News, social media, and even research articles about generations tend to emphasize differences among generations—and in some instances, perpetuate the biases that we all hold about different generations. Research by the Truist Leadership Institute took a different approach. We wanted to identify the common ground shared by the four generations at work today—and we anticipated there would be a great deal of overlap in what employees’ value in their work environments. And we found exactly that.
What does the phrase “work values” mean?
We conducted qualitative interviews with 47 Truist teammates who represented four generations working together: Baby Boomers (born 1946-1964), Gen X (born 1965-1979), Millennial (born 1980-1994), and Gen Z (born 1995-2012) (Dimock, 2019). We asked teammates a number of questions, beginning with how this one: What does the phrase “work values” mean to you? Their perspectives reflected a keen focus on how they and others should conduct themselves at work and a focus on aligned work:
Doing good work and expecting good work from others - Gen Z
How I perform my work every day—how what I do impacts the entire organization and our clients. - Millennial
Making sure we are all on the same page and coming together towards a common goal. - Gen X
That my work aligns with [my company’s] values and is achieving our purpose and mission. - Baby Boomer
Which work values are most important?
We then asked teammates to tell us which work values are most important to them, and to describe what they meant. For example, if an interviewee said, “honesty and transparency,” we asked them to describe “how does that show up for you?” We categorized their responses and found that all generations shared five primary work values.
Teammates provided rich descriptions for what they meant as they described their work values. Three were identified over 100 times in our conversations with all generations.
How does Psychological Safety show up?
Virtually all interviews described aspects of psychological safety as being critical to intergenerational collaboration. When we asked how that “shows up,” descriptions reflected four primary themes:
- We assume positive intent and focus on creating a congenial atmosphere.
- We spend time building relationships.
- We respect one another and affirm one another’s value to the team and our work.
- We have taken time to understand one another’s working styles and communication styles and honor the differences in how we get good work done.
Specific words and phrases used by teammates included: Having integrity, being ethical, creating trust, being trustworthy, maintaining confidentiality, being fair, appreciating unique perspectives, trust/trustworthy, listening to others, showing respect to others, allowing teammates to ask questions share different perspectives, and to be careful about making assumptions of others based on age.
How does Delivering Excellent Work show up?
Teammates take pride in delivering excellent work—and expect everyone on their teams to do the same. “Excellent work” included a keen focus on delivering to clients and being accountable to their teams. Descriptions “delivering excellent work” included:
- We have a strong work ethic and are results- and solutions-focused.
- We deliver with excellence and are success-oriented.
- We can be counted on: Dependable, reliable, accountable, proactive, and responsive.
- We focus on clients and jointly own problem solving and share ideas for improving our work.
- We support a growth mindset—both for individuals and our teams. We want to learn.
Teammates used specific words and phrases like being client-centric, having a strong work ethic, accountability to deadlines, and delivering high quality work.
How does Creating a Positive Work Culture show up?
Members of every generation value a positive work culture and emphasized the importance of building relationships and recognizing the value of each team members. Four descriptions summarized positive work cultures:
- We assume positive intent and focus on creating a congenial atmosphere.
- We spend time building relationships.
- We respect one another and affirm one another’s value to the team and our work.
- We have taken time to understand one another’s working styles and communication styles and honor the differences in how we get good work done.
Key words and phrases used to describe a positive work culture included positivity and happiness, building a community, adopting a team mentality, and references to the golden rule of “do unto others as you would have them do unto you.”
Friction does occur
Few research studies examine the common ground held by different generations in the workforce. This research illuminated exactly that: The shared work values held by all teammates as they strive to create collaborative work environments that allow them to deliver at their best. We found five work values that all generations hold dear, including: Ensuring psychological safety, delivering excellent work, creating a positive work culture, leading with intention, and fostering a growth mindset.
However, our research went much deeper to understand why friction occurs between teammates. We found that even though work values are shared, differences in attitudes and beliefs about how those work values should “show up” clearly differed. These differences create friction triggers that can challenge values and make collaboration difficult between generations. To read more about the research, work values, friction triggers, and how to reduce friction, read our Purple Paper.