Traditional Workplace Environment for the New Millennium

Please use scholarly sources in America, and kindly stick to specific facts, not opinions.
Thank you!

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.