,000 jobs will vanish by 2029. Findings also indicate that labor socialness is vital for productivity and innovations upsurge in most industries than it reduces. Ultimately, the pandemic may encourage organizations to adopt teleworking and reduce workforce mechanization. These influences, coupled with an adjustment to cognitive working, will most likely affect the nature of workforce safety and health with a reduced concentration on physical injuries and more on lifestyle diseases. The findings suggested that future employees will be actively involved in skill acquisition and training.
Abulibdeh, A. (2020). Can COVID-19 mitigation measures promote telework practices? Journal of Labor and Society, 23(4), 551-576. https://doi.org/10.1111/wusa.12498
According to Abulibdeh (2020), teleworking policies and practices played a critical role in business continuity plans during the pandemic that restrained workers from completing their organizational assignments at their offices or working environments. Therefore, telework gave those workers a chance to do their work at home and ensured their firms remained operational. This study examined the coronavirus impact on enhancing telework exercises. It discussed the shift to telework during the pandemic and the teleworking practices' steadiness after the illness. Moreover, the study examines interventions and elements required to increase the probable advances for increasingly extensive telework for employers and other staff. Accepting telework in this scenario might decrease the pandemic's adverse effects and be a mitigating tool for the economies.
Raišienė, A. G., Rapuano, V., & Varkulevičiūtė, K. (2021). Sensitive men and hardy women: How do millennials, xennials and gen x manage to work from home?. Journal of open innovation: technology, market, and complexity, 7(2), 106. https://doi.org/10.3390/joitmc7020106
Raišienė et al. (2021) primarily concentrate on the contradictory results of studies performed during COVID-19. The article assesses the connection between telework evaluation and socio-demographic indicators. The research ascertains that employees' age and gender are critical elements in a worker's attitude to telecommuting. In most cases, the attitudes differ gender-wise. For instance, in the case involving Lithuania, wherever research was carried out, millennial men, unlike millennial women, view personal career growth challenges while operating remotely. Older cohorts do not claim extreme disappointment working at home. However, they never show more favor regarding the approach. The research shows that in situations generated due to illness, firms must revise their human resource control techniques to attain workers' work efficiency and sustain their motivation.
Nelson, S., & Duxbury, L. (2021). Breaking the mold: Retention strategies for generations X and Y in a prototypical accounting firm. Human Resource Development Quarterly, 32(2), 155–178. https://doi.org/10.1002/hrdq.21414 According to Nelson and Duxbury (2020), Canadian accounting firms' prosperity largely relies on their capacity to familiarize themselves with their established HRD practices and structures to satisfy the current workforce's expectations. Generational identity theory and theory clarifying worker anticipations notified the article's assessment of its multi-method (inquiry workshops and interviews) case study that used an action-based research method. Information was gathered from thirty-six gen X and Y knowledge employees who participated in the organization's talent pool to decide how thoroughly the career and work anticipations of today's (Generation Y and Generation X) accountants support the archetypal HR practices and structures of specialized partnership accounting companies.
Schur, L. A., Ameri, M., & Kruse, D. (2020). Telework after COVID: a "silver lining" for workers with disabilities? Journal of occupational rehabilitation, 30(4), 521-536. https://doi.org/10.1007%2Fs10926-020-09936-5
According to Schur and colleagues (2020), employees with disabilities were increasingly likely than those not disabled to complete duties and perform additional activities from home. This applied to self-employed individuals and employees. The disabled persons experienced the same wage disparities in household work and on-site, showing that as more availability of home-based work created more employment chances for the disabled employees, the likelihood of erasing these disparities was dim. Employees with disabilities were increasingly likely to work in the comfort of their homes, and many benefited from the increased work-at-home jobs though the job types they hold restrained this possibility. Studies must monitor how home-based work evolved as the economy recovered from the illness.
International Labour Organization. (2020). Teleworking during the COVID-19 pandemic and beyond: A Practical Guide.
The International Labor Organization claimed that firms considered sending their workers home, providing the most widespread mass teleworking experimentation environment. According to it, the illness fast-tracked employers' acceptance of teleworking modalities. In a circumstance like a coronavirus disaster, teleworking has confirmed itself as an essential element of guaranteeing business continuity. In contrast, under typical situations, its advantages comprise less commuting time, more chances for the employees to concentrate on their tasks away from their offices' interruptions, and a golden opportunity for improved work-life balance. Teleworking also enabled the organizations to enjoy a relatively flexible schedule for the staff and the independence to work from another location.
References
OECD (2020). Productivity gains from teleworking in the post COVID-19 era: How can policies make it happen? OECD Policy Responses to Coronavirus (COVID-19), OECD Publishing, Paris.
The Pyn Team. (Accessed 2022). “How Different Generations Feel About Remote.”
Nowakowski, Lauren. (2019). “Generational Differences in Remote Work.” Western Michigan University. ScholarWorks at WMU.
Instructor’s Name
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Traditional Workplace Environment for the New Millennium
Introduction
The transition from a telework environment to an office-based work environment has become a reality of life in the post-COVID-19 era. However, the mixed response from the workforce implies several risks associated with this transition based on the values, perceptions, and preferences of different generations of the workforce. As a logical argument, one must investigate the potential implications of this transition from the traditional working model to the telework model on various forms of workforce with specific references to warfighters.
Based on this research question, the impact of this transition on the working capacities of generations X, Y, and Z is a potentially significant subject to investigate. This transition has produced varied responses from the works of these generations based on their expertise, preferences, innovative approaches, and expectations. Therefore, this research paper aims to investigate the impact of this transition on the three generations of warfighters, such as Airmen, based on the evaluation of their differences and perspectives and comparing features of traditional and telework environments.
Generational Differences and Perspectives
Generation X is attributed to people born between 1965 and 1980, while generation Y includes those born between 1981 and 1996. In the same way, generation Z is a term used to represent people born between 1997 and 2012 (Hecht and Evan). On the one hand, the older generation tends to avoid technology-based working conditions. On the other hand, the younger generations are more inclined to work in a technology-based environment since they are more adept with technology and computer-enabled communication (Raisiene et al. 3). Thus, a worker's age is a yardstick to assess his ability to gain command in telecommunication and any technology-enabled work setting. Moreover, workers from generations X, Y, and Z also hold different perspectives on the working environment.
On the one hand, Generation X's employees prefer training and workplace autonomy over social contacts and community-based working. On the other hand, people of generation Y, called millennials, are more interested in career development and training opportunities (Raisiene et al. 3). Finally, those from generation Z are more technology-oriented since they were born after information and technology were adopted. These behavioral disparities reveal different perspectives of different generations.
Workers of generation X and baby boomers (those born before 1965) share striking similarities in terms of workplace preferences. Both have a strong commitment to their jobs, enjoy social interaction and, for the same reason, consider teleworking an inefficient process. These people are committed to hard work, putting in long working hours, which they consider a stepping stone to career development and success. Conversely, people of generation Y or millennials tend to prefer technology-based work. They account for approximately 50% of the workforce, admire flexible working hours, and do not seek social approval (Raisiene et al. 3). They focus on achieving work-life balance, which was unheard of among the older generations. In other words, both generations differ in their work perspectives. Millennials and generation X adopt “work to live” and “live to work” principles, respectively (Raisiene et al. 3). Based on a study conducted in America, millennials' craving for reward is higher than that of generation X. Thus, this discussion provides a comprehensive understanding of the attitudes and perspective of people of different generations.
Traditional Work Environment versus Current Working Environment
The traditional work environment is remarkably different from home and has several benefits and limitations. First, in a traditional office, infrastructure and resources for professional work are available. A traditional office provides several facilities, including a backup power supply, seamless Internet connection, physical interaction, and communication guidelines to resolve issues and conflicts (Stanca and Tarbujara 523). Additionally, it is a restrictive environment constrained by time limits and continuous work. On the other hand, teleworking provides a carefree and comfortable working environment because it offers flexible timing and helps maintain a work-life balance (Abulibdeh 557). However, it also has its share of challenges because it becomes difficult for workers working from home to separate work and personal time. As Stanca and Tarbujara (523) note, the boundary between work and personal life is thin, contributing to distraction and unproductivity. These differences are significant and can help employers understand the dynamics, nature, limitations, and opportunities of both working environments and the impact of the transition from teleworking to traditional working on the workforce.
People of generation Z find it challenging to adjust to the teleworking environment due to the lack of accommodation as they mostly live with their parents. According to a MetLife study, approximately 50% of the workers of generation Z consider the traditional work environment conducive to life-work balance and prefer it over teleworking. This is quite interesting, given that workers in generation Z are more comfortable with technology and more likely to enjoy the flexibility that comes with remote work. The challenges faced by generation Z workers in telework explain why most, in comparison to millennials and generation X, prefer to work in a traditional work setting. Based on the Hubb HQ survey, the proportions of preference for traditional work environment were 37%, 25.6%, and 19.8% for generations Z, Y, and X, respectively (The Pyn Team). These numbers also show that people of all generations share reservations about continued teleworking practices in the post-COVID scenario.
Impact on Warfighters
The Assistant Secretary of the U.S. Air Force, John A. Fedrigo, discusses how the post-COVID remote working strategy for air force personnel, including Airmen is a chance to learn from the experiences gained during the pandemic (Everstine). These guidelines enable Airmen to work remotely under the condition of the supervisor's approval and the minimum possibility of an impact on work performance. This remote working schedule for Airmen is different from teleworking in that it refers to permanently working off the location of their units (Everstine). Nevertheless, this decision is unsuitable for the X, Y, and Z generations of Air Force airmen and other personnel. As indicated above, the workforce of all generations prefers to return to traditional work environments in varying proportions for various reasons; thus, allowing remote working will pose a challenge for Airmen working in U.S. Air Force.
However, a study by Ramirez (41) reveals that teleworking improved employees' productivity and job satisfaction at the Air Force Acquisition Management and Integration Center (AIMC). Based on the increased perception of job satisfaction and productivity, about 98% of these employees are in support of a telework policy at the AIMC in the post-COVID era. Similarly, a study by Lyman (27) found that about 97% of personnel under the United States Transportation Command (USTRANSCOM) are satisfied with the current telework practices and would advocate for the implementation of telework policies to maximize the benefits of telework. These benefits include the flexibility to work from the office from time to time to allow them a chance to have in-person meetings, network, and complete tasks (Lyman 32). As such, despite the generational reservations listed in the previous section, Air Force workers still recognize the value and benefits of telework and are not ready to dismiss this new work environment yet. However, their concerns cannot be dismissed because the generational differences listed earlier on in relation to telework account for something. A work policy that maximizes the benefits of telework can ensure that all generations have an opportunity to work from an office every once in a while and network with their colleagues or escape from the home working environment when need be.
In addition, telework presents benefits to warfighters, their families, and veterans. According to Manley and Keable, telework enhances professional development among service members because it provides them with new ways of learning, such as long-distance learning, to re-skill and up-skill. Long-distance learning reduces the time spent traveling to training facilities, and the knowledge gained through learning, re-skilling, and up-skilling enhances workplace performance. Also, telework reduces the need for active-duty members to be relocated every time there is an assignment change because they can complete their new assignment without changing locations (Manley and Keable). The constant relocation of service members pre-pandemic was disruptive, affecting employee productivity and their families. Reduced relocation allows military personnel to provide more support at home, hence strengthening families. Finally, telework gives veterans geographical flexibility to work in any job that matches their unique skills without having to move away from a support system (Manley and Keable). They can receive the necessary care and support regardless of where they work because, in telework, work is not constrained by geographical factors. By supporting telework in the military in a post-pandemic era, the military leadership will empower future veterans with the skills and competencies to thrive in telework. They will also be more confident to pursue opportun...