Generation Gap and the Conflicts of the Government Organizations: An empirical study with reference to the Ceylon Petroleum Storage Terminal Limited

Abstract

Generation gap is nothing new concept in the present work context. Generation gaps in perspectives, attitudes, and behaviors are nothing new, but they can be difficult to reconcile in the workplace. Paying lack attention to the generational gap will create less efficiency to the organization. The critical management skills will involve understanding generational differences in order to strengthen work relationships between and among employees especially between Baby Boomers, Generation X and Generation Y. To get this picture it is important to determine how to maximize the performance of younger and older employees to understand the unique backgrounds from where they are coming from. There are major five types of generations in the population. Traditionalist, Baby boomers, Generation X, Generation Y and Generation Z. But in the workforce structure Traditionalist and the Generation Z are excluded. Traditionalist are almost retired and the Generation Z still not representing in the workforce. This research study focused the Baby Boomers, generation X and the Y generation/Millenniums. The particular objectives of the study were identifying the workforce structure of the CPSTL and find out whether the organizational diversity is incurred the conflicts and identifying the factors affecting to the conflicts. The methodology used in this study is a survey questionnaire. The questionnaires were distributed among one hundred employees in selected groups of CPSTL companies. The total number of respondents was 86 and the findings from this study resulted in there is a negative relationship between the generation gap and the conflicts among the employees.